Safe Mode Podcast

Distributed denial of service attacks are one of the great nuisances of online life today, but they can also have more serious impact on the internet, disrupting access to crucial services and information at critical moments. FBI Special Agent Elliott Peterson is one of the bureau’s most seasoned investigators of the networks responsible for launching the DDOS attacks and joins the show to discuss his work investigating these criminal networks. CyberScoop reporter Christian Vasquez also joins the show to discuss a recent setback for the Biden administration in upping the cybersecurity of the water industry.

Cybersecurity firms have pioneered the use of artificial intelligence in their products, but the latest generation of AI technology offers hope that a greater share of the work to secure computer systems could be automated. A new competition at the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency aims to jump start efforts to build open source AI tools to find and fix vulnerabilities. Program Manager Perri Adams leads that effort and joins Safe Mode to discuss how to encourage developers to build tools that anyone might use to secure computer systems.

When Will Hurd served in the House of Representatives he quickly made a name for himself as one of the Congress’s leading voices on cybersecurity. The Texas Republican helped pass a series of key technology modernization bills and gained a reputation as a sensible bipartisan dealmaker. A former CIA operations officer, Hurd was once billed as the future of the Republican party. A centrist Black lawmaker lawmaker with impeccable credentials representing a majority Latino Texas border district, Hurd was the type of leader many hoped would broaden the Republican Party’s appeal with a new generation of Americans. Then Donald Trump happened. Today, he is a stalwart anti-Trump voice on a long-shot bid to win the Republican presidential nomination and convince his party to focus on what he sees as a series of generational technological threats.

When journalist Kashmir Hill first revealed the facial recognition technology built by Clearview AI it served as a wake up call for what a group of renegade technologists with few ethical foibles could do to society. By amassing a huge trove of facial images and training an algorithm on that data, Clearview built a product with an unprecedented ability to to identify individuals — exploding our notion of privacy in the process. Hill’s new book, Your Face Belongs to Us, tells the story of Clearview and how facial recognition technology is poised to change society, and she joins the podcast to discuss it with reporter Tonya Riley.

A slowing U.S. economy has taken a brutal toll on cybersecurity companies. A deteriorating economic environment has resulted in cutbacks in security spending, rising interest rates have placed pressure on venture-backed start-ups and many cybersecurity firms have conducted lay-offs. On this episode of Safe Mode, Roger Thornton, a cybersecurity-focused venture capitalist and a partner at Ballistic Ventures sits down with Senior Editor Elias Groll to discuss the investment climate for cybersecurity start-ups, the state of the broader industry and how the AI revolution is affecting both big and small players in the security field. CyberScoop reporter Tonya Riley also joins the show to discuss an interesting new consumer privacy measure in California and recent revelations about how Elon Musk’s acquisition of what was Twitter and is now known as X Corp. resulted in deteriorating privacy practices at the platform.

Josh Corman and Beau Woods, the founders of I Am the Cavalry, join CyberScoop Senior Editor to discuss the ten-year anniversary of their grassroots hacking group and their efforts to address the crisis in computer security. CyberScoop reporter AJ Vicens joins the podcast to talk about sanctions against the Trickbot hacking gang. And a mystery will be revealed: how a sensitive Microsoft encryption key was likely stolen by hackers based in China

It’s been called the cybersecurity poverty line. Many organizations just don’t have the money to afford a skilled cybersecurity team to protect themselves from hackers. But there’s a movement afoot to change that dynamic through cybersecurity clinics that can support organizations in need. The Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity at the University of California, Berkeley, is at the forefront of developing cyber clinics and its executive director, Ann Cleveland, talks about the center’s approach with Safe Mode host Mike Farrell. CyberScoop senior editor Elias Groll also joins the show to discuss his recent trip to DEF CON where he witnessed hackers competing to outsmart AI models as well as a parade of furries.

A string of breaches involving Microsoft infrastructure has left many within the security community frustrated with the company’s approach to securing its systems. CyberScoop Senior Editor Elias Groll sat down at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas with Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, a principal threat researcher at SentinelOne, to discuss the key role Microsoft products play in the computing ecosystem and why breaches involving its infrastructure have such devastating consequences. Also on the episode, CyberScoop reporter talks about a newly active hacker group calling itself Kitten Sec.

Chris Inglis led the Office of the National Cyber Director until February of this year and helped steer national policy on some of the most pressing national security issues. He talks with CyberScoop senior editor Elias Groll from Black Hat in Las Vegas. CyberScoop reporter Tonya Riley joins the show to discuss how the White House may attempt to curtail the “surveillance economy.”

Sean Vitka, senior policy counsel at the tech advocacy group Demand Progress, joins the show to discuss the debate over Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and how law enforcement can use the controversial tool to spy on Americans. CyberScoop senior editor Elias Groll talks about two big cybersecurity conferences this week in Las Vegas – Black Hat and DEF CON.