Open Source Security Podcast

Josh and Kurt talk about a huge working from home experiment because of the the Coronavirus. We also discuss some of the advice going on around the outbreak, as well as how humans are incredibly good at ignoring good advice, often to their own peril. Also an airplane wheel falls off.

Josh and Kurt talk about open source maintainers and building communities. While an open source maintainer doesn't owe anyone anything, there are some difficult conversations around holding back a community rather than letting it flourish.

Josh and Kurt talk about SIM swapping. What is it, how does it work. Why should you care? There's not a ton you can do to protect yourself, but we go over some of the basic concepts and what to watch out for. It's unfortunate this is still a problem.

Josh and Kurt talk about two recent vulnerabilities that have had very different outcomes. One was the Citrix remote code execution flaw. While the flaw is bad, the handling of the flaw was possibly worse than the flaw itself. The other was the Microsoft ECC encryption flaw. It was well handled even though it was hard to understand and it is a pretty big deal. As all these things go, fixing and disclosing vulnerabilities is hard.

Josh and Kurt talk about the updated Google Project Zero disclosure policy. What's the new policy, what does it mean, and will it really matter? We suspect it will improve some things, but won't drastically change much.

Josh and Kurt talk about a discussion on Twitter about if discovering CVE IDs is important for a resume? We don't think it is. We also discuss the idea of ransomware putting a company out of business. Did it really? Possibly but it probably won't create any substantial change in the industry.

Josh and Kurt talk about marketplace safety and security. Will we ever see an end to the constant flow of counterfeit goods? The security industry has the same problem the marketplace industry has, without substantial injury we don't see movement towards meaningful change.

Josh and Kurt talk about security predictions for 2020. None of the predictions are even a bit controversial or unexpected. We're in a state of slow change, without disruptive technology next year will look a lot like this year.

Josh and Kurt talk about the opportunistic nature of crime. Defenders have to defend, which means the adversaries are by definition always a step ahead. We use the context of automobile crimes to frame the discussion.

Josh and Kurt talk to Rob Schultheis from GitHub about some of the amazing projects GitHub is working on. We discuss GitHub security advisories, getting a CVE from GitHub, and what the new GitHub Security Lab is doing. It's a great conversation about how GitHub is working to make security better for all of us.

Santa and Kurt talk the border nightmare Santa Clause has to deal with as he traverses the globe. Questions we explore include: Are the reindeer farm animals? Is the North Pole a farm? Is Santa an intellectual property thief? Does Krampus eat politicians? Does Santa have a passport? Does Santa have an emergency radio?

Josh and Kurt talk about the security implications of planned obsolescence. We use Intel's recent decision to remove old drivers from their website as the start of the conversation. By the end we realize this is more of a decision society needs to understand and make more than anything. Is constantly throwing out technology OK?

Josh and Kurt talk to Kathryn Waldron of the R Street Institute about a paper she recently published that collects a number of cybersecurity measuring devices in one place.

Josh and Kurt talk about banking and privacy. It's very likely nothing will get better anytime soon, humans will continue to be terrible at understanding certain risks. We also discuss what quantum supremacy means (or doesn't mean) for security.

Josh and Kurt talk about government security incidents. The security concerns at the government level often have real life and death consequences. What happens when the leadership knowingly disregards security policy?