Security Now

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Security Now is a weekly show hosted by Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson. The program debuted on 19 August 2005. Security Now! consists of a discussion between Gibson and Laporte of issues of computer security and, conversely, insecurity. Covered topics have included security vulnerabilities, firewalls, password security, spyware, rootkits, Wi-Fi, virtual private networks (VPNs), and virtualization. The intro theme was composed by Jamie Diamond of The MediaRight Group and the closing theme was made by Mark Blasco at podcastthemes.com

The show currently airs live on Wednesdays at 11:00am PT/2:00pm ET with the on demand download available within 24hrs.


Contents

Hosts

Show format

The podcast runs for approximately 1 1/2 hours, with the actual discussion of the subject of the podcast typically starting 20 minutes into the show. The first 20 minutes being spent on general chat, security news, sponsors and reading out letters and e-mails praising Steve's disk recovery product SpinRite, although the latter is not an official sponsor of the show and its dominance in the show has been criticized.

Listener feedback

Every even numbered episode has been devoted to answering questions and responding to feedback provided by Security Now! listeners. The GRC web page has a feedback form allowing listeners to submit their comments and questions. Additionally, the so-called "Mailbag" episodes were added in late July 2007 to "share and discuss the thoughts, comments, and observations of other Security Now! listeners" (referred to as "mod 4 + 2 episodes").[3] The distinction between "mailbag" and listener feedback episodes was removed in episode 108.

In general, the episodes are typically dominated by 'tech nerd' talk, although Leo tries hard to keep the show moving along for the general public.

Steve is very proud that the show has never missed a week since its inception.

Setting

Steve records Security Now from his home in Mission Viejo, California.

The boxes with blinking lights recently added to Steve's bookshelves are the front panels of three modern reproductions of classic minicomputers called PDP-8e's. Steve talks about the PDP-8's at his site. The computers are running a program Steve wrote called "Deep Thought". It is essentially a random number generator, with tweaks to make the lights flash the way actual computer front panels of the day looked while running real programs. Steve describes the "Deep Thought" program on his site, complete with demonstration video and PDP-8 assembly language source code.

Steve's picks

Steve's website

Steve hosts transcripts, low bandwidth versions and supplementary notes on his website.

Contributors

Contact

GRC Feedback page

Recent Episodes

Below are recent episodes you can download or watch.

  • Security Now 402BitTorrent SyncSecurity news, "BitTorrent Sync", and more.
  • Security Now 401Your Questions, Steve's Answers #166Another JAVA flaw, Google Street View data collection in Germany, Malware in Google Play Apps, and more!
  • Security Now 400VPN SolutionsWordpress botnet, another JAVA update, CRAPCHAs, Virtual Private Networks, and more.
  • Security Now 399Your Questions, Steve's Answers #165Comcast's Blocked Ports, Verizon DSL begins to NAT it's users, VUDO, your questions, and more.
  • Security Now 398Distributed Hash TablesCOX is blocking UPnP, "Darkleech", poor Comcast JavaScript, Distributed Database technology, and more.
  • Security Now 397Your Questions, Steve's Answers #164Apple authentication, FBI and Real-Time interception, your questions, and more.
  • Security Now 396Telnet-pocalypseBitcoin, Carna Botnet, Krebs DDoS'd, distributed hash tables, and more.
  • Security Now 395Your Questions, Steve's Answers #163More JAVA vulnerabilities, more Flash vulnerabilities, DNT and IE10, your questions, and more.
  • Security Now 394Tor 2.0Evernote resets 50 million passwords, Oracle issues emergency JAVA update, Tor's updated operation, and more.
  • Security Now 393Your Questions, Steve's Answers #162More Java vulnerabilities, Microsoft and NBC.com hacked, your questions, and more.

More episodes can be viewed and downloaded here

Show notes

Below are detailed show notes for released episodes. These are updated as soon as possible as time allows and/or as much community effort is put into them.

Additional show notes for Security Now can be found here

External links


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