The Technology Whisperers - A Technology and Innovation Podcast
Alistair Ross and Sean Muller, who combined bring you 48+ years of technology experience, bring you a podcast to help demystify technologies and provide guidance about where technology is going and how you and your business can use those technologies to get better outcomes. So if you are struggling to understand the technology landscape and where you should be investing to get the best benefits for yourself and your business, come along and listen. Also if you just like cool tech that is what we talk about.
Episodes
Tuesday Sep 12, 2023
15 - Technology Whisperers Women in CyberSecurity ”The Spicy Brain” episode
Tuesday Sep 12, 2023
Tuesday Sep 12, 2023
The Spicy Brain Episode
This episode we welcome 3 wonderful women leading in Cybersecurity and governance. We hear about their journey and what worked and what didn't. Along the way we get to talk about some great different perspectives and how a Spicy Brain can make the work better.
If anything resonates with you don't hesitate to reach out to them.
Women in CyberSecurity Panel
Hilary Waltonhilarywalton@microsoft.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/hilswalton/
Kat Lennox-Steele
kat.lennoxsteele@defend.co.nz
https://www.linkedin.com/in/klennox-steele/
Sasha Mullins
sasha.mullins@cybercx.co.nz
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sasha-mullins-335325a3/
Contact Details
Alistair Ross
alistair@revolutioninfosec.com
Web: https://revolutioninfosec.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alistairjross https://www.linkedin.com/company/revolutioninfosec
Sean G Muller
seangmuller@technologyleader.co.nz
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sgmuller/
Tuesday Aug 29, 2023
14 - Technology Whisperers CyberSecurity episode
Tuesday Aug 29, 2023
Tuesday Aug 29, 2023
Contact Details
Alistair Ross
alistair@revolutioninfosec.com
Web: https://revolutioninfosec.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alistairjross https://www.linkedin.com/company/revolutioninfosec
Sean G Muller
seangmuller@technologyleader.co.nz
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sgmuller/
In This Episode we demystify:
Security and the recent security events
Risk and how risk is measured
What exactly is a CISO and a vCISO
Why Cloud Knowledge needs to be part of a Pen Testers skillset
And our upcoming panel discussion with 3 great women in Security
External Links:
What is a CISO and what do they do:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/revolutioninfosec_ciso-vciso-activity-7090130958212878336-zqpG?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android
Revolution InfoSec Website Link:
revolutioninfosec.com
The CISO that BORED the BOARD Room Video by Alistair:
https://lnkd.in/g2AqtZyc
Criminals go full Viking on CloudNordic, wipe all servers and customer data
https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/23/ransomware_wipes_cloudnordic/
CyCognito State of External Exposure Management Report
https://www.cycognito.com/resources/analyst-report/cycognito-state-of-external-exposure-management-report
Referring Episodes
Zero Trust Networking
https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-wydew-124d0b4
Women in Technology episode with Amanda Watsonhttps://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-tg9k5-11c1065
Monday Aug 14, 2023
13 - Technology Whisperers Season 2 Launch episode
Monday Aug 14, 2023
Monday Aug 14, 2023
Contact Details
Alistair Ross
alistair@revolutioninfosec.com
Web: https://revolutioninfosec.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alistairjross https://www.linkedin.com/company/revolutioninfosec
Sean G Muller
seangmuller@technologyleader.co.nz
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sgmuller/
Show Notes:
1) OpenAI are being sued.
Since the inception of ChatGPT back in November 2021, controversy has never been far away, and smaller legal battles have always been looming, however, at the end of June, A firm in California filed a class-action lawsuit for "stealing" personal data in order to train ChatGPT.
What is interesting about this case is that depending upon how well prepared the complainants are, OpenAI may be required to fess up to how they trained their model. The only public information about OpenAI's ChatGPT that we really know is that OpenAI scraped 300 billion words from the Internet. We don't know how they scraped them and where they scraped it from. The complainant states that OpenAI trained its model partially with personal information, some of it from social media accounts, including Twitter and Reddit. The complainant goes on to state that OpenAI did so in secret, without registering as a data broker as was required to do under applicable laws.
The most interesting aspect for me is by how much OpenAI are profiting from these sources, or whether they in fact are profiting, OpenAI have oft stated that they do not (yet) turn a profit. Certainly, on paper, OpenAI are worth many billions in unrealised value, and recently Microsoft made a $10B USD stake in them, so that might have turned them into a profit making machine. The fifteen counts in the complaint include privacy violations, negligence in failing to protect personal information, as well as larceny by obtaining large amounts of personal data to train its models by illegal means. The lawsuit has stretched as far as to seek injunctive relief in the form of a temporary freeze on commercial use of OpenAI's products. If granted, this could have vast reaching effects on organisations that currently use OpenAI's model on their own applications or services.
Where do you sit on this Sean? It could be argued that the information that is publicly accessible on the Internet is free for anyone to see, including OpenAI, regardless of whether that is ethically responsible, it certainly is 'freely available'. On the other hand, it could be argued that people have a right to be guardians of their own content. If it is to be used in a wholesale manner by another corporation (potentially for profit), then they must seek permission from the original content author. Doing otherwise could be seen as a violation of privacy.
2) Elon Musk launches new AI company called xAI.
A team around of 12 engineers. His mission he states to 'Understand the true nature of the Universe'. On the website, it states that more information is coming in the following weeks and months, so I won't expect to see anything like an OpenAI or Bard competitor for the foreseeable future. However, they certainly have the chops to do it, remembering that Musk was one of the original founders of OpenAI.
What is interesting is that Musk was also one of the people who recently spoke out about AI as a whole, and took issue with the rapid pace of development (mainly pointed at OpenAI), stating that we should press the pause button on AI development. By launching this startup, it's clear that he's made a u-turn on that decision!
The website states that it is a standalone company, unrelated from Tesla and other Musk companies including Twitter (now called X corp), however Musk states that he will work closely with them to make progress towards xAI's mission. From a privacy perspective, will this mean that it could use tweets (including DMs) as a training model for xAI? Obviously this is possibly where OpenAI are in hot water, as per my previous story, so it will be interesting to find out how transparent Musk will be about the training and development of xAI. However, Musk is well known to be critical about the less than transparent nature of OpenAI, he would likely have a lot of egg on face if he too, chose to be less than open about the training of his model.Obviously this is possibly where OpenAI are in hot water, as per my previous story, so it will be interesting to find out how transparent Musk will be about the training and development of xAI. However, Musk is well known to be critical about the less than transparent nature of OpenAI, he would likely have a lot of egg on face if he too, chose to be less than open about the training of his model.Obviously this is possibly where OpenAI are in hot water, as per my previous story, so it will be interesting to find out how transparent Musk will be about the training and development of xAI. However, Musk is well known to be critical about the less than transparent nature of OpenAI, he would likely have a lot of egg on face if he too, chose to be less than open about the training of his model.Obviously this is possibly where OpenAI are in hot water, as per my previous story, so it will be interesting to find out how transparent Musk will be about the training and development of xAI. However, Musk is well known to be critical about the less than transparent nature of OpenAI, he would likely have a lot of egg on face if he too, chose to be less than open about the training of his model.
3) China has taken a major step in regulating generative AI like ChatGPT
this happened a couple of weeks ago, making it one of the first countries in the world to do so. The first draft of the law was fairly substantial in its punitive measures, which would see companies and individuals breaking the law fined up to 100,000 yuan. The wording was relaxed to allow development of secure and trustworthy chips, software, tools and computing power, however the key provisions in the new law which is to go into law on the 15th of August will require AI service providers to conduct routine, thorough security reviews and all of their algorithms must be registered with the Beijing government. China wants to press ahead in the world of AI, but has lacked the freedom to do so from its government. Companies like Baidu and Alibaba have not released any mainstream AI products (probably for fear of reprisal from the government). It will be interesting to see if this stifles innovation or allows China to leapfrog the USA. Eyes will be on the China following 16th August to see what Alibaba, JD and Baidu have been developing in the background.
4) Bard's quiet updates. On the 14th July, Google quietly released an update to Bard.
The groundbreaking update to Bard is the ability for it to accept images in its prompts. You can take a photo of your fridge and ask Bard to give you some recipes to rustle up, for example.
5) In other update news, ChatGPT got a new Beta feature that is called "Code Interpreter".
With this, you can give ChatGPT a prompt and with the interpreter switched on, it will know how to write and execute python code. It can also accept with file uploads. This is extremely helpful for aspects of data analysis, image conversions, or editing a code file. OpenAI say that the data does not persist past a session and is deleted after the session is gone.
Friday Jul 15, 2022
12 - Technology Whisperers Migrating to the Cloud
Friday Jul 15, 2022
Friday Jul 15, 2022
This fortnight we dive deep into demystifying the migration to cloud journey that many of you are going through. Apologies for missing the 1st of July episode and Alistair and Sean are working on the coming episodes so let us know if you have a suggestion or want to be a guest.
Your hosts on this intrepid journey to demystify technology can be found across the internet:
Alistair Ross
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alistairjross/
Email: alistair.ross@servian.com
YouTube: youtube.com/AlsGeekLab
Sean Muller
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/seangmuller/
Twitter @seangmuller
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/seangmuller
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/sgmuller/
Email: sean.muller@servian.com
Discord: seangmuller#1887
Clubhouse: @seangmuller
Wednesday Jun 15, 2022
11 - Technology Whisperers Demystifying Zero Trust Security
Wednesday Jun 15, 2022
Wednesday Jun 15, 2022
Zero Trust Security
Traditionally, our networks have been castle and moat style. We trust everything in our castle, and everything after the moat (or in the moat to a lesser extent, ie the DMZ), is untrusted.This was a decent model when all of our infrastructure was based on our own physical networks, in our own server rooms, running our own software that we had the CDs for. But most of the time we are on the Internet. A lot of software runs in the cloud, either as a service, or connects to the Internet for a lot of its services.Today, we can’t trust the stuff on our network anywhere. Internally, externally, or on a DMZ. Thus a ‘perimiterless’ or zero-trust security model has started to become an often-talked about concept.
In this episode Alistair and Sean demystify what "Zero Trust" is, why an executive at an organisation should care and what they should understand about it. In addition, they dive into a little of the technical 'how' to be successful implementing a "Zero Trust" security model.
Reference link
https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/implementing-zero-trust-architecture
Your hosts on this intrepid journey to demystify technology can be found across the internet:
Alistair Ross
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alistairjross/
Email: alistair.ross@servian.com
YouTube: youtube.com/AlsGeekLab
Sean Muller
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/seangmuller/
Twitter @seangmuller
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/seangmuller
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/sgmuller/
Email: sean.muller@servian.com
Discord: seangmuller#1887
Clubhouse: @seangmuller
Wednesday Jun 01, 2022
10 - Technology Whisperers Demystify returning to work a discussion with Amanda Watson
Wednesday Jun 01, 2022
Wednesday Jun 01, 2022
This Episode the Technology Whisperers welcome back Amanda Watson to try and Demystify what it means to return to work, whether it is from a sabbatical, maternity leave, going back to school or just some downtime. How should you share what you have learned in your time away from work on your CV? What should employers look for in these non-work periods of time and how valuable are they to the health of a business? We try and tackle these and many other challenges in the discussion about returning to work.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-watson-38b2132/
amanda.watson@servian.com
Tech Women Page:
https://techwomen.nz/
Tech Women Membership
https://techwomen.nz/join-techwomen/
Tech Women Return to Tech page
https://techwomen.nz/return-to-tech/
Monday May 16, 2022
09 - Technology Whisperers Demystify Cloud Native Development
Monday May 16, 2022
Monday May 16, 2022
In this episode Alistair and Sean demystify the concepts of Cloud Native development and try and define it in a way that allows business to invest wisely and helps technologists communicate the realities of development Cloud Native. Along the way they debunk several myths and try and bring a little light humour to a topic that will make or break many organisations in the coming years.
If you have would like to join either Alistair, Sean or both on a future episode or if you would like to invite either onto a podcast of your own please reach out as both of them are always open to chat about technology.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alistairjross/
alistair.ross@servian.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sgmuller/
sean.muller@servian.com
Sunday May 01, 2022
08 - Technology Whisperers talk Business Technologists with Cam Chapman
Sunday May 01, 2022
Sunday May 01, 2022
In this episode, Sean and Alistair meet with Cam Chapman, CEO of Fernleaf Consulting where he discusses Business Technology.
Business Technology is not a methodology or framework – it’s a cultural shift in the way technologists can engage and deliver to their customers.
As a Business Technologist, Cam is very passionate about the opportunities it provides for digital technology providers to dissolve the Business/IT divide .
We felt that Cam’s story (and the reason he started his own business, Fernlead Consulting), really resonates with many parallels being drawn between what we are trying to achieve in demystifying technology in The Technology Whisperers.
In this podcast, Cam covers the concept of what Business Technology is (as opposed to Information Technology), and what sort of people Business Technologists actually are. He then goes on to rationalise why organisations should think along the lines of what thor business needs, which answers the ‘Why Business Technology?’, We also talk about Shadow IT and Business Technology vs Shadow IT.
This is an action packed podcast with lots of great thought provoking ideas that you don’t want to miss!
cam@fernleafconsulting.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/camchapman/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/fernleafconsulting/
https://fernleafconsulting.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sgmuller/
sean.muller@servian.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alistairjross/
alistair.ross@servian.com
Friday Apr 15, 2022
07 - Technology Whisperers Caleb Buchanan and Interns journey episode
Friday Apr 15, 2022
Friday Apr 15, 2022
This episode we get to talk with Caleb Buchanan about his journey from University into an internship and transitioning to a permanent position. We here what the experience was like and what pitfalls to avoid, and along the journey we get to hear about rock climbing and the challenges young technologists face. Caleb is a rising star at Servian with a penchant for infrastructure as code, devops and mlops.https://www.linkedin.com/in/caleb-buchanan-454269181/
https://www.summeroftech.co.nz/
https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/explore/postgraduate-programmes/master-of-artificial-intelligence/overview
https://www.sjs.co.nz/
Monday Apr 04, 2022
06 - Technology Whisperers MLOps GCP Vertex AI episode
Monday Apr 04, 2022
Monday Apr 04, 2022
This episode Alistair and Sean demystify what MLOps is and isn't and how it differs from DevOps. They also talk through GCP VertexAI and how it can provide a hosted MLOps platform for those using GCP now to help develop Machine Learning Models and management and maintain those models.
https://cloud.google.com/vertex-ai
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alistairjross/
alistair.ross@servian.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sgmuller/
sean.muller@servian.com
The Technology Whisperers
Alistair Ross and Sean Muller, who combined bring you 48+ years of technology experience, bring you a podcast to help demystify technologies and provide guidance about where technology is going and how you and your business can use those technologies to get better outcomes. So if you are struggling to understand the technology landscape and where you should be investing to get the best benefits for yourself and your business, come along and listen. Also if you just like cool tech that is what we talk about.