My Three Favorite Security Podcasts

It takes effort to stay informed about the information security industry. The #infosec landscape changes incredibly fast. Security researchers and adversarial attackers generate a constant stream of vulnerabilities and other threat vectors. Keeping abreast of it all is a constant challenge.

One great way to stay informed is to listen to a selection of security-themed podcasts. Podcasts keep your brain engaged when you’re multitasking some menial physical task like cleaning or driving or walking Roy, the Wonder Dog.

Here are three security-themed podcasts that provide a pulse on infosec.

The Digital Underground

The Digital Underground security podcast features Threatpost editor Dennis Fisher discussing current trends and topics with industry journalists, analysts and researchers.

The ‘casters and guests have been in the infosec industry for decades, and when they discuss a major issue, like the attribution of the 2014 Sony Hack, they represent industry insider perspective.

The podcasts are published weekly. Excellent audio quality makes the Digital Underground an easy one to listen to.

Tripwire's Security Slice

The Security Slice podcast is sponsored by Tripwire. Topics include current events like cybercrime in the news and consumer safety. If there’s a hot security topic in the news (like SuperFish or those FBI agents who were stealing bitcoins) you can expect a spirited discussion on Security Slice. The podcast features five regular security researchers contributing to the podcast and their opinions an analysis are spot on.

The only negative about the podcast is the sound quality; the audio can be choppy, muted and fuzzy. Maybe it’s a problem of inadequate equipment. I hereby publically beg Tripwire to enhance their audio production quality.

Crypto-Gram Security Podcast

Bruce Schneier is the author of many books on cryptography, including the classic, Applied Cryptography. He’s as close as we have a celebrity in infosec circles. When Edward Snowden leaked the NSA documents, the press enlisted Schneier to validate and make sense of the disclosures.

Today he speaks mostly about privacy and surveillance and personal security. I saw him when he came through Seattle last month on a tour promoting his latest book, Data and Goliath. “Google knows what type of porn each and every one of you likes,” he said, sweeping his arm across the audience in front of him.

Schneier updates his blog, The Crypto-Gram Newsletter, every few days. These essays are collected once a month and read by Dan Henage in a podcast called Crypto-Gram Security Podcast.

While it is possible to listen to these podcasts from your computer using the links above, I prefer to let the iCatcher mobile app download and manage the podcasts on my iPhone. Then it doesn’t matter if I have an Internet connection or not; I can feed my brain with security data no matter where I am. I have iCatcher configured to manage storage space by keeping only the three most recent of each podcast.

So that’s my top three security podcasts. Listen to these and you’ll be industry-current quickly.

If you want more, there’s a twitter feed, @SecurityCasts, that tweets a link to a different security podcast every few hours. If you use it to find other good security podcasts, post them at the comment field below.