Episode 401 - Security skills shortage - We've tried nothing and the same thing keeps happening
Release Date: 11/13/2023
2026 State of the Software Supply Chain with Brian Fox
Open Source Security
Josh chats with Brian Fox from Sonatype about their 2026 State of the Software Supply Chain report. Most of the number continue to grow at alarming rates, but there's some new interesting findings in this one. We discuss end of life and open source which is tough to define. We touch on what using AI with open source dependencies looks like (and why it's broken), and we discuss the challenge of upgrading your open source dependencies in a way that doesn't break everything. It's a great report and great discussion. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at
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MCP and Agent security with Luke Hinds
Open Source Security
Josh talks to Luke Hinds, CEO of Always Further, about MCP and agent security. We start out talking about Luke's new tool, nono which is a sandboxing tool that has AI agents in mind as a use case. We explain what MCP and agents are doing as well as why it's so hard to secure them. It's not impossible, but it's not simple either. We end the show by discussing some of the more human aspects to security and how history may be repeating itself with security folks laughing at new users who don't know any better. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at
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The State of OpenSSL for pyca/cryptography with Alex Gaynor and Paul Kehrer
Open Source Security
Josh talks to Paul Kehrer and Alex Gaynor, from the Python Cryptographic Authority. Alex and Paul recently published a statement discuss the challenges posed by modern OpenSSL. We discuss the statement and their relationship with OpenSSL. We chat about some of the current features in cryptography, as well as some of what's coming in the future. It's a fun conversation that hits on a lot of great points. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at
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Rust coreutils with Sylvestre Ledru
Open Source Security
Josh talks to Sylvestre Ledru about the Rust coreutils project. We've been using GNU coreutils for decades now, and the goal of Rust coreutils is to rewrite these utilities in Rust. The primary reason isn't security, it's to modernize the code and attract new contributors. Sylvestre discusses with quite pleasant relationship with the GNU coreutils developers, some of the challenges in the project. What Ubuntu using this by default meant, and also gives us some things to watch for in the future. It's a super fun discussion about why Rust is not only awesome, but also the future. The show notes...
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Goose and the Agentic AI Foundation with Brad Axen
Open Source Security
Josh chats with Brad Axen from Block about his creation Goose as well as the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF). I am quite skeptical of many AI claims, but Brad has a very pragmatic view about where things are today and where we might see them head. Donating Goose to the AAIF is great news as well as seeing MCP and AGENTS.MD in the foundation. We discuss how to deal with the problem of raising up junior developers, challenges of AI PRs, and some thoughts on how to get started if you're interested in AI development. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at
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The Global Vulnerability Intelligence Platform with Olle E. Johansson
Open Source Security
Josh chats with Olle E. Johansson about the Global Vulnerability Intelligence Platform (GVIP). It's no secret the current vulnerability systems are reaching a breaking point. Olle is one of the few people with a long term vision instead of trying to just fix the short term problems. His GVIP ideas are very good, but it's a community effort and needs our help. Give it a listen and if it sounds interesting, come help us out! The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at
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Digital Sovereignty and Nextcloud with Frank Karlitschek
Open Source Security
Josh talk to the founder and CEO of Nextcloud, Frank Karlitschek about digital sovereignty. There's a lot of attention lately around digital sovereignty and often that conversation also includes Nextcloud. Frank tells us all about how Nextcloud works, how it can be used to free your data, and has some great insight into what decentralization already looks like and what it could look like soon. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at
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The Art of Crisis Management with David Bernstein
Open Source Security
Josh talks to David Bernstein about the world of crisis management and business continuity. David is a certified emergency manager and tell us about preparing for both digital and physical disruptions. Everything is IT now, so the way we think about disaster preparedness is changing. We talk about understanding risks, creating plans, and the role of practice in the world of crisis management. This is a super interesting universe and Dave was very patient and kind. I learned a lot and can't wait for Dave to come back. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at...
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WTF is a passkey with William Brown
Open Source Security
William Brown is back! This time Josh chats with him about Passkeys. WTF are they? A Passkey is a form of multi factor authentication, but it's not super obvious what that really means. William does a fantastic job explaining what a Passkey is, how we got to where we are today with Passkeys. He shares a ton of explanations about the whole world of authentication along the way. Some of this stuff is basically magic. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at
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All about Suricata with Victor Julien
Open Source Security
Josh discusses Suricata with Victor Julien, the founder and lead developer of the project. Victor explains the history of the project, its impact on cybersecurity, and the community that keeps it all running. Challenges like encrypted traffic and the evolution of open-source projects. Victor even gives us a glimpse into what he sees as the future of the project. There's a lot to learn about Suricata in this one. The show notes and blog post for this episode can be found at
info_outlineJosh and Kurt talk about security skills shortage. We start out on the topic of cybersecurity skills and weave our way around a number of human related problems in this space. The world of tech has a lot of weird problems and there's not a lot of movement to fix many of them. Tech is weird and hard, and with the almost complete lack of regulation creates some of these challenges. In the world of security we need a better talent pipeline, but that takes actual efforts, not just complaining on the internet.