Latest / Brian Thomas / Tech Friday w/ Dave Hatter - Sponsored by Intrust IT - 8/14/2026

Transcript

Tech Friday w/ Dave Hatter - Sponsored by Intrust IT - 8/14/2026 · Brian Thomas

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Fifty five krs the talk.
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  Speaker 2: Station five KRC City talk Station plagued with technical difficulties
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  Speaker 2: and for me cognitive difficulties. This morning Tech Friday, Dave
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  Speaker 2: had or can you hear me?
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  Speaker 1: Now? I got you, Brian, sorry about that. I'm not
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  Speaker 1: sure what happened then neither are we.
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  Speaker 2: But we need intrust it dot com to come over
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  Speaker 2: here and fix our phone system. So there you have it. Anyhow,
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  Speaker 2: I mentioned out loud that interust It probably does cybersecurity
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  Speaker 2: contingency plans for its clients.
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  Speaker 1: Can you confirm that yes?
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  Speaker 2: Which is what they say? There you go, Which is
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  Speaker 2: what happened in North Carolina ports which I got cyber attack.
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  Speaker 2: The port authority said they had to activate at cybersecurity
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  Speaker 2: contingency plan. What is going on here? Because last week
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  Speaker 2: you were talking about our water systems, twelve of them
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  Speaker 2: in different states being hacked, maybe by the Iranians. This
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  Speaker 2: a comparable kind of thing here in North Carolina.
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  Speaker 1: It is Brian, and you know you and I have
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  Speaker 1: talked about this type of thing often on many times.
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  Speaker 1: I want to remind your listeners. First off, as an
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  Speaker 1: organization called infraguard, it's public private partnership with the FBA.
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  Speaker 1: We have a very active chapter in Cincinnati. One of
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  Speaker 1: my colleagues' interrust is the president of that chapter, So
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  Speaker 1: we meet regularly writ to share information with the FBI
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  Speaker 1: and both directions about what's happening out there to better
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  Speaker 1: protect our critical infrastructure. The FBI has defined sixteen critical
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  Speaker 1: infrastructure sectors. There's another organization, the Foundation for Infrastructure Resilience,
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  Speaker 1: which is the spinoff of Infraguard and focused exclusively, exclusively
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  Speaker 1: on infrastructure. And within the past two weeks, all the
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  Speaker 1: things I have been warning about for a long time
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  Speaker 1: are starting to come to fruition. You know, we've been
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  Speaker 1: talking about critical infrastructure attacks on the power grid, the
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  Speaker 1: telecom grid, water, chemicals, logistics. You know, Brian, all this
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  Speaker 1: stuff is interconnected now, right. Everything is digital. This system
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  Speaker 1: talks to that system, and if the water goes down,
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  Speaker 1: that's bad. If electricity goes down, it's going to take
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  Speaker 1: the water and plus everything else with it. And so
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  Speaker 1: much of this stuff that we rely on today is
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  Speaker 1: full of software. It's connected to the internet, it relies
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  Speaker 1: on software, it relies on these connections. We talked about
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  Speaker 1: the Striker attack. Striker makes medical equipment now that's not
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  Speaker 1: infrastructure per se, but it's related because the medical equipment
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  Speaker 1: they make ends up in things like ambulances. So we've
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  Speaker 1: seen all these attacks. You mentioned the water. Now twelve
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  Speaker 1: different states at least have reported some type of attack
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  Speaker 1: on water plants. We've got this attack on the ports
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  Speaker 1: where these big cranes can't get stuff off ships. There's
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  Speaker 1: yet another city, another city in California this past week
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  Speaker 1: that reported an attack on their nine to one to
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  Speaker 1: one system that knocked it offline. We've seen the attack
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  Speaker 1: on Cattering Health. Again, all these things are interconnected. And
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  Speaker 1: the point I'm trying to make Brian is we have
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  Speaker 1: got to get serious about protecting this critical infrastructure, defending it.
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  Speaker 1: But to your point, having contingency plans, having a business
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  Speaker 1: continuity plan so that when these critical systems go down,
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  Speaker 1: some of which are not just impact to society but
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  Speaker 1: actually we'll create a crisis when they don't work. We've
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  Speaker 1: got to have backup plans. We have to have business
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  Speaker 1: continentity plans. How are we going to operate if and
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  Speaker 1: when the system goes down for whatever reason, Because it
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  Speaker 1: doesn't have to be a cyber attack, it could be
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  Speaker 1: solar flare it could be EMP attack, it could be
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  Speaker 1: faulty software, and sadly, in my opinion, we are not
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  Speaker 1: taking these things seriously still, despite the fact that this
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  Speaker 1: keeps showing up in the news over and over. Now
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  Speaker 1: attacks go ahead, not it used to.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, here here's Brian Thomas' perception of things, maybe
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  Speaker 2: to be corrected by Dave Hatter, who knows more about
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  Speaker 2: this than I ever hope to. But the idea that
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  Speaker 2: it would require a person with a certain level of
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  Speaker 2: sophistication to engage in this kind of hacking where they
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  Speaker 2: could find an Internet of Things device and breach it
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  Speaker 2: because of some flaw in the software that was designed.
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  Speaker 2: It didn't adequately deal with security, and they can therefore
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  Speaker 2: worm their way in. So you got to understand it
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  Speaker 2: in order to be able to engage in that. But
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  Speaker 2: as I understand artificial intelligence, if you can ask AI
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  Speaker 2: to well, tell me how to make an aerosolized weapon,
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  Speaker 2: or you can ask it to generate code for you
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  Speaker 2: and it can do it. You can ask it to
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  Speaker 2: perform a task and it will engage in hacking to
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  Speaker 2: accomplish that. It figured out how to hack on its own.
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  Speaker 2: So I have this vision of some twelve year old
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  Speaker 2: kid with access to artificial intelligence programs may be found
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  Speaker 2: in the dark web with no guardrails on it, asking
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  Speaker 2: it to crack into and explain how to break into
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  Speaker 2: any given Internet of Things device. It can be done
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  Speaker 2: that way, can it?
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  Speaker 1: Dave? Sadly, you are correct. So many of these devices right,
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  Speaker 1: these Internet of Things devices, skata ICs systems, you know, sensors,
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  Speaker 1: the things that are running these plants. Okay, they were
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  Speaker 1: not designed with security in mind. They weren't designed to
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  Speaker 1: be connected to the Internet. A lot of this happened
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  Speaker 1: during the COVID pandemic so that people could work remotely.
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  Speaker 1: And yeah, there are tools like Showdan. It's a search
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  Speaker 1: engine designed to find these things. So exactly to your point, Brian,
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  Speaker 1: So if I can determine that your plant, whatever it is,
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  Speaker 1: chemical plant making chlorine gas, for example, has these sensors
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  Speaker 1: exposed to the Internet, and exposed to the internet. Makes
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  Speaker 1: it easy. Doesn't mean it can't happen even if you
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  Speaker 1: haven't done that. And I don't want to get too
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  Speaker 1: nerdy on you, but if I can find these devices
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  Speaker 1: through a tool like Showdan and I can figure out
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  Speaker 1: what the device is, then yeah, I can go in
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  Speaker 1: and ask some AI tool, Okay, this is the model, make,
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  Speaker 1: and model number of this device. What vulnerabilities does it have?
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  Speaker 1: How can I attack this thing? Now? Theoretically these tools
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  Speaker 1: have guardrails in place to prevent that sort of thing,
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  Speaker 1: but we hear about it being broken all the time,
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  Speaker 1: and in some cases some of the reporting on the
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  Speaker 1: water plants, as I understand it, one hundred different water
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  Speaker 1: plants ish in twelve different states. In some cases they
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  Speaker 1: literally just changed the password and lock people out of
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  Speaker 1: the system. Right One plant was shut down for at
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  Speaker 1: least a short period of time. One had to revert
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  Speaker 1: to manual operations. And that can's back to that idea
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  Speaker 1: of contingency or business continuity. You know, I always hate
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  Speaker 1: to be the doomsday guy, Brian, but we are in
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  Speaker 1: a place where a lot of this stuff is not
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  Speaker 1: secured correctly. It's old, it's difficult to secure, and you know,
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  Speaker 1: we have got to get focused on what are we
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  Speaker 1: going to do to protect it? And then what are
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  Speaker 1: we going to do when it fails for whatever reason?
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  Speaker 1: Do we have a plan to go back to manual operations?
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  Speaker 1: What this past couple of weeks really has brought this
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  Speaker 1: into a fine focus for me and many others. Again,
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  Speaker 1: I've been talking about this for years, you have, but
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  Speaker 1: we're now starting to see more and more attacks. And
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  Speaker 1: you know, when we have nation state adversaries like Russia, China,
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  Speaker 1: Ran North Korea whose goal is not money, it's not
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  Speaker 1: to extort money from these plants necessarily, it's to shut
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  Speaker 1: them down. It's to cause chaos, it's to inflict damage.
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  Speaker 2: In the United States, terrorist attack.
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  Speaker 1: It is, it really is. And now, unfortunately, because we
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  Speaker 1: have such an interconnected digital society and because most of
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  Speaker 1: this stuff was not designed with security in mind, you know,
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  Speaker 1: it's creating a significant problem for us and frankly a
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  Speaker 1: huge advantage for our enemies because they can cause chaos
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  Speaker 1: without ever firing a shot. You know, they can potentially
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  Speaker 1: cause the collapse of the electrical grid or the telecom grid,
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  Speaker 1: you know, all interconnective. The telecom grid goes down, many
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  Speaker 1: of these systems will stop working anyway. So, yeah, the
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  Speaker 1: good news is people like the Foundation for Infrastructure Resilience Infraguard, FBI, DHS,
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  Speaker 1: SIZA talking about it, working on it, trying to convince
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  Speaker 1: the operators of these systems to get serious about this.
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  Speaker 1: It's a big challenge. We need more people involved, we
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  Speaker 1: need more people talking about it. And I can't stress enough.
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  Speaker 1: We have got to get on this now.
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  Speaker 2: Amen, don't go away. We get a little bit insight
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  Speaker 2: about smart watch for kids. Maybe it's a bad idea.
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  Speaker 2: Plus Deep talk Station sixty nine. I think about krc
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  Speaker 2: DE talk station and that Friday, it's Tech Fridding with
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  Speaker 2: Dave Hatter. Intrust it dot Com a sponsor the segment
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  Speaker 2: and they will solve your business computer problems here in
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: the greater Cincinnati area. Dave Hatter It can be found
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: on LinkedIn dot com. Just search for Dave Hatter. He'll
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: have all the articles he relies upon for this segment
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: throughout the week with other issues he likes to bring
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  Speaker 2: to people's attention. Dave had Ter pivoting over. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: my kids are grown, they're adults for thirty and thirty two,
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  Speaker 2: and I don't have to worry about whether they wear
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  Speaker 2: a smart watch or not. Neither of them do. But
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  Speaker 2: smart watch for kids probably a bad idea. Look, you
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  Speaker 2: can get stalked through them.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, people, really, I encourage every one of your listeners
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  Speaker 1: of it. I'll post this link. You need to read
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  Speaker 1: this story because it goes well beyond the kids' smart watch.
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  Speaker 1: It's any of our so called smart devices right, Internet
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  Speaker 1: of Things aka smart devices. So let me just hit
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  Speaker 1: the high points. This is from Wired magazine. Hackers stalk
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  Speaker 1: me by hijacking a smart watch for kids. Again, this
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  Speaker 1: is just one illustration. It's not saying if you don't
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  Speaker 1: have a kid smart watch, this can't happen to you. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: let's see, this guy's working with some hacker Strikas. The
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  Speaker 1: hacker had been minding the reporter's location via the watch
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  Speaker 1: since the moment he left his apartment to watch. His
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  Speaker 1: GPS feature intended to let parents track their children with malfunctioning,
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  Speaker 1: but the wearable device was still picking up and transmitting
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  Speaker 1: the faraway server identifiers from the airvery nearby Wi Fi network. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: let me keep going. When the reporter arrived at Wires
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  Speaker 1: and Manhattan headquarters an hour later, Stikes had hijacked a
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  Speaker 1: feature in the watch which allowed him to silently take
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  Speaker 1: a photo from its camera, capturing the moment when a
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  Speaker 1: reporter stepped on an elevator. After a few minutes, he
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  Speaker 1: took another snap of the reporter at his desk. I'm
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  Speaker 1: gonna skip ahead a bit here used a different feature
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  Speaker 1: to pick up audio from the watch his microphone, transmitting
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  Speaker 1: it to another researcher. Another guy listened as the reporter's coworker,
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  Speaker 1: described his weekend to visit an art exhibit. At no
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  Speaker 1: point did the watch show any sign that it was listening,
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  Speaker 1: taking photos, or otherwise being hacked. Let me jump ahead here.
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  Speaker 1: The watch sold by an obscure company called CJC, costs
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  Speaker 1: less than thirty dollars and made by an equally obscure manufacturer.
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  Speaker 1: Wait for it, Brian's assuming I'm pronouncing it correctly. Why
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  Speaker 1: Qing King Electronics and Shins in China. More troubling, Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: More troubling, perhaps is the online platform it's built on,
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  Speaker 1: and the one that allowed Stichis and the Solifarini to
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  Speaker 1: so throw her hacket so thoroughly hacke. It is used
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  Speaker 1: by dozens of other brands of smartwatch. When I try
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  Speaker 1: to explain to people that these so called smart devices
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  Speaker 1: are garbage, this is exactly the sort of thing I'm
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  Speaker 1: trying to explain. If it has a microphone and a
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  Speaker 1: camera in it, it can be hacked. It can be
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  Speaker 1: turned on without your knowledge. There are well documented cases
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  Speaker 1: from years ago of the FBI doing this with people's
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  Speaker 1: computers and then going to jail. You know, you can
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  Speaker 1: be tracked, you can be listened to, you can be surveilled,
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  Speaker 1: you can be watched it. Imagine yourself, Brian, you're an attorney,
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  Speaker 1: Imagine yourself in a litigation with a client you know
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  Speaker 1: that's potentially going to jail, just some big business deal,
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  Speaker 1: and and someone is hacking these devices to listen to you,
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  Speaker 1: so you know what you're going to say in court.
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  Speaker 2: Outside of that, it's another great illustration intellectual property fab.
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  Speaker 2: You're sitting around in an office with you, your your confidence,
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  Speaker 2: your your fellow researchers talking about some brand new thing
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  Speaker 2: you guys have invented or created, and someone's listening in.
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  Speaker 2: Huh how about that? It's man, it's this scary stuff.
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  Speaker 1: Or or military secrets I'm stolen. You know, we're spending
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  Speaker 1: all kinds of money trying to protect this stuff, and
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  Speaker 1: people are you know, whether it's their smart watch, their smartphone,
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  Speaker 1: they're smart coffeemaker, fill in the blank. These things are
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  Speaker 1: increasingly being used for these sorts of nefarious purposes. I
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  Speaker 1: know this sounds crazy to people, but think about it
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  Speaker 1: for a second, you know, in the old days, and
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  Speaker 1: there's an I've been a posted in my note there's
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  Speaker 1: a guy wrote an article about this the other day
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  Speaker 1: that ended up on LinkedIn. It's just a LinkedIn story,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: but he's he's basically a guy who in the old
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  Speaker 1: days you would hire to come in and sleeping room
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  Speaker 1: for bugs. And the point he's made and is the
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  Speaker 1: entire thing has changed now. Now I don't have to
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  Speaker 1: figure out how to break into your facility at night
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  Speaker 1: and plan a bug that you can't see. You are
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  Speaker 1: walking around with all the bugs on you, you're bringing
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  Speaker 1: them into the room. I just have to figure out
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  Speaker 1: how to hack that bug. So, you know, the old
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  Speaker 1: days of the like you'd watch Columbo and we're gonna
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  Speaker 1: sweep this room for bugs and that sort of thing.
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  Speaker 1: That's all gone right. Yeah, the smart clock, you have,
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  Speaker 1: the coffee maker, the thermost that might be the bug. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And I don't know how we convince people, I'm not saying.
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  Speaker 2: And they use your Wi Fi system to figure out
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  Speaker 2: who is in the house, where they are located and everything,
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  Speaker 2: and they can do that without even you know, with
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  Speaker 2: looking it's like essentially looking through walls, making them invisible
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  Speaker 2: by using the Wi Fi system.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, every one of your listeners needs to read this
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  Speaker 1: Wired article. I think they'll be shocked if you really
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  Speaker 1: read it and think about it. And I mean, we
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  Speaker 1: need to rethink. And it goes back to the last
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  Speaker 1: article about critical infrastructure. Right, could I get the secrets
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  Speaker 1: I need to attack your critical structure because you're wearing
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  Speaker 1: a smart watch that I've hacked, and I'm listening to
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  Speaker 1: you talk about it. Maybe you know again I'm not. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: we don't need smartphones and so forth. I'm saying we
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  Speaker 1: have to rethink how these devices are used, the security
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  Speaker 1: feature of these factors and features of these devices, and
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  Speaker 1: we need to stop buying stuff that is coming from China.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I was thinking of the old movie
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  Speaker 2: The Invisible Man. And when you contemplate that you can
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: go into a room no one knows you're there, you
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  Speaker 2: can see everything you're hidden. This is exactly like being
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  Speaker 2: an invisible man.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, that's an excellent analogy, except you can do it
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  Speaker 1: remotely from China or Russia or Iran or wherever you are.
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  Speaker 1: With millions of these devices.
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  Speaker 2: Contemplate that really.
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  Speaker 1: Scary, And I don't know how to convince people to
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  Speaker 1: stop buying this stuff, because most people, when I have
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  Speaker 1: these conversations, person just look at me like, well, that's crazy,
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  Speaker 1: that could never happen. Well here you.
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  Speaker 2: Go, Well you know the parallel and that I can draw.
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  Speaker 2: It's like a toddler with the hands over the ears
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  Speaker 2: and eyes closed, going la la la, la, la, la,
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  Speaker 2: la la la. They just don't want to hear that
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  Speaker 2: they like the convenience or for whatever that device does
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: for them so much so that they're going to ignore
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  Speaker 2: the painful reality that this goes on often and may
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: very well be going on with their own smart device. David,
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  Speaker 2: It's great advice, man, great advice.