Episode 400 Special

The first episode of Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Podcast aired on March 8, 2017 – almost 8 years ago now. Over that time, I’ve interviewed over 135 unique and amazing people, covered countless cybersecurity and privacy stories, and offered 100’s of tips for protecting your devices and data. To celebrate this momentous occasion, world-renowned cryptography guru Bruce Schneier has returned to for our traditional Podcentennial interview! We discuss several timely topics including the Crowdstrike incident, the pager bombing and supply attacks more generally, US election security, the open market for cyber vulnerabilities, US intelligence agencies’ focus on offense versus defense, how AI might actually benefit democracy and much more!

Interview Notes

• Bruce Schneier’s blog:https://www.schneier.com/ 
• Inrupt’s Solid concept: https://www.inrupt.com/solid 
• Data and Goliath (book): https://www.schneier.com/books/data-and-goliath/ 
• Bruce’s NY Time article on pager bombs: https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2024/09/israels-pager-attacks-have-changed-the-world.html 
• Joseph Cox “Anom” interview: https://podcast.firewallsdontstopdragons.com/2024/06/10/anom-the-fbis-phone-company/ 
• WaPo detailed analysis of pager bomb attack: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/10/05/israel-mossad-hezbollah-pagers-nasrallah/ 
• Restoring Trust in Elections: https://podcast.firewallsdontstopdragons.com/2023/12/11/restoring-trust-in-elections/ 
• Hacking election systems w/ Harri Hursti: https://podcast.firewallsdontstopdragons.com/2021/11/08/restoring-trust-in-our-elections/ 
• Hacker Halted conference info: https://hackerhalted.com/agenda/#day-two-october-31st 

Further Info

• Help me reach more people! https://fdsd.me/awareness2
• Send me your questions! https://fdsd.me/qna 
• Check out my book, Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons: https://fdsd.me/book 
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• Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons 
• Support our mission! https://fdsd.me/support 
• Generate secure passphrases! https://d20key.com/#/ 

Table of Contents

Use these timestamps to jump to a particular section of the show.

• 0:03:53: Interview setup
• 0:06:21: What should we have learned from the Crowdstrike incident?
• 0:11:21: Why is it more profitable for products to be brittle?
• 0:13:59: Do regulations stifle innovation?
• 0:15:27: Should intelligence agencies focus more on cyber offense or defense?
• 0:22:29: Should it be legal to buy and sell zero-days on the open market?
• 0:26:44: How secure are our election systems today? How do we get people to trust the outcomes?
• 0:35:41: What’s your take on the arrest of Telegram’s CEO?
• 0:39:18: How do we convince lawmakers not to subvert encrypted communications?
• 0:43:48: How did the exploding pager attack change our views of supply chain security?
• 0:49:26: In what ways might AI actually benefit our democracy?
• 0:58:03: Should there be any guardrails on AI systems?
• 1:01:17: What’s next for you? What’s the latest on the Solid project?
• 1:03:49: Interview wrap-up
• 1:07:51: More info for new listeners
• 1:13:38: Meet me at Hacker Halted Conference!
• 1:14:14: Looking ahead