- Security Now!
Infobox Podcast
title = Security Now!
caption =
host =Leo Laporte
Steve Gibson
url = [http://www.twit.tv/SN http://www.twit.tv/SN]
rss = [http://leoville.tv/podcasts/sn.xml MP3 Feed]
status = Weekly
audio format =MP3
began =August 19 ,2005
ended =
genre =Computer Security
language = English
ratings ="Security Now!" is a weekly
podcast hosted byLeo Laporte and Steve Gibson. It is part of the TWiT.tv network. The first episode was released on19 August 2005 .Released each Thursday, "Security Now!" consists of a discussion between Gibson and Laporte of issues of
computer security and, conversely, insecurity. Covered topics have included security vulnerabilities,firewall s,password security,spyware ,rootkit s,Wi-Fi ,virtual private network s (VPNs), andvirtualization . The intro theme was composed byJamie Diamond of [http://www.mediaright.org The MediaRight Group] and the closing theme was made byMark Blasco at [http://podcastthemes.com podcastthemes.com]Podcast feed
"Security Now!" is distributed via its main podcast RSS feed .
how format
The podcast runs for approximately 1 hour, 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. [cite web| url = http://12078.net/grcnews/article.php?id=7614&group=grc.securitynow#7614| title = Steve Gibson mentioning SpinRite criticism]Additional content
As part of GRC's section on the podcast, supplementary notes and transcripts of each show are available in plain text and PDF formats.
Listener feedback
Beginning from episode 16, every fourth episode (referred to as "mod 4 episodes" or "mod 4 equals 0 episodes") has been devoted to answering questions and responding to feedback provided by "Security Now!" listeners. The GRC web page has a [http://www.grc.com/feedback.htm 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"). [cite web| url = http://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm#102| title = First Mailbag Episode| accessdate = 2007-08-03| author = Steve Gibson with Leo Laporte| quote = Security Now!: 102] The distinction between "mailbag" and listener feedback episodes was removed in episode 108.Popularity
In August 2007, "Security Now!" won in the People's Choice
Podcast Awards Technology/Science category. In August 2006, "Security Now!" ranked fourth in the "Top 40" of all podcasts listened to via the PodNova service. [cite web| url = http://www.podnova.com/index_top40.srf| title = PodNova Top 40| accessdate = 2007-01-12| year = 2006| month = 8| publisher =PodNova | quote = 4. Security Now!] "Security Now!" averaged around 100,000 downloads per episode throughout 2006. [cite web| url = http://www.twit.tv/2006/07/19/june_numbers| title = June Numbers| accessdate = 2007-01-12| author = Leo Laporte| authorlink = Leo Laporte| date = 2006-07-19| work = Leo Laporte's blog| publisher = TWiT.tv| quote = Security Now: 103,034] [cite web| url = http://www.twit.tv/2006/11/20/october_numbers| title = October Numbers| accessdate = 2007-01-12| author = Leo Laporte| authorlink = Leo Laporte| date = 2006-11-21| work = Leo Laporte's blog| publisher = TWiT.tv| quote = Security Now 61: 99,751]Episode list
Episode listWindows Metafile vulnerability claims
In episode 22 of "Security Now!" in January
2006 , Steve Gibson made an accusation [cite web | author=Steve Gibson |coauthors = Leo Laporte | month=January | year=2006 | url=http://www.grc.com/sn/SN-022.htm | title=Security Now!, Transcript of Episode #22 | work=Security Now! podcast | accessmonthday=March 18 | accessyear=2006 ] thatMicrosoft may have intentionally put a backdoor into theWindows Metafile processing code of the Windows 2000 and XPoperating system s.Gibson claimed that while
reverse engineering the Windows Metafile format, he could only runarbitrary code if he used a "nonsensical" value in the metafile. His conclusion was that Microsoft had intentionally designed Windows in this way to allow them to use the feature as a backdoor to running code on Windows computers without the knowledge of the user.Gibson's claim was refuted [cite web | author=Stephen Toulouse | month=January | year=2006 | url=http://blogs.technet.com/msrc/archive/2006/01/13/417431.aspx | title=Looking at the WMF issue, how did it get there? | work=Microsoft Security Response Center Blog | publisher=MSDN TechNet Blogs | accessmonthday=March 18 | accessyear=2006 ] by Stephen Toulouse of
Microsoft in an MSDNblog posting on13 January 2006 , stating that Gibson's observations applied only to metafiles containing one data record, and that the behavior was not intentional. Gibson then apologized for the mistake, but held that the vulnerability still could not have been a coding error.References
External links
* [http://twit.tv/SN "Security Now!" at twit.tv]
* [http://grc.com/SecurityNow "Security Now!" page at grc.com]
* [http://leoville.tv/podcasts/sn.xml "Security Now!" RSS feed at leoville.tv]
* [http://www.podnova.com/index_podnova_station.srf?url=http://leo.am/podcasts/sn "Security Now!" available episodes at PodNova.com]
* [http://willhallmusic.com/category/audible/security-now/ "Security Now!" Book Picks]
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