Tomatoes & Telegraphs

There’s a lot we can glean from history but sometimes it’s not as obvious as you might think. For example, did you know that until the mid-1800’s, most of Americans hated tomatoes and that ketchup was originally made from mushrooms? The story behind how Americans came to love tomatoes is quite fascinating, but what is perhaps most interesting is the way our guest applies this knowledge to the realm of cybersecurity. Today we will also learn how one of the most powerful cryptographic techniques to this day originated in the time of the telegraph. Along the way, we’ll discuss how humans choose their passwords, how they should be creating passwords, and how often we should be changing our passwords.

Anthony Collette is a Senior Consent Form Editor at the largest Institutional Review Board (IRB) in the United States. This regulatory agency has reviewed over 1,000 COVID-19 research studies, conducted at more than 12,000 locations. Mr. Collette analyzes complex medical documents, synthesizes the central concepts, and translates technical jargon into relatable language directed to the non-technical research participant. These skills transfer perfectly to the task of analyzing and understanding the conflicting and often outdated advice given about passwords, stripping away what’s unnecessary, and getting down to the actionable core of the issues.

Interview Links

• Anthony Collette: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonycollette/ 
• Loistava Information Security website: www.LositavaInfoSecurity.com
• CASTALOT™ Dice Landing Page: https://www.castalotdice.com?utm_source=dragons1 
• CASTALOT™ Dice Facebook VIP Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1317312032055849
• The History of Tomatoes in America: https://www.amazon.com/Tomato-America-History-Culture-Cookery/dp/1570030006/ 
• NY Times, Secret Life of Passwords: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/19/magazine/the-secret-life-of-passwords.html 
• A Look at Telegraph Codes (Steven Bellovin): https://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb/papers/codebooks.pdf 
• DFLEKT Keyless Entry Protection: https://www.duku.co.uk/dflekt

Further Info

• Get your Dragon Challenge Coin!! https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/return-of-the-dragon-coins/ 
• Generate secure passphrases! https://d20key.com/#/ 
• Amulet of Entropy teaser: https://twitter.com/HackerBoxes/status/1523318662807298051?s=20&t=dwQFy7ieRMGjRCqgAR7btQ