The Didi & Lital Show

pod617.com

3.0 (8)
Technology
Updated Weekly

Welcome to the Didi & Lital Show. Your hosts are a married couple in the cybersecurity industry. Listen as they discuss cybersecurity, technology, startups, and life. This is not the typical cybersecurity show - we discuss controversial topics, and invite great guests to join us. Get in touch with Didi & Lital:Didi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dddotanLital on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/litalasher/

Aug 7

D2 and Intent-Based Policies with Denis Knjazihhin

In this Lital-less episode of the DiDi and Lital Show, DiDi interviews Denis Knjazihhin, a cybersecurity veteran who founded D2 to help enterprises roll out AI agents about his new company, D2, after a brief sports and music discussion including World Cup reactions and concerts at Fenway. Denis explains that D2 helps organizations adopt AI by removing security as a blocker, since agents require deep access to systems and data and can make risky mistakes or be tricked into harmful actions. D2’s approach is intent-based policy: expressing what should happen and translating it into controls that constrain agent actions deterministically, evolving as agents find new ways around restrictions. A key use case is governing Claude CoWork access to sensitive email in a financial institution with policies like limiting access to recent emails, excluding attorney-client privilege content, restricting to specific folders, and allowing drafting but not sending. D2 deploys via a gateway between the agent and applications, supports local/hosted/enterprise installs, offers natural-language policy creation with testing, and provides an open-source policy catalog. Denis invites users to try D2 free at d2.ai, shares that the team is six people, and says they are seeking GTM leadership and critical product feedback. Topics 01:35 World Cup Takes 03:53 US Team Rollercoaster 07:21 Red Sox and Fenway Concerts 09:39 What D2 Does 14:22 Claude Email Policy Use Case 17:00 Gateway Deployment and Policy Catalog 19:29 Hardening Policies and User Partnership 22:51 Try D2 and Core IP 25:01 PDP vs PEP Architecture 26:49 Small Team Big Speed 27:56 Startup Building Then vs Now 31:45 Wrap Up and Call to Action
Jul 31

Denis Returns: One-Week Sprints, Cisco GTM, and How AI Is Changing Software Development

Didi hosts without Lital and welcomes returning guest Denis Knjazihhin, a cybersecurity veteran who founded D2 to help enterprises roll out AI agents. Denis recounts being born in the Soviet Union (now Estonia), moving through Germany to Boston, and his startup path from BladeLogic to Aveksa (acquired by RSA), where he met DiDi and later partnered with him on Cisco’s internal startup CDO. They discuss how product success at Cisco depends heavily on integrating with Cisco’s go-to-market machine, highlighting an ASA upgrade feature that drove adoption and services. The conversation shifts to software process: their preference for one-week sprints for rapid feedback, and how AI is disrupting agile practices, moving work from code completion to agent-driven design and implementation guided by ADRs, with growing need for higher-level review and summaries. Denis cites a 153k-line agent-assisted PR done largely during vacation, while both caution against letting AI change core, high-risk systems. Topics 00:52 Denis Returns 02:51 Denis Origin Story 03:55 Pets And Parenting 05:07 Startup Journey Together 07:50 Patents And AI 10:45 Cisco GTM Lessons 12:26 ASA Upgrade Breakthrough 15:24 Startup Strategy Analogies 18:10 One Week Sprint Rule 20:31 Fast Follower Examples 21:36 TiVo to Streaming 22:36 Blockbuster and Piracy 23:20 Netflix Pivot Lessons 24:13 Big Company Pivots 25:00 Apple Burns Ships 26:17 Microsoft Cloud Shift 27:20 Life Sciences vs Security 29:56 Agile Is Outdated 32:02 AI Coding Evolution 33:28 ADRs and Review Load 37:18 Code Rot Reality 40:01 Adopt AI or Fall Behind 43:11 Token Budgets and Local Models 44:12 153K Line PR Story 46:01 AI on the Periphery 47:17 Wrap and Cliffhanger
Jul 24

Bad Drivers & Self-Driving Cars

Didi & Lital are joined by their kids Ron and Leia, starting with reactions to the Jaylen Brown trade, which they argue reflects ownership-driven, analytics-obsessed decision-making that ignores entertainment value. The conversation shifts to how people measure the wrong outcomes, using a podcast on the stereotype “Asians are bad drivers,” where fatalities per mile show Asians have the lowest death rates, prompting debate over whether safety outcomes match everyday “bad driving” annoyances and traffic impacts. They then discuss Waymo and self-driving tech, noting Boston and New York resistance tied to unions and politics, while highlighting benefits for disabled and blind riders and claims that autonomous vehicles are significantly safer than humans. They compare tech disruption to containerization and self-checkout, discuss compromises like retraining and early retirement, and touch on public fear of rare autonomous crashes, liability, and lobbying. Topics 01:01 Jaylen Brown Trade Shock 03:17 Analytics Versus Entertainment 06:38 Swift Kelce Wedding Rumor 09:26 Measuring the Wrong Things 10:02 Bad Drivers and Outcomes 15:53 Traffic Costs and Flow 19:00 Self Driving Cars Arrive 20:09 Boston Pushback on Waymo 22:08 Unions vs Waymo 23:33 Accessibility Case 24:43 Safety Data Debate 25:31 Teamsters Compromise 29:40 Automation Jobs Shift 33:24 Right to Drive 38:31 Control and Politics 40:33 Rare Crashes Liability 44:05 Lobbying and Wrap Up 45:38 Podcast Farewell
Jul 17

It's Not About Dark Mode

DiDi and Lital open with a summer sports update: the Red Sox are struggling, they discuss NBA and hockey player preferences for low- or no-income-tax states and argue Massachusetts’ millionaire tax affects teams’ ability to retain talent. Lital shares the atmosphere in downtown Boston during the Scotland soccer matches, with Scottish fans filling pubs and causing venues to run out of alcohol, plus light talk on global fandom and star players like Ronaldo, Messi, and Mbappé. The conversation shifts to business and product development: a request for dark theme triggers a broader point that it’s “not about the nail” or dark mode, but about organizational rate limits beyond coding, including uncertainty, fear, testing infrastructure, and release processes. They describe using AI to generate themes and emphasize automated testing, sandboxes, MVP scoping, and making faster business decisions while managing risk across a large customer base. Topics 00:27 Red Sox Reality Check 01:08 Taxes and Team Trades 03:15 Hockey and No Tax States 05:20 Scottish Fans Take Boston 07:03 Modeling and Pub Planning 08:48 Globalization and Soccer Stars 12:18 From Sports to Business 12:42 Its Not About the Nail 14:13 Dark Theme Debate 18:28 AI Changes Product Delivery 20:53 Testing Infrastructure and MVP 29:46 Automation Over Manual QA 32:29 Shipping Faster in the Cloud 34:51 Wrap Up and Goodbye
Jul 9

Happy Fourth! & the Case for Self-Agency

Didi and Lital are joined by their kids Ron and Leia. The group jokes about family life and discusses Ron’s plan to attend RIT in Rochester to study computer engineering, partly as a smoother path for staying in the U.S. They run a round-robin of America-themed songs. The main discussion centers on self-agency versus powerlessness, contrasting internal vs. external locus of control, criticizing rule-following that discourages initiative, using examples like fire alarms, 9/11 messaging, and school shooter drills, and applying agency to work challenges such as AI, layoffs, and collaboration barriers by urging people to act, adapt, learn, or leave rather than complain. The Day The Music Died: American Pie (documentary): https://www.paramountplus.com/movies/video/vrmcb4z5mbx3CwjVzC4L5x_76JIz1t8h/ Topics 00:43 Family Check In and Summer Plans 02:07 Ron Heads to RIT 04:27 Fourth Playlist Rules 05:27 Round One Song Picks 10:01 Round Two Curveballs 12:23 American Pie Deep Dive 14:25 Born in the USA Meaning 15:39 America the Beautiful Finale 16:49 New Topic Self Agency Debate 18:04 Defining Agency 19:55 Mud Ball Perspective 21:42 Culture Discourages Control 25:31 Rule Followers and Empire 26:59 Alarms and Shooter Drills 30:25 Haiti and Fatalism 33:40 Can Our Generation Succeed 35:32 Learning Disabilities Debate 39:20 Building Agency in Kids 41:09 Workplace Powerlessness 43:02 Ride the AI Wave 45:32 Freedom Needs Defending 46:43 Fourth of July Signoff
Jul 3

If AI Is A Weapon, Regulate it as One

Didi and Lital discuss the brief restricted release and takedown of Anthropic’s Mythos/Fable, claims about a Glasswing participant issue, AWS researchers finding easy jailbreaks, and resulting U.S. government demands. They argue advanced AI can be treated like regulated technologies (encryption, bio materials) and propose licensing/KYC-style access for high-end models to enable research benefits (e.g., cancer immunotherapy advances) while limiting misuse. Topics 00:20 Whistling Debate 01:32 Misophonia Confessions 02:34 Broadway Edition Begins 03:04 Cats and Memory 03:57 Phantom Deep Cut 05:37 West Side Story Picks 07:14 Fiddler and Broadway Roots 08:53 Porgy and Bess Choices 09:37 Grease Lightning Trivia 11:06 Over the Rainbow Origins 12:24 Rent and Chicago Finale 14:01 Broadway Song Tangent 14:28 Impossible Dream Memories 15:54 Mythos Release Fallout 17:11 How the Takedown Happened 22:21 AI as a Weapon History 30:33 Regulating Like Encryption 33:04 AI Boosting Cancer Therapy 39:08 Licensing Model Wrap Up 39:50 Closing and Next Episodes
Jun 26

Mythos is Coming - How to Deal With it

DIdi, Lital and Leia open with a wide-ranging sports update (World Cup, the Patriots signing A.J. Brown and hopes for adding Stefon Diggs, Stanley Cup excitement, NBA comebacks, and critiques of Boston teams’ performance and decision-making). They then discuss Anthropic’s Mythos frontier model, which was delayed after consultation with the US government due to concerns it could rapidly uncover code vulnerabilities at scale; it was first released to select “Glasswing” organizations and later to the public with claimed restrictions. DD describes Mythos as highly autonomous, memory-enabled, and “token hungry,” able to perform extensive research and brute-force testing with minimal prompting. They warn of a “patching apocalypse” as vulnerability discovery rates surge, urging CISOs—especially in hospitals and infrastructure-heavy environments—to plan for continuous, cheap patching via redundancy, improved deployment architecture, and vendor coordination, and to consider cloud services like AWS to offload patching where possible. Topics 00:34 Quick Sports Update 04:36 Boston Teams Reality Check 06:45 What Is Mythos 09:22 Mythos in Real Workflows 11:36 Memory Skills and Token Costs 13:54 Cyber Risk and Patch Apocalypse 15:28 How CISOs Should Prepare 20:45 Redundancy and Upgrade Architecture 22:33 Inevitable CVE Flood 25:26 Services and Jobs Shift 27:30 Plan Cloud and Re Architect 28:58 Wrap Up and Subscribe
Jun 17

AI Bringing Merit Back – feat Leia!

DiDi and Lital welcome their daughter Leia back to the show to recap prom, graduation, and her upcoming move to Reichman University in Israel to study business administration and entrepreneurship, including details about her dorm choice and family help with tuition and a car. The hosts then run through a breakup-songs theme, naming picks such as U2’s “With or Without You,” Sinéad O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U,” the Greg Kihn Band’s “The Break-Up Song,” Scorpions’ “Still Loving You,” Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know,” Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats,” Hall & Oates, Phil Collins’ “Against All Odds,” Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone,” multiple Taylor Swift songs, The Eagles, and Air Supply, and suggest a future part two. They shift to reflections on graduation, praising Leia’s “Excellence Award” and academic progress while contrasting it with her twin brother’s straight As and high SAT score but fewer recognitions and college acceptances, arguing schools and society reward hard work, relationships, and “participation” over outcomes and excellence, connecting this to hiring, sports team structure, AI’s impact on work, and the film “Broadcast News.” Topics 00:50 Leia Returns 01:47 Prom and Graduation Recap 03:09 College Plans Israel 04:09 Dorms and Family Deal 06:47 Breakup Songs Theme 08:19 Classic Breakup Picks 10:20 Gen Z Taylor Era 12:09 80s and 90s Rage 16:23 Power Anthems Finale 18:06 Avril Lavigne Vibes 18:47 Taylor Swift Picks 19:36 Kids and Politics Talk 20:13 Eagles and Singalong 21:40 More Breakup Music Tease 22:44 Leia Graduation Wins 26:22 Ron and Merit Debate 30:14 Outcome Over Effort 32:31 Israel vs US Admissions 34:44 Hockey and A Players 41:15 AI Raises the Bar 43:02 Excellence and Curves 44:49 Movie Recommendation 45:52 Podcast Wrap Up

3

out of 5

8 Ratings

Welcome to the Didi & Lital Show. Your hosts are a married couple in the cybersecurity industry. Listen as they discuss cybersecurity, technology, startups, and life. This is not the typical cybersecurity show - we discuss controversial topics, and invite great guests to join us. Get in touch with Didi & Lital:Didi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dddotanLital on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/litalasher/

Creator

pod617.com
Years Active

2022 - 2026
Episodes

100
Rating

Explicit
Copyright

© 2022 pod617 - The Boston Podcast Network, All rights reserved.
Show Website

The Didi & Lital Show