Raj Samani Talks about Managing Risk and Protecting Data Integrity

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Inner Circle Podcast Episode 038

Raj Samani is my guest for this episode of the Inner Circle podcast. Raj is a McAfee Fellow and Chief Scientist for McAfee, but he stressed when introducing himself that his title does not define him and that he doesn’t put much weight in titles.

I want to start by apologizing–to both Raj and to you, the listeners–for the delay in getting this episode edited and published. You will hear us reference the Black Hat security conference as being 26 days away during our conversation. Black Hat actually took place in Las Vegas last week and I fully intended to have this episode out before the event.

That said, there is nothing inherently dependent on time in our conversation and nothing specifically about Black Hat per se. Most of the podcast discussion revolves around risk management and the fact that the CIA triad–Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability–remains both relevant and crucial no matter how technology evolves.

We have an interesting and insightful conversation of the current state of cybersecurity and cybercrime. Raj spends some time explaining why he dislikes the use of the prefix “cyber” for things. Cybersecurity is really just security. Cyberwar is just war. Cybersex is just sex. His point is simply that we don’t need to give these things a separate name or treat them as if they are entirely new or separate things. They are simply evolutions and extensions of what already exists.

It’s a valid point. Robbing a bank is robbing a bank whether you walk in and demand cash at gunpoint or figure out how to hack into bank servers and surreptitiously redirect money to your own account. The reality is that the “cyber” part of a cybercrime separates it from traditional crime from the perspective that there is little–or even zero–risk for the criminals. If you walk into a bank and rob it at gunpoint, you risk getting caught or killed on the spot, but if you execute a phishing or ransomware attack you can steal or obtain money with relatively low risk of being caught or prosecuted. That is a challenge we need to address as a global society if we want to really make a difference to reduce or eliminate cybercrime.

Listen to the episode for more insights from Raj. Please feel free to ask questions or share your thoughts on the topic in the comments below. We are grateful for all of our listeners and we appreciate your help to share the podcast and grow the Inner Circle audience. Subscribe to the Inner Circle podcast through your favorite podcast platform, and share the podcast with your peers and friends. We would also be grateful if you could take 2 minutes to rate and review the podcast on iTunes, or wherever you listen.