Take a Network Break! Guest commentator Tom Hollingsworth joins Drew for today’s episode. We start with a double Red Alert from Cisco for its Secure FMC software. On the news front, Cato Networks adds adaptive threat prevention to its SASE offering that looks for seemingly innocuous signals that could add up to an attack, Google... Read more »
Today on the Tech Bytes podcast we hear from Statseeker, a network monitoring company that collects high-fidelity network data to help engineers and administrators get visibility into physical, virtual, and logical interfaces to find problems faster, understand root causes, and spot behaviors and anomalies so you can prevent problems instead of just reacting to them.... Read more »
Software Defined Networking (SDN) is a centralized architecture in which a controller, or a hierarchy of controllers, runs software that computes network-engineered paths and pushes that forwarding scheme into the network. It’s also very complex, which can lead to network failures. What if there was a way to keep the benefits of SDN while also... Read more »
If you’re looking for a network automation project but you’re worried about breaking stuff, why not build your automation adventure around IPv6? If your production traffic runs on IPv4, you can experiment with automated configurations and changes using IPv6 without negatively impacting that v4 traffic. You can get a two-for one experience learning both IPv6... Read more »
Engineers and developers are using AI like never before, including in production. That has potential consequences, both good and bad, for uptime, operations, security and risk management, and more. Today’s guest, Rich Mogull, guides us through the decision-making process of adding AI to your production lifecycle and possible ramifications. Rich is Chief Analyst at the... Read more »
Take a Network Break! We start with follow-up on the proper pronunciation of the US state of Nevada, and then sound the alarm about new research that gets around WiFi client isolation and could enable man-in-the-middle attacks. On the news front, AMD and Meta strike a massive deal in which AMD will sell its stock... Read more »
OT networks used to be air-gapped. These days, more and more OT networks are being bridged by IT networks, which exposes critical industrial controls and other systems to serious risk. On today’s Tech Bytes, sponsored by Palo Alto Networks, we dig into how organizations can detect “precursor signals” that may indicate a broader attack chain,... Read more »
Our topic today is the designing and building of high-performance networking hardware. If you assume the hardware details don’t matter, you’re missing the intentional engineering required to build truly reliable and quiet infrastructure. In this sponsored episode, we discuss Meter’s hardware philosophy with our guest, Joshua Markell, Head of Hardware at Meter. Joshua walks us... Read more »
Alexis and Kevin sit down with Mike Miller to discuss what brought him from the back of a garbage truck to his current position as a Virtual Chief Information Security Officer (VCISO). He breaks down how a VCISO differs from a CISO, and discusses the two types of clients looking for VCISO services: those looking... Read more »
Take a Network Break! We start with follow-ups on secure browsers and data centers in space, and then sound the red alert about an RCE vulnerability in NLTK. On the news front, Palo Alto Networks acquires a startup that monitors endpoints for malicious packages, browser extensions, scripts, and other threats, Lumen debuts a multi-cloud gateway... Read more »
Traditional routing protocols like OSPF simply choose the “shortest” path. If the shortest path is full of traffic and there are alternate paths carrying nothing, OSPF can’t help you. Path Computation Element (PCE) along with Path Computation Element Protocol (PCEP) is a way to construct forwarding paths through the network based on factors that distributed... Read more »
Ed, Nick, and Tom discuss the need for Network Address Translation v6 to v6 (NAT66). While Network Prefix Translation (NPTv6) exists, its limitations make it insufficient for real-world business needs. They also highlight that without a standardized NAT66, the market is forcing vendors to implement their own, hindering widespread IPv6 adoption. Episode Links: IPv6-to-IPv6 Network... Read more »
Kat Traxler, Principal Security Researcher at Vectra AI, returns to the podcast to discuss her AI-powered vulnerability research workflow. She explains how she uses two different AI models to act as the “blackboard” while she applies her expertise to triage AI-generated ideas to increase her productivity. She also asks a concerning question: As AI automates... Read more »
Where are all the network engineers? OK, obviously, there are network engineers out there, like the thousands of you listening to this podcast. But there’s an impression that the current generation is aging out of the profession while fewer young people are taking on network engineering as a career. At the same time, networks are... Read more »
Take a Network Break! We start with listener follow-up on data centers in space, and sound the Red Alert about a sandbox failure in Claude Code and a rash of Microsoft zero-days. On the news front, Cisco announces a 102.4Tbps switch ASIC in its Silicon One line of homegrown chips, and adds AI agent monitoring... Read more »
Our topic today is building and running network workflows. If your network workflows live in a spreadsheet, a SharePoint document, or in your head, you really need a workflow manager. A workflow manager brings scalability, repeatability, and consistency to your network operations team. In this sponsored episode, we discuss Cisco Crosswork Workflow Manager. Our guests... Read more »
Kevin and Alexis sit down with Melissa Brooks, a Senior Cloud Engineer at Aritzia, to discuss how she went from being a “terrible waitress” to going back to school for a diploma in network security. They explore how she used a strategic, “reverse engineered” approach to goal setting to land on a career in tech.... Read more »
Take a Network Break! We start with a trio of follow-ups, including a correction regarding Mplify certifications, Cisco proposing new OSI layers, and free-space optics. Our Red Alert sounds off about a remote code execution vulnerability in the Ivanti Endpoint Manager Mobile agent. On the news front, Broadcom announces new silicon for wireless APs for... Read more »
What should network engineers know about software development? What should software developers know about networking? Ethan and Drew sit down with Chris Rapier and Nick Buraglio to discuss why crossing these silos can improve outcomes for everyone. They break down why being a little curious about the infrastructure can help software developers write better code,... Read more »
Are you struggling to get IPv6 working, whether in a lab or even a pilot deployment? Ed, Nick, and Tom walk through the essentials of IPv6 troubleshooting, revealing the non-negotiable differences between IPv4 and IPv6 that can trip up even experienced network engineers. They break down why blocking all ICMP, like in v4, will instantly... Read more »