The world of cybersecurity is an interesting world filled with many brilliant minds. Every day we are working on building more security systems only to find exploits that can be patched up later. On top of that, you have the ongoing conflict between professionals, individuals, and businesses against hackers.
Between all of this, there have been many professionals and experts emerging to talk about these events. They do this through their own podcasts and they cover all kinds of things. For those interested in cybersecurity podcasts, there is a lengthy list of podcasts that you can jump into and learn.
But for this article, I want to focus on some specific podcasts that’ll be helpful for veterans and beginners alike. The amount of information available through these podcasts is fantastic and helpful as we continue to move forward technology-wise.
Synthetic Snake Oil
The first podcast I want to cover is my own – since I have a bias towards talking about it. The podcast itself is relatively new but covers various tips and tricks to enhance your security. Each episode is designed to be short with episodes ranging between a minute or two to upwards of five minutes.
I went with this format to make this podcast easily digestible for people who are new to podcasts and cybersecurity specifically. You can listen to a few of these episodes and implement the tips immediately.
Some of my other episodes also cover other topics outside of tips and tricks. I created a mini series in the podcast where I talked about the development of computer viruses from how they started to how they became crucial for ransomware attacks and other malware. Here is the full playlist.
7 Minute Security
Despite what the title suggests, the duration of each episode isn’t always seven minutes long. Episodes vary in length of upwards of an hour. Regardless there is a lot of information in these podcasts.
Hosted by Brian Johnson, the podcast has a rough weekly schedule but puts a spotlight on utilitarian issues in the industry. Topics range between how you can start a career in information security to rundowns of high-profile penetration tests.
This information would be ideal for those who are more interested in this field, but even if you don’t plan on making this career or get too deep, I’d keep an eye out for those penetration tests. This could shed more security tips that everyday people can use.
Brakeing Down Security
Developed by Bryan Brake, Amanda Berlin and Brian Boettcher, this weekly podcast is all about reviewing relevant topics that are generally under security, privacy, and regulatory issues. They also bring in guests to cover informative topics like email security tips, and developer operation tools.
This is less technical podcast and there is bound to be plenty of episodes for people to listen to. That much is clear considering their followers is around the 5,000 mark. They also have a website available if you can’t download podcasts.
Breach
Hosted by Bob Sullivan and Alia Tavakolian, this podcast, as the name suggests, covers breaches. This podcast focuses not on every breach – since there are so many over the course of the week – but rather the ones that make headlines due to the amount of data taken.
Each podcast episode looks beyond the breach and looks at the causes and the ramifications of every attack. To give you a taste, Season 1 highlighted several individual attacks including the one that hit Yahoo! several years ago as well as multiple “Russia hacks.” Going to Season 2, they have an episode that covers the 2017 Equifax Data Breach.
This podcast has a small following, but this podcast reveals a lot of information that you wouldn’t find in news articles. It’s worth checking out.
The Charles Tendell Show
Hosted by Charles Tendell as you might’ve guessed, this is a podcast that covers breaking news pertaining to cybersecurity. There used to be a weekly schedule, however the podcast has stopped publishing episodes it seems. The last post was in January 2020. However the episode before that was published in August 2018.
Despite the podcast being very inactive, I think there is still a lot of insight that could be gained from listening to these episodes. When it comes to cybersecurity, it’s an industry that changes in an unusual way. Technology adapts and grows, but often people don’t. Or hackers find new ways to crack the codes.
Nevertheless, there is a lot of interesting episodes that can still be relevant for many people.
Crypto-Gram Security
While the previous podcasts mentioned are on weekly schedules (usually), Crypto-Gram is a monthly podcast that covers a months-worth of newsworthy stories that are impacting cybersecurity.
The script is written out like a newsletter. Bruce Schneier is the writer and the reader is Dan Henage. Each episode can range from seven to 45 minutes. Normally, each episode covers three to five topics with varying levels of discussion between each one.
This podcast is ideal for people who want a bird’s eye view of the industry. Both people involved in this podcast cram a lot of detail into these episodes and it’s enough to keep people interested about what’s going on in the world.
CYBER By Motherboard
One of the largest podcast following around in cybersecurity, this is another great pick to consider. This podcast runs weekly episodes that range between 15 and 45 minutes. In each episode, the host Ben Makuch picks the minds of various guests in an interview style format.
The goal of this podcast is shine a light on relevant news and trends happening in the industry and by bringing in experts who can shed insights on these topics. In terms of the topics they cover utilitarian and entertaining topics. Pair that up with the show being backed by Vice, you can expect high-quality content and guest cameos.
That makes sense since one of his episodes brought in Edward Snowden.
Podcasts To Consider
With more people turning to podcasts these days, I would recommend slipping one of these podcasts into your media diet. Of course this list is only the tip of the iceberg as there are many other podcasts to consider and have their own formats.
Nevertheless, I think any podcast you consider will have some valuable information for you to consider.