Plaintext with Rich
Technology
About
Cybersecurity is an everyone problem. So why does it always sound like it’s only for IT people?Each week, Rich takes one topic, from phishing to ransomware to how your phone actually tracks you, and explains it in plain language in under ten minutes or less. No buzzwords. No condescension. Just the stuff you need to know to stay safer online, explained like you’re a smart person who never had anyone break it down properly. Because you are!
Episodes
- Spiritual Health in Cybersecurity: The Why Behind the Work
This episode defines spiritual health as the core values that guide your actions and discusses how cybersecurity professionals can lose sight of their
- Mental Health in Cybersecurity: The Weight of Vigilance
This episode of Plaintext with Rich focuses on the mental health of cybersecurity professionals, addressing the impact of vigilance, on-call duties, and incident response. It offers practical advice and highlights resources like Employee A…
- Threat Intelligence: Why Most Organizations Get It Backwards
This episode explains threat intelligence by differentiating data, information, and intelligence, and discusses why most CTI programs fail to connect analysis to specific decisions. It introduces Priority Intelligence Requirements and cove…
- Roll for Security: What D&D Teaches About Cyber Defense
Plaintext with Rich maps cybersecurity roles to Dungeons & Dragons classes and ability scores to security posture, discussing team dynamics and providing a starter kit for building a security party.
- Why Reading Code Makes You Dangerous (In a Good Way)
This episode explains why understanding code is vital for cybersecurity professionals. It details how languages like C, C++, Python, and JavaScript are used by both attackers and defenders, and offers a guide to building code literacy.
- Hacking on Screens and Pages: Pop Culture That Shaped Cybersecurity
This episode examines the influence of popular culture on cybersecurity, discussing media like "Neuromancer" and "Mr. Robot" that shaped the field's perception. It categorizes examples into the fantastical and the accurate, offering a cura…
- Linux vs. Windows vs. macOS: Where Security Actually Differs
This episode of Plaintext with Rich examines the security differences between Linux, Windows, and macOS. It clarifies that Linux is a family of systems and details how each OS manages security features like permissions and administrator ac…
- APIs: The Control Points Hiding Inside Every App
This episode explains what APIs are, using a restaurant analogy to make the concept clear. It details why APIs exist and their importance in modern software, covering common failure points and a starter kit for API security.
- Securing AI at Work: What the Chat Box Actually Touches
This episode of Plaintext with Rich discusses securing AI tools in the workplace, addressing risks like sensitive data exposure and prompt injection. It references NIST's AI Risk Management Framework and offers practical steps for establis…
- AI Is an Umbrella Word (And That's the Problem)
This episode of Plaintext with Rich deconstructs the term "AI," explaining components like machine learning, deep learning, LLMs, RAG, and agentic AI. It highlights the importance of these distinctions for understanding risk and filtering…
- Why Security Fails When Everyone Is Right
This episode of Plaintext with Rich discusses how security failures often result from the accumulation of risk through individually sound decisions. It highlights patterns such as temporary fixes becoming permanent, unclear ownership, and…
- Zero Trust: What It Actually Means Beyond the Buzzword
This episode of Plaintext with Rich clarifies the meaning of Zero Trust, emphasizing it as a design decision rather than a product. It details the core signals used in Zero Trust evaluations and contrasts it with traditional security measu…
- Supply Chain Cybersecurity: When the Breach Starts Upstream
This episode of Plaintext with Rich details supply chain cybersecurity threats, including compromised software updates and vendor breaches. It outlines defensive strategies such as identifying critical data, managing vendor relationships,…
- Phishing and Social Engineering: Why the Strongest Defense Is Being Slower
This episode of Plaintext with Rich explores phishing and social engineering, explaining how attackers exploit emotional triggers like urgency and authority to bypass logic. It details various modern attack vectors and provides a starter k…
- Ransomware and Double Extortion: Why Backups Alone Don't Save You Anymore
This episode explains modern ransomware tactics, focusing on data theft and the threat of leaks rather than just encryption. It details common entry points, the business-like operations of ransomware groups, and crucial defenses like immut…
- IoT Security: Why Every Smart Device Is a Computer That Inherits Risk
This episode of Plaintext with Rich explains IoT security, defining smart devices as computers that inherit risk. It covers manufacturer compromises, common attack vectors, and the consequences of device compromise, concluding with a seven…
- Cloud Security: Why Identity and Configuration Are the Real Perimeter
This episode of Plaintext with Rich explains cloud security, emphasizing that identity, not a physical perimeter, is crucial. It details common vulnerabilities like misconfigurations and over-permissioned identities, attacker tactics, and…
- Passkeys and Passwordless Login: Why Shared Secrets Are the Problem
This episode of Plaintext with Rich discusses the shift to passwordless authentication and passkeys, explaining their security advantages by eliminating shared secrets. It covers how passkeys function as phishing-resistant cryptographic ke…
- AI Deepfakes: When Trust Becomes the Attack Surface
This episode of Plaintext with Rich discusses AI deepfakes, explaining how audio, video, and images created by AI can impersonate real people. It details why deepfakes are effective, common attack methods, and offers practical advice like…
- Quantum Computing and Encryption: Why "Harvest Now, Decrypt Later" Matters
This episode of Plaintext with Rich explains how quantum computing threatens current encryption methods, particularly public-key systems, through the "harvest now, decrypt later" strategy. It discusses post-quantum cryptography, standardiz…
- The Dark Web: Where Stolen Data Gets a Price Tag
This episode of Plaintext with Rich explains the dark web, not as mythology, but as an anonymous part of the internet used as a wholesale market for stolen data. It details how credentials are priced, the economics of cybercrime, and provi…
- What Cybersecurity Actually Is (And Why It's Everyone's Job)
This episode breaks down cybersecurity into its core concept: protecting digital assets from misuse or theft. It emphasizes that cybersecurity is everyone's responsibility, driven by human decisions and common mistakes, and provides a four…
- Identity Theft: Why Data Breaches Don't Stay Abstract
This episode of Plaintext with Rich explains how identity theft occurs using readily available data, not just stolen physical items. It details how data breaches accumulate and combine over time, creating usable profiles, and offers practi…
- Plaintext with Rich: Security and Tech Without the Jargon
The first episode of Plaintext with Rich aims to demystify cybersecurity and technology by providing jargon-free, story-driven breakdowns. Each short episode explains complex systems and security failures in simple terms, empowering listen…