Reviews of security podcasts

I've been listening to lots of Computer Security presentations on my iPod (MP3 files), and I've found them a great way to spend some of the 5 hours a week commuting time I have. I thought I'd share my opinion of the ones I've found, and maybe some of you can let us know your opinions of any security podcasts you know of. Most of these I found using iTunes as the podcast aggregator, but I've included their direct links and their own self description. I only included the ones you can subscribe to, not single podcasts. Generally no one's background, experience or job is described in the podcast. None of these are particularly about web application security except MightySeek, but they can be interesting. There are others explicitly about network or VOIP security that I have not included. I've included the iPod display and iTunes description in order to judge how easy it is to select the one you want on your iPod and to manage them in your library, like remembering which ones you've listened to and deleting them.

Security Wire Weekly

SearchSecurity.com's Security Wire Weekly audio download is a brief newscast recapping the week's top security news stories, as well as interesting developments that you may not have known about. http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/ZhKn; JimW comment - just like it says, someone reading some news.; iPod display - 'Security Wire Weekly' and the date. Nothing on items covered; iTunes description - eventually lists the topics after telling you it's the Security Wire Weekly edition of some sort, the reporter, and their title.; sound quality - good;

Security Now!

TechTV's Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson take 20 to 30 minutes near the end of each week to discuss important issues of personal computer security. Sometimes we'll discuss something that just happened. Sometimes we'll talk about long-standing problems, concerns, or solutions. Either way, every week we endeavor to produce something interesting and important for every personal computer user. http://www.grc.com/SecurityNow.htm; JimW's Comments -This is the best of all. There is a single topic which is well explained; every 4th podcast is listener Q+A. ; iPod display - The podcast name which appears in the iPod window contains the topic and episode #; sound quality - very good; format - Host/tech speaker - Steve Gibson does most of the talking with Leo asking useful questions and providing summations.

PaulDotCom Security Weekly

http://www.pauldotcom.com/security_weekly/ IT Security news, research, vulnerability discussions, and interviews.; JimW comments - after 2 to 7 minutes discussing the hosts various personal events of the previous week, the topics mentioned above are discussed, with frequent non-topic asides. If you are familiar with the exploits, news, research etc. already, you will understand the discussion and comments, but frequently the situation, technology or procedures are not explained. ; iPod display - 'PaulDotCom Security Weekly', episode, date.; iTunes description - exactly the topics covered, up to episode 17. Descriptions for episodes 18 and on are just advertising, except for when there is an interview.; sound quality - good for the 2 main speakers, poor for anyone else.; format - host/cohost (both very technical), various others (also very technical).;

SploitCast

Welcome to SploitCast, the podcast for hackers, geeks, and the security paranoid. JimW coments - early podcasts were technical dudes discussing various computer security events, with frequent non topic asides. More recent ones have more technical content and interviews.; iPod display - sploitcast and episode #; iTunes description - full topic description; sound quality - good; http://www.sploitcast.com/;

SecurityCatalyst

The independent information security podcast and blog with leading edge insights in an easy to understand format; JimW comment - very diverse - technical; home user; enterprise level; homeland security. A few topics are discussed and well covered.; iPod display - main topic or topics, sometimes preceded by 'Security Cataltyst' and episode #.; iTunes description - very chatty long description about that show followed by topic list - never got to the end of the topic list. ; sound quality - good; Format - usually single speaker or interview; http://www.securitycatalyst.com/;

crypto-gram Security Podcast

reading of Bruce Schneier's crypto-gram newsletter; JimW comment - reading of Bruce Schneier's crypto-gram newsletter. The newsletter is Bruce's comments on events of all kinds (political, technical, scientific, computational), usually discussing some security aspect of that event. Useful to hear security aspects (anonymity, authentication, authorization, privacy, accountability, prevention, deterrence etc.) applied to real world events.; format - reading of Bruce Schneier's crypto-gram newsletter; iPod display -; iTunes description - each description has the same first 100 characters, I never got out to the whole description for any episode.; sound quality - good; http://crypto-gram.libsyn.com/;

mightyseek

http://www.mightyseek.com/; Mighty Seek is primarily a podcast about Web Application Security and Development. The show is put together by Dan Kuykendall and whoever else he can get to contribute. ; JimW comment - you get to listen to 60 seconds of the 1960's Mighty Mouse cartoon show song at the start of each podcast; then a rambling presentation of content not too well organized, basic application security topics.; format - single speaker; sound quality - good; iPod display - good topic description; iTunes description - even better topic description but so long and chatty you can't see all of it unless you right click and choose description.;

AdventuresInSecurity

http://www.adventuresinsecurity.com/podcasts.html; Weekly News and Security Management Tip; JimW comment - more large company issue oriented, very basic discussion of information security topics, standard recommendations.; sound quality - too good; in the early shows the 's's are piercing and there's been some periodic electronic chirping in the background. Later show sound quality very good.; iPod display - episode # and topic.; iTunes description- good description of topics.; 14 to 50 minutes, can start with lots or little news before getting to the 'topic', sometimes interesting discussion of the news. Topic discussion can last 5 to 20 minutes.;

CIO Strategy Center - Symantec

a daily editorial resource offering innovative insights and security strategies for building an integrated, secure and resilient IT infrastructure.; JimW comment - 6 to 12 minute interviews and single speaker discussions about CIO level issues, - general platitudes ; sound quality - good; iPod display - 'Podcast:' topic; iTunes description - ;

CSO

http://www.csoonline.com/podcasts/index.html; JimW comment - ; sound quality - ; iPod display - ; iTunes description - ;

Security Podcasts - CIO

http://www.cio.com/podcasts/index.html; sometimes same as CSO; JimW comment - ; sound quality - ; iPod display - ; iTunes description - ;

LiveAmmo Computer Security News

http://liveammo.blogspot.com/ and http://www.liveammo.com/LiveAmmo_Podcast_Archives.php JimW comment - network forensics; sound quality - good; iPod display - 'Podcast:' topic; iTunes description - very detailed;

Speaking of Security - the RSA Security Blog and Podcast.

http://www.rsasecurity.com/blog/index.asp 5 to 10 minutes of RSA product and company news and occasional 3 to 4 minute interesting discusstion of information security topic by RSA staff.; JimW comment - mostly product stuff; sound quality - good; iPod display - Speaking of Secuity podcast #; iTunes description - good description of podcast topics;

ITC:Security - IT Conversations on Security

http://www.itconversations.com/rss.html JimW comment - interesting speakers; sound quality - good; iPod display -; iTunes description -;

Cyberspeak

Hosted by two former federal agents who investigated computer crime, this is a technology Podcast covering Computer Security, Computer Crime and Computer Forensics Topics.; http://feeds.feedburner.com/Cyberspeak; JimW comment - discussions and interviews on the stated topics; sound quality - very good; iPod display -; iTunes description - good;

Defcon Conferences - Available from iTunes

Updates only come once a year, but they are great for filling up your MP3 player with hours of good information.

http://www.defcon.org/podcast/defcon-15-audio.rss http://www.defcon.org/podcast/defcon-15-video.rss

Blackhat Briefings - Available from iTunes

Updates only come once a year, but they are great for filling up your MP3 player with hours of good information. I've found the blackhat presentations to be more organized and consistent than the defcon podcasts.

https://www.blackhat.com/html/bh-media-archives/bh-multimedia-archives-index.html