Episode 181: Equifax and the Upside of Nation-State Cyberattacks
Was the Equifax breach a nation-state attack? Nick Weaver parses the data, and I explore the surprising upside for Equifax if it was.
Twitter comes to Capitol Hill to talk Russian election interference; it goes home with a flea in its ear and plenty…
Episode 173: Interview with Richard Ledgett
Today we deliver the second half of our bifurcated holiday podcast with an interview of Richard Ledgett, recently retired from his tour as NSA’s deputy director. We cover much recent history, from Putin’s election adventurism to questions about whether NSA can keep control of the cyberweapons it develops. …
172: The Self-Referential Episode
In this news-only episode, we cover the irresistible story of the week: Trump, Russia, and the Media. It’s especially irresistible for us because we’ve had two of the protagonists on as guests. I make the bold prediction that Shane Harris’s stories on Russia collusion and the Trump campaign will be seen…
Episode 171. Implants in the Kremlin’s Snack Machines?
Our guest, Ellen Nakashima, was coauthor of a Washington Post article that truly is a first draft of history, though not a chapter the Obama administration is likely to be proud of. She and Greg Miller and Adam Entous chronicle the story of Russia’s information operations…
Episode 170
This week’s episode is a news roundup without interview. We lead with the Senate’s overwhelming adoption of unexpectedly tough Russia sanctions along with the Iran sanctions bill. The mainstream press has emphasized that the bill will lock the Obama sanctions into legislation, but Anthony Rapa explains that the bigger story is just how…
Episode 165 is a WannaCry Festivus celebration, as The Airing of Grievances overtakes The Patching of Old Machines. Michael Vatis joins me in identifying all the entities who’ve been blamed for WannaCry, starting with Microsoft for not patching Windows XP until after the damage was done. (We exonerate Microsoft on that count.)
Another candidate for…
Episode 164: Stewart on the Road to Tarsus
Episode 164 features Stewart Baker’s startling change of heart on the question of cyberspace norms. Credit goes to our interview guest, Tim Maurer, Fellow and co-director of the Cyber Policy Initiative at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. And perhaps as well to Brian Egan, former…
155: Debating Hackback
Episode 155 of the podcast offers something new: equal time for opposing views. Well, sort of, anyway. In place of our usual interview, we’re running a debate over hacking back that CSIS sponsored last week. I argue that US companies should be allowed to hack back; I’m opposed by Greg Nojeim,…
Vlad’s Botox
Fresh off a redeye from Israel, I interview Matthew Green of the Johns Hopkins Information Security Institute. Security news from the internet of things grows ever grimmer, we agree, but I get off the bus when Matt and the EFF try to solve the problem with free speech law.
In the news roundup,…
We ask Rihanna to sum up the latest US-EU agreement:
And that’s when you need me there
With you I’ll always share …
You can stand under my umbrella
RiRi’s got the theory right: The Umbrella Agreement was supposed to make sure the US and EU would always share law enforcement data. But when the…
