Security Stories

Meet Mark Weatherford, who has one of the most impressive cybersecurity CVs we’ve ever seen! Learn how he created the U.S Navy’s first ever Red Team, and how he was hired by Arnold Schwarzenegger to help "change the way California did technology".  

Mark also talks about how he worked with many different groups to get laws passed to formerly establish a security program for the first time in several US states…And we talk about how Batman fits into all of this….

Also in this episode, Ben and Hazel celebrate the anniversary of Snort becoming open source in our 'On this day" feature. It's a fascinating story that starts with a rainy day/weekends project that entered into the Hall of Fame as one of the best pieces of open source software of all time.

And finally in our "Emerging threats" segment, Ben talks about a previously unknown type of Remote Access Trojans, recently discovered by Cisco Talos, which we're calling "PoetRAT." We talk about the unique features of this RAT, its impact, and what organizations can do to protect themselves.

In the latest episode of Cisco's Security Stories, we have the incredible fortune to speak to Theresa Payton, who was named one of the top 25 Most Influential People in Security by Security Magazine and is one of the most respected authorities on security and intelligence operations. 

Theresa was the first female CIO of The White House, taking up the post in George W Bush’s second term. We chat about what life was really like working in the White House. She also starred in CBS’ ‘Hunted’ TV series which gives ordinary citizens to chance to try and evade police capture , running the intelligence operations side.  

Theresa is also very passionate about protecting people’s right to privacy, and has co-authored two books focused on helping others learn how to protect their privacy online.  Her third book is called ‘Manipulated: Inside the cyberwar to hijack elections and distort the truth’ which is coming out on 22nd April, and we talk in quite a bit of detail about the topic of hijacking elections, and what people can do to protect their voting rights.

Also in this episode, our ‘On this day’ feature takes us back to 1993 to discuss the announcement of the ‘Clipper chip’, which was designed to enhance the security of communications devices.  It’s a really interesting story that addresses people’s right to privacy and the balance with survelliance, so stay tuned for that.

And Ben chats to us about 'credential dumping', an increasingly popular technique whereby an attacker scours a compromised computer for credentials in order to move laterally and/or carry out further attacks. To learn more, visit https://blogs.cisco.com/security/stealing-passwords-with-credential-dumping

Wendy Nather, Head of Advisory CISOs at Cisco Duo, joins us for the latest episode of Security Stories. Wendy discusses how we can involve users in our security practices, rather than blaming them when they fall foul of the rules. And she comes up with a unique idea for shaking up the security industry.

Also in this episode, Ben has some handy tips for remote workers and how we can all play our part to ensure the security and privacy of our data. More details about how Cisco is supporting companies with an expansion of our free security offerings is available here https://blogs.cisco.com/security/cisco-expands-free-security-offerings-to-help-with-rise-in-remote-workers 

We also chat about how cyber criminals might be taking advantage of the current situation - more details are available on the Talos blog https://blog.talosintelligence.com/2020/03/covid-19-pandemic-threats.html

And finally our 'On this Day' feature, where we look back into the cybersecurity archives, takes us on a journey of the Conficker worm, and how April Fools Day 2009 was shaping up to be a key day in cybersecurity history before things took a surprising turn.

Welcome to the first episode of our new fortnightly podcast, Security Stories. A podcast by the Cisco Security team, we use storytelling to talk about the past, present and future of cybersecurity. 

On this episode, our special guest is Mick Jenkins MBE, CISO for Brunel University London, former army officer and soldier, and author of several spy novels including The Kompromat Kill. Mick talks about his life, career, and how he has led some incredibly innovative changes at his organization to turn its cybersecurity approach around. 

In the pod booth, hosts Hazel and Ben chat about Cisco's latest 'Threat of the Month', Industrial IoT attacks, and why they're on the rise. Plus discover why March 16th 1971 was a momentous day for cybersecurity in our 'On This Day' feature.