mnemonic security podcast

In this week's episode, Robby talks with his friend Keven Hendricks, a law enforcement veteran with extensive experience in dark web and cryptocurrency investigations. They explore topics like dark web forums, cryptocurrency's role in illegal activities, and the difficulties law enforcement encounters when monitoring these areas, especially with privacy coins like Monero.

Keven emphasizes the need for companies to take a ‘boots on the ground’ approach to monitoring dark web activities, rather than depending only on third-party tools. «Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer,» right? Keven also touches on the potential value of having a ‘Chief Intelligence Officer’ (CINO) to actively investigate emerging threats.

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Many are familiar with cybersecurity penetration testing – ethical hacking to uncover digital weaknesses. But what about the real-world threats to your company's physical security? How confident are you in your locks, cameras, and physical security measures to protect your sensitive data or equipment?

In this episode, Robby speaks with Brian Harris, a leading expert in physical penetration testing as a part of Black Teaming. Black Teaming is a type of security assessment that simulates an attack on an organisation, including tactics such as physical intrusion and social engineering. Brian, Chief Instructor for the Covert Access Team, has conducted hundreds of these physical pen tests, helping organisations identify and fix vulnerabilities that could lead to corporate espionage and other threats. 

They provide real-world examples, discuss the limitations of common security measures, and touch on methods for improvement. These methods can include gamifying security by incentivizing employees to take an active role in physical security, for instance by keeping an eye on suspicious activity in the office.

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Have you ever worked alongside a machine learning engineer? Or wondered how their world will overlap with ours in the "AI" era?

In this episode of the podcast, Robby is joined by seasoned expert Kyle Gallatin from Handshake to enlighten us on his perspective on how collaboration between security professionals and ML practitioners should look in the future. They discuss the typical workflow of an ML engineer, the risks associated with open-source models and machine learning experimentation, and the potential role of "security champions" within ML teams. Kyle provides insight into what has worked best for him and his teams over the years, and provides practical advice for companies aiming to enhance their AI security practices.

Looking back at our experience with "DevSecOps" - what can we learn from and improve for the next iteration of development in the AI era?

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Operationalising threat intelligence is back on topic for the mnemonic security podcast!

Making a return to the podcast is Joe Slowik from MITRE Corporation, where he is the CTI Lead for MITRE ATT&CK and also Principal Engineer for Critical Infrastructure Threat Intelligence. Also joining is Jeff Schiemann, an industry veteran and CISO at one of the world's first crypto banks.

The conversation ventures across how security teams are currently using threat intelligence, the importance of frameworks and standardisation, and the role AI and automation may play for defenders and adversaries. The trio also share their thoughts on a future where threat intelligence decisions can be automated in real-time, and what might take to get us there.

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When we talk about securing an organisation’s assets, we most often mean its data, devices, servers, or accounts, but are we doing enough to secure the group of people leading the company? Or the ones doing high risk work on behalf of the organisation?

To discuss the importance of securing high-risk individuals, like journalists, politicians and executives, Robby is joined by an expert in this field, Runa Sandvik, journalist, security researcher and founder of Granitt. At Granitt, Runa works with digital security for journalists and other at-risk people, building on her experiences working at The New York Times, Freedom of the Press Foundation and The Tor Project.

During the conversation, they talk about how to secure devices when travelling to high-risk countries, what tools to use and at what time, and how threat actors usually target individuals. Runa also shares how she works to secure accounts and devices for her clients.

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For this episode, Robby is once again joined by Eoin Wickens, Technical Research Director at HiddenLayer, an organisation doing security for Machine learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). 

It is not too long ago since Eoin last visited the podcast, (only 7 months,)  but lots has happened in the world of AI since. During the episode, he talks about some of the most significant changes and developments he’s seen the last months, how models are getting smarter, smaller and more specific, and he revisits his crystal ball predictions last episode.

Robby and Eoin discuss potential security risks posed by using AI tools, how to secure AI powered tools, and what you should think about before using them. Eoin also gives some new crystal ball predictions and recommendations to organisations starting to utilise AI adjacent technologies.

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Data Brokers and Data Removal Services

What does the process of removing your online presence look like? And how would you handle the data brokers that have collected your personal information with just a few clicks of the mouse to sell to other companies?

To answer this, we’re joined by an expert in this field; Darius Belejevas, Head of Incogni, a service that automates user personal data removal from data brokers.

Darius shares from his research on data brokers and their business models, and explains what a typical data broker looks like, the most commons methods they use to collect our data, and who some of the most popular data brokers are.

This brings the conversation to the growing market for data removal services, and the two also talk about new legislative measures that might be changing the landscape these organisations operate in.

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For this episode, Robby is joined by Levi Gundert, Chief Security Officer at the cybersecurity company Recorded Future and author of the book The Risk Business – what leaders need to know about intelligence and risk-based security.

Levi shares from his decades of experience in the threat and risk space – and Robby picks his brain about a broad set of security topics ranging from telling the risk story and categorising risk, to darknet monitoring and infiltration, and using chatbots for security analysis and risk management.

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Ethical social engineering

Even the best pentesters out there can be fooled by a social engineering attempt under the right circumstances. But how do we treat the ones that have been tested and failed?

Ragnhild «Bridget» Sageng, Senior Security Advisor at Norwegian Customs, has several years of experience from the IT and cybersecurity industry, and hands-on experience working as an ethical hacker specialising in social engineering.

In her conversation with Robby, she shares what goes through her head during social engineering  assignments, and discusses the importance of company culture and management expectations when doing these kinds of assessments.

Ragnhild is particularity interested in the other side social engineering and how we should meet the humans that are involved in these assignments. During this episode she explores what ethical responsibilities we have, what a pentester should demand from a company before accepting an assignment, and what a company should demand back from a pentester.

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How will AI impact the next generation of people working with computer science?

This question is probably relevant for anyone making their way through school now, in all fields of study. Without looking for a definite answer, but to help him navigate this question, Robby has invited two people with quite different backgrounds: Richard Stiennon, author of Security Yearbook 2023 and Founder and Chief Research Analyst at IT-Harvest, and High School Junior, Athena Contos. 

Athena was recently visiting colleges, together with her father Brian Contos, a long-time veteran of the mnemonic security podcast. They both noticed a lot of excitement and concern regarding AI amongst those about to embark on their higher education, and questions about how AI will impact their choices of schools, majors, careers, and ultimately their future.

In this episode, Athena and Richard share their perspectives on AI’s potential in education, the ethics of using AI in this context, and how we can go from combating the use of AI in the classroom to making it a useful tool for learning.

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