NAN114: Demystifying Automation Tools, Processes, and Culture Gates
Eric sits down with David Henderson, Principal Architect for NetDevOps at Presidio, to discuss the practical journey for network engineers transitioning from manual CLI operations to scalable NetDevOps and automation. They discuss how traditional networking knowledge and certifications are foundational, and suggest essential tools and habits for beginning your automation journey. David also shares a... Read more »PP098: What Goes On Inside a Firewall?
On today’s show, we pop the lid off of a firewall (figuratively speaking) to understand what’s inside. We talk about how a packet moves through various packet-processing elements inside a firewall, how header analysis and de-encapsulation work, which hardware component has the biggest impact on performance, why stateful inspection still matters in an age of... Read more »HS125: How to Choose an IT Hiring Service
Every employer knows to conduct background checks. However, conducting background checks on IT professionals requires an extra layer of verification, given the privileged access they typically have to IT systems and tools. Moreover, in this AI era, background checks need to be deeper and more effective than before–in the past we didn’t need to verify... Read more »
NB563: Palo Alto Networks Nets Koi for AI Security; Quantum Networking Notches Research Wins
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 »HN815: All About PCE
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 »N4N049: Understanding Firewalls
Today, Ethan and Holly provide an overview of firewalls. While cybersecurity is a separate discipline from network engineering, much of what happens in cybersecurity is interesting at the packet level, so there’s a good deal of overlap. It’s likely that as a network engineer, you’ll be managing, or at least dealing with, firewalls in your... Read more »IPB194: Navel Gazing at NAT in IPv6
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 »D2DO294: AI in My Vuln Research Workflow
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 »HW071: New iOS Tools for WLAN Pi
Adrian Granados joins Keith Parsons to discuss new iOS tools available for the WLAN Pi. These new tools extend a professional’s ability to run Wi-Fi scanning and analysis apps such a Wi-Fi Explorer Pi and Airtool Pi on iOS devices such as iPhones and iPads. Along with the small, portable WLAN Pi itself, these apps... Read more »PP097: How and Why to Turn the Browser into a Universal Security Agent (Sponsored)
With the rise of cloud services and SaaS, the browser has become a primary productivity tool. It’s also a primary vector for malware, phishing, identity theft, data leaks, and other risks. On today’s sponsored episode with Palo Alto Networks, we dive into browser security. We discuss risks to the browser and how they differ from... Read more »Tech Bytes: We Need More Network Engineers; Here’s Ideas to Make It Happen (Sponsored)
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 »NB562: Cisco Challenges Broadcom With 102.4Tb ASIC; Arista Reaches Record Revenues
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 »TNO055: Testing as a Service for Telco Network Services
Scott talks with Mark Gebert from Verizon about something that sits at the heart of every reliable enterprise network: testing. Automation is moving fast in the telco world, but automation without testing is just an accident waiting to happen. They unpack what makes enterprise service provisioning so complex—multi-vendor networks, optical and IP gear, security functions,... Read more »HN814: Automating Your Network with Cisco Crosswork Workflow Manager (Sponsored)
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 »LIU008: Breaking Barriers: Thriving as a Woman in Tech
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 »TCG068: Agents and Identity – Navigating What We Can’t Predict
We’ve spent a decade figuring out how to (more or less) securely authenticate humans. Now AI agents are crashing the party, and identity just got a whole lot more complicated. Today we sit down with Dan Moore, Senior Director of CIAM Strategy and Identity Standards at FusionAuth, to explore the collision course between artificial intelligence... Read more »NAN113: What Works, and What Doesn’t, in Network Automation Projects
Today we are joined by Matt Remke, who has spent years in the trenches of network automation projects as a consultant. Matt offers a unique, non-engineer perspective on scaling network automation in real-world, complex environments for some of the world’s largest companies. Matt shares what worked, what backfired, and the hard-earned lessons he has gained... Read more »PP096: Taking Note of a Notepad++ Attack; Telnet and NTLM Are Still a Thing?
Everything old is new again in today’s Packet Protector news roundup, as a decade-old Telnet exploit resurfaces, and Microsoft unfolds its roadmap to phase out the ancient NTLM protocol. In other news, Google takes down a sprawling residential proxy network, the popular Notepad++ app takes steps to recover from a serious compromise, and a Polish... Read more »HS124: Administration DDoS on AI Regulation
The recent U.S. Executive Order 14365, Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence, is the administration’s latest attempt to prevent the enforcement of most of the AI laws passed in individual US states. Because it is only an executive order (EO), it cannot directly nullify, supersede, forestall, or put a pause on state-level laws.... Read more »