Episode 400 Special

The first episode of Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Podcast aired on March 8, 2017 – almost 8 years ago now. Over that time, I’ve interviewed over 135 unique and amazing people, covered countless cybersecurity and privacy stories, and offered 100’s of tips for protecting your devices and data. To celebrate this momentous occasion, world-renowned cryptography guru Bruce Schneier has returned to for our traditional Podcentennial interview! We discuss several timely topics including the Crowdstrike incident, the pager bombing and supply attacks more generally, US election security, the open market for cyber vulnerabilities, US intelligence agencies’ focus on offense versus defense, how AI might actually benefit democracy and much more!

Interview Notes

• Bruce Schneier’s blog:https://www.schneier.com/ 
• Inrupt’s Solid concept: https://www.inrupt.com/solid 
• Data and Goliath (book): https://www.schneier.com/books/data-and-goliath/ 
• Bruce’s NY Time article on pager bombs: https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2024/09/israels-pager-attacks-have-changed-the-world.html 
• Joseph Cox “Anom” interview: https://podcast.firewallsdontstopdragons.com/2024/06/10/anom-the-fbis-phone-company/ 
• WaPo detailed analysis of pager bomb attack: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/10/05/israel-mossad-hezbollah-pagers-nasrallah/ 
• Restoring Trust in Elections: https://podcast.firewallsdontstopdragons.com/2023/12/11/restoring-trust-in-elections/ 
• Hacking election systems w/ Harri Hursti: https://podcast.firewallsdontstopdragons.com/2021/11/08/restoring-trust-in-our-elections/ 
• Hacker Halted conference info: https://hackerhalted.com/agenda/#day-two-october-31st 

Further Info

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Table of Contents

Use these timestamps to jump to a particular section of the show.

• 0:03:53: Interview setup
• 0:06:21: What should we have learned from the Crowdstrike incident?
• 0:11:21: Why is it more profitable for products to be brittle?
• 0:13:59: Do regulations stifle innovation?