19: Cybersecurity and Innovation
“This is our world now… the world of the electron and the switch […] We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias… and you call us criminals […] Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity”
Let’s be honest, the film Hackers [1995] probably hasn’t aged well. But it introduced many of us to the notion that our virtual selves weren’t as safe as we thought we might be. As we all spend more of our time in the cloud, cybersecurity has skyrocketed to become as important (or even more so) than physical security.
This episode uses the recent Twitter hack as a jumping off point to explore the murky world of cyber criminals, and the startups doing their best to counter them. There’s a rich seam of metaphors to explore, from fortresses to gendarmerie to pickpockets, and whether it’s better to rob Fort Knox or a small regional bank.
Beyond just discussing cybersecurity in general, in this episode Matt and Steven discuss the tension between building things quickly and securely. When you move fast and break things, well, you break things. How can startups, particularly those using NoCode/lowcode tools, make sure they’re not setting themselves up for a fall? And where do the opportunities exist for new startups creating security tools?
Timestamps:
1:45 The big Twitter hack
6:45 How did it happen? Was it an inside job?
7:50 Types of hacks
14:00 Potted history of cybersecurity and the current metaphors
22:00 Cybersecurity in the time of the cloud
28:00 The kill chain and why people are the route of entry
31:30 The evolution of the cyber criminal
33:30 Is there more talk of cybersecurity these days?
34:00 Why it’s easier for cybersecurity companies to get product-market fit
37:00 Retrofitting cyber security with Darktrace
44:00 Staying agile to beat the bad guys
46:00 Are innovation and cybersecurity pulling in different directions?
51:45 Having a risk framework - NHS Digital vs DeepMind
55:30 How do we build security into the startup stack?