Technado

Since we’re focusing on CompTIA this month on Technado, we decided to go right to the source and speak with Dr. James Stanger. He talked about all things CompTIA, from the changes they’ve seen from COVID-19 to the growing emphasis on security. Then, he helped the team dissect the high-profile Twitter breach from earlier in the week in the “Who Got Pwned” segment. In other news, the Technado crew looked at the Cloudflare outage, Google pushing back on Microsoft’s Chrome RAM reduction, the latest in the EU-US data privacy act, the exposure of VPN logs for millions of users, and a cloud provider’s interesting approach to a ransomware attack.

Getting a CompTIA cert is a big accomplishment. Getting all of them? That’s podcast-worthy. In addition to holding all the current CompTIA certifications, this week’s guest Lee McWhorter is also the CTO of Covered 6, a security training firm focussed on veterans. After an interview, Lee helped breakdown ‘Who Got Pwned’ due to home routers riddled with flaws and running unpatched Linux. In other news, the Technado team discussed Intel’s Thunderbolt 4 specs, Fedora’s approval of Nano as the default terminal text editor, billions of leaked credentials on the dark web, and the seizure of the BlueLeaks server. They ended with a new segment, “Behind Bars,' where a hacker was caught after flaunting his wealth on Instagram.

An old friend of the show, Christiaan Brinkhoff, returned this week after joining Microsoft on the Windows Virtual Desktop team. After letting us know what he’s been up to since we last spoke, he talked about the impressive new features in WVD including management through the Azure portal. In the news, the Technado team looked at Huawei’s first foray into PC’s, Discord’s attempt to rebrand itself, Microsoft sneaking Edge into updates, a new Mac ransomware, and the sentencing of a former Yahoo engineer who snooped on more than 6,000 email accounts.

Joe Carson, the Chief Security Scientist at Thycotic, joined the Technado crew to talk about the importance of privileged access management. He also shared some facts on the Estonian language before helping dissect a data leak at Twitter. Then, the hosts put on their tinfoil hats to debunk the conspiracy theory that Bill Gates wants to microchip vaccines. In the news, they discussed Apple’s Xcode 12, an Arm-based supercomputer in Japan, Microsoft’s addition of Linux protections to Windows, and a Detroit man who allegedly hacked a hospital.

Mike Weber from Coalfire was this week’s guest, and he told the team about an experiment where they were able to cause 3D printers to catch fire with a remote attack. Mike also gave an update on a story from several episodes ago where 2 of his coworkers were arrested during a physical pen-testing job at a courthouse in Iowa. Then, in the news, the crew discussed Apple’ WWDC announcements including macOS 11 Big Sur and the move from Intel to ARM chips. In other news, they reviewed a massive DDoS attack Amazon mitigated, how hackers used Google Analytics to steal credit cards, and how Windows 10 managed to slash RAM usage for Chrome and Edge browsers.

We were fortunate to not only be joined by John Dileo, the cofounder and managing principal of Vartai Security, but also Johnny Macluf, the director of threat research. After learning about them and the company, they shared their thoughts on a honeypot set up by researchers that was infected in just three days. In the news, the team discussed Apple’s move to ARM chips, a sketchy Hackintosh system, and overhaul to the Windows 10 Insider Program, and if Zoom is the next Huawei. Finally, they unpacked the bizarre story of a couple cyberstalked by eBay employees.

Alex Kirk, a Security Engineer at Corelight, joined the podcast this week to talk about Zeek, a Raspberry Pi version of their product, and Corelight’s virtual CTF games. He also gave his take on Honda’s crippling cyberattack in this week’s segment of Who Got Pwned. In the news, Peter, Justin, and Daniel looked at one app developer’s COPPA violations, a bug-hunting bot, and IBM’s homomorphic encryption toolkit. In Linux news, they talked about Linux Mint dumping Ubuntu Snap and one author’s view that “Linux sucks in 2020.”

Our old friend Zach Hill from the YouTube channel I.T. Career Questions joined us this week as we kicked off a month focussed on getting started in the IT field. Zach also gave his views on a 128MB memory stick marketed as an "anti-5G" device. In other news, the team discussed the issues with the Windows 10 May 2020 update, a beefier Raspberry Pi, OpenSSH deprecating SHA-1 logins, the Blue Mockingbird malware gang, and an ongoing Russian hacking campaign.

We go behind the scenes on this week’s episode to talk to Megan Brewster, the person responsible for scheduling all our great guests on Technado. Megan also gave her thoughts on a strange odometer-based conspiracy theory in our new segment, Tin Foil Hat Time. In the news, the crew discussed faster SD cards, Microsoft’s new Windows Package Manager, the confusing Microsoft Lists, and eBay’s port scanning policy.

Dennis Hunter is an instructor at Cisco, Cyber Synergy Consulting Group, and Wake Technical Community College. He joined the Technado team this week to talk about his tech journey, give insight into Cisco’s Stealthwatch, and help breakdown the European breach that led to supercomputers mining cryptocurrency. In other news, the team discussed IBM’s sponsorship of distributed computing to fight COVID-19, Chrome blocking resource-draining ads, and the Edison Mail app mixing up users’ mailboxes.