''Security Now!'' is a weekly

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

hosted by Steve Gibson and

Leo Laporte Leo Laporte (; born November 29, 1956) is the host of '' The Tech Guy'' weekly radio show and a host on TWiT.tv, an Internet podcast network focusing on technology. He is also a former TechTV technology host (1998–2008) and a technology author. ...

. It was the second show to premiere on the TWiT Network, launching in summer 2005. The first episode, “As the Worm Turns”, was released on August 19, 2005. ''Security Now!'' consists of a discussion between Gibson and Laporte on issues of

computer security Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, t ...

and, conversely,

insecurity InSecurity is a Canadian spy comedy television series that aired on CBC Television from 2011 to 2012. The series centres on a team of covert operatives working for the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), a fictional Canadian intellig ...

. Covered topics have included security vulnerabilities,

firewall Firewall may refer to: * Firewall (computing), a technological barrier designed to prevent unauthorized or unwanted communications between computer networks or hosts * Firewall (construction), a barrier inside a building, designed to limit the spre ...

password A password, sometimes called a passcode (for example in Apple devices), is secret data, typically a string of characters, usually used to confirm a user's identity. Traditionally, passwords were expected to be memorized, but the large number of ...

security,

spyware Spyware (a portmanteau for spying software) is software with malicious behaviour that aims to gather information about a person or organization and send it to another entity in a way that harms the user—for example, by violating their privac ...

rootkit A rootkit is a collection of computer software, typically malicious, designed to enable access to a computer or an area of its software that is not otherwise allowed (for example, to an unauthorized user) and often masks its existence or the exis ...

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio w ...

, virtual private networks, and

virtual machine In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is the virtualization/ emulation of a computer system. Virtual machines are based on computer architectures and provide functionality of a physical computer. Their implementations may involve specialized har ...

Podcast feed

''Security Now!'' is distributed via its main podcast

RSS feed RSS ( RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many di ...

and on the GRC ''Security Now!'' page. In addition to audio, text transcriptions are published, along with Gibson distributing a low-bandwidth 16 kbit/s version of the show on his own for those with low-bandwidth sources such as satellite internet or dial-up. The podcast runs for approximately two hours, typically starting with security news. Then Gibson reads a testimonial for his software

SpinRite SpinRite is a computer program for scanning RAS Random Access Storage devices such as hard disks, reading and rewriting data using proprietary programming methods to resolve and retrieve data that is unreadable by DOS or Windows. The first vers ...

. The remainder of the show is spent on a particular theme. During the show some advertisements for 3rd party commercial products or services are read out, by co-host Leo Laporte. Bi-weekly "Mailbag" episodes answer questions and respond to feedback submitted by listeners.

Popularity

In August 2007, ''Security Now!'' won in the People's Choice

Podcast Awards The People's Choice Podcast Awards, better known as the Podcast Awards, are global awards given annually to the best podcasts as voted by the general public. Founded in 2005 by Todd Cochrane of Podcast Connect Inc., the Podcast Awards changed han ...

Technology/Science category. In August 2006, ''Security Now!'' ranked fourth in the "Top 40" of all podcasts listened to via the PodNova service. ''Security Now!'' averaged around 100,000 downloads per episode throughout 2006. At the end of 2015, Security Now was number 4 on the Top 40 US Technology Podcasts, making it the highest weekly TWiT.tv podcast. In October 2021 it was #6 on Apple Podcasts — US tech news, and #330 of global all podcasts.

Windows Metafile controversy

In January 2006, Steve Gibson accused

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...

of intentionally putting a

backdoor A back door is a door in the rear of a building. Back door may also refer to: Arts and media * Back Door (jazz trio), a British group * Porta dos Fundos (literally “Back Door” in Portuguese) Brazilian comedy YouTube channel. * Works so titl ...

into the

Windows Metafile Windows Metafile (WMF) is an image file format originally designed for Microsoft Windows in the 1990s. The original Windows Metafile format was not device-independent (though could be made more so with placement headers) and may contain both vecto ...

processing code in

Windows 2000 Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It was the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was released to manufacturing on December 15, 1999, and was official ...

and

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was release to manufacturing, released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Wind ...

. Gibson claimed that while

reverse engineering Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompli ...

the Windows Metafile format, he could run arbitrary code by using a "nonsensical" value in the metafile, and concluded Microsoft had intentionally designed Windows this way so it could run code on Windows computers without the user's knowledge. Microsoft's Stephen Toulouse responded in a Microsoft Security Response Center blog post the next day, saying the behavior was not intentional.

References

External links

''Security Now!'' page at grc.com
{{TWiT podcasts Technology podcasts 2005 podcast debuts