Three Buddy Problem

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Seth Spergel is managing partner at Merlin Ventures, where he is responsible for identifying cutting-edge companies for Merlin to partner with and invest in. In this episode, Seth talks about helping startups target US federal markets, the current state of deal sizes and valuations, and the red-hot sectors in cybersecurity ripe for venture investment.Links:Seth Spergel bio — Seth has more than 20 years of experience building, selling, and investing in software and startups. Prior to Merlin Ventures, Seth was VP for Infrastructure Technologies at In-Q-Tel, a strategic investment firm that invests in startups that meet the mission needs of government customers. Merlin Ventures portfolioPalo Alto buys Talon, Dig Security — Technology powerhouse Palo Alto Networks is officially on a billion-dollar shopping spree in the cloud data security space.Episode Sponsor: Binarly — The Binarly REsearch team leads the industry in firmware vulnerability disclosure and advisories

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Dan Lorenc is CEO and co-founder of Chainguard, a company that raised $116 million in less than two years to tackle open source supply chain security problems. In this episode, Dan joins Ryan to chat about the demands of building a "growth mode" startup, massive funding rounds and VC expectations, fixing the "crappy" CVE and CVSS ecosystems, managing expectations around SBOMs, and how politicians and lobbyists are framing cybersecurity issues in strange ways.Links:SBOMs - All the right ingredients, but something is still missingOpen Source Development Threatened in EuropeChainguard Images: Reduce your attack surfaceDan Lorenc on LinkedInDan Lorenc on Twitter/XChainguard Raises $61 Million Series BBinarly -- Firmware Supply Chain Security Platform — Binarly is the world's first automated firmware supply chain security platform. Using cutting-edge techniques, Binarly identifies both known and unknown vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and malicious code in firmware and hardware components.

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Nick Biasini has been working in information security for nearly two decades. In his current role as head of outreach for Cisco Talos Intelligence Group, he leads a team of threat researchers tasked with tracking nation-state APTs, mercenary hacker groups and ransomware cybercriminals. In this episode, Biasini talks about the cryptic world of threat actor attribution, the rise of PSOAs (private sector offensive actors) and why network edge devices are a happy hunting ground for attackers.Links:Nick Biasini on TwitterCisco Talos Library of ReportsNick Biasini on LinkedInBeyond the Veil of Surveillance: Private Sector Offensive Actors (PSOAs)US Gov Mercenary Spyware Clampdown Hits Cytrox, Intellexa

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Allison Nixon is Chief Researcher at Unit 221B and a trailblazer in the world of cybercrime research. In this episode, we deep-drive into the shadowy dynamics of underground criminal communities, high-profile ransomware attacks, teenage hacking groups breaking into big companies, and the challenges of attribution and law enforcement. Allison sheds light on why companies continue to be vulnerable targets and what they're often missing in their cybersecurity strategies.Links:Allison Nixon on TwitterAllison Nixon - Unit 221B bioLas Vegas casino hackers rely on violent threatsCrossing boundaries to facilitate extortion, encryption, and destruction

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Dakota Cary is a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub, conducting research on China’s efforts to develop its hacking capabilities, artificial-intelligence and cybersecurity research at Chinese universities, the People’s Liberation Army’s efforts to automate software vulnerability discovery, and new policies to improve China’s cybersecurity-talent pipeline. In this episode, Cary expands on a new report -- 'Sleight of Hand' -- that delves into the changing legal landscape for vulnerability disclosure in China, the PRC's weaponization of software vulnerabilities, advanced threat actors in China and that infamous Bloomberg 'rice grain' spy chip story.Links:Sleight of hand: How China weaponizes software vulnerabilitiesDakota Cary on TwitterMoussouris: U.S. Should Resist Urge to Match China Vuln Reporting MandateCSRB Log4j incident report (PDF)CISA China Cyber Threat Overview and Advisories

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Abhishek Arya is director of engineering at Google, overseeing open source and supply chain security efforts that include OSS-Fuzz, SLSA, GUAC and OSV DB. In this episode, Arya talks about some early success experimenting with AI and LLMs on fuzzing and vulnerability management, the industry's over-pivoting on SBOMs, regulations and liability for software vendors, and the long road ahead for securing software supply chains.Links:Abhishek Arya on LinkedInOSS-Fuzz: Continuous fuzzing for open source softwareGoogle Brings AI Magic to Fuzz TestingAI-Powered Fuzzing: Breaking the Bug Hunting BarrierAI Cyber Challenge

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Dr Sergey Bratus is a Research Associate Professor of Computer Science at Dartmouth College and a program manager at DARPA. In this episode, he discusses his pioneering work on securing parsers and patching long-forgotten devices. He also puts the AI hype into context and showers praise on the labor-of-love "citizen science" of hacking all the things.Links:Sergey Bratus Bio

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) DARPA program manager Perri Adams joins the conversation to chat about her love for CTF hacking competitions, the hunt for leapfrog security technologies in DARPA’s Information Innovation Office (I2O), and the goal of the new AI Cyber Challenge (AIxCC) offering $20 million in prizes to teams competing to develop AI-driven systems to automatically secure critical code.Links:DARPA AI Cyber Challenge Aims to Secure Nation’s Most Critical SoftwareAIxCC - AI Cyber ChallengeFollow Perri Adams on Twitter Google Brings AI Magic to Fuzz TestingAI-Powered Fuzzing: Breaking the Bug Hunting Barrier

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Peculiar Ventures chief executive Ryan Hurst joins the show to talk about a career that spanned 20 years at Microsoft and Google, his work building the plumbing for encryption on the web, unsolved problems in BGP security, the hype and promise of AI, and Microsoft's ongoing cloud security hiccups.Links:Projects - Peculiar VenturesRyan Hurst on LinkedInBinarly - AI-powered firmware securitySandboxAQ

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Bessemer Venture Partner's Jason Chan returns to the show for a frank discussion on the state of cyber, including thoughts on Microsoft's prominent security failures, the meaning of layoffs hitting security teams, the excitement around AI, and the long road ahead. The former Netflix security chief also talks about merging of the IT and security functions and the importance of cybersecurity proving its value to the business.Links:Jason Chan, VP, Information Security, NetflixJason Chan on LinkedInFollow Jason on Twitter / XJason Chan - Bessemer Venture Partners — Jason Chan is an operating advisor at Bessemer where he brings over twenty years of experience in cybersecurity and is especially passionate about large-scale systems, cloud security, and improving security in modern software development practices. Most recently, Jason built and led the information security team at Netflix for over a decade. His team at Netflix was known for its contributions to the security community, including over 30 open-source security releases and dozens of conference presentations. He also previously led the security team at VMware and spent most of his earlier career in security consulting.