Holiday Chat: Local AI datacenter activism, AI can't substitute good taste, and more - ESW #439

In an era dominated by AI-powered security tools and cloud-native architectures, are traditional Web Application Firewalls still relevant? Join us as we speak with Felipe Zipitria, co-leader of the OWASP Core Rule Set (CRS) project. Felipe has been at the forefront of open-source security, leading the development of one of the world's most widely deployed WAF rule sets, trusted by organizations globally to protect their web applications. Felipe explains why WAFs remain a critical layer in modern defense-in-depth strategies. We'll explore what makes OWASP CRS the go-to choice for security teams, dive into the project's current innovations, and discuss how traditional rule-based security is evolving to work alongside — not against — AI. Segment Resources: github.com/coreruleset/coreruleset coreruleset.org The future of CycloneDX is defined by modularity, API-first design, and deeper contextual insight, enabling transparency that is not just comprehensive, but actionable. At its heart is the Transparency Exchange API, which delivers a normalized, format-agnostic model for sharing SBOMs, attestations, risks, and more across the software supply chain. As genAI transforms every sector of modern business, the security community faces a question: how do we protect systems we can't fully see or understand? In this fireside chat, Aruneesh Salhotra, Project Lead for OWASP AIBOM and Co-Lead of OWASP AI Exchange, discusses two groundbreaking initiatives that are reshaping how organizations approach AI security and supply chain transparency. OWASP AI Exchange has emerged as the go-to single resource for AI security and privacy, providing over 200 pages of practical advice on protecting AI and data-centric systems from threats. Through its official liaison partnership with CEN/CENELEC, the project has contributed 70 pages to ISO/IEC 27090 and 40 pages to the EU AI Act security standard OWASP, achieving OWASP Flagship project status in March 2025. Meanwhile, the OWASP AIBOM Project is establishing a comprehensive framework to provide transparency into how AI models are built, trained, and deployed, extending OWASP's mission of making security visible to the rapidly evolving AI ecosystem. This conversation explores how these complementary initiatives are addressing real-world challenges—from prompt injection and data poisoning to model provenance and supply chain risks—while actively shaping international standards and regulatory frameworks. We'll discuss concrete achievements, lessons learned from global collaboration, and the ambitious roadmap ahead as these projects continue to mature and expand their impact across the AI security landscape. Segment Resources: https://owasp.org/www-project-aibom/ https://www.linkedin.com/posts/aruneeshsalhotra_owasp-ai-aisecurity-activity-7364649799800766465-DJGM/ https://www.youtube.com/@OWASPAIBOM https://www.youtube.com/@RobvanderVeer-ex3gj https://owaspai.org/ Agentic AI introduces unique and complex security challenges that render traditional risk management frameworks insufficient. In this keynote, Ken Huang, CEO of Distributedapps.ai and a key contributor to AI security standards, outlines a new approach to manage these emerging threats. The session will present a practical strategy that integrates the NIST AI Risk Management Framework with specialized tools to address the full lifecycle of Agentic AI. Segment Resources: aivss.owasp.org https://kenhuangus.substack.com/p/owasp-aivss-the-new-framework-for https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/blog/2025/02/06/agentic-ai-threat-modeling-framework-maestro This interview is sponsored by the OWASP GenAI Security Project. Visit https://securityweekly.com/owaspappsec to watch all of CyberRisk TV's interviews from the OWASP 2025 Global AppSec Conference! Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/asw for all the latest episodes! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/asw-363

For this week's episode of Enterprise Security Weekly, there wasn't a lot of time to prepare. I had to do 5 podcasts in about 8 days leading up to the holiday break, so I decided to just roll with a general chat and see how it went. Also, apologies, for any audio quality issues, as the meal I promised to make for dinner this day required a lot of prep, so I was in the kitchen for the whole episode! For reference, I made the recipe for morisqueta michoacana from Rick Martinez's cookbook, Mi Cocina. I used the wrong peppers (availability issue), so it came out green instead of red, but was VERY delicious. As for the episode, we discuss what we've been up to, with Jackie sharing her experiences fighting against Meta (allegedly, through some shell companies) building an AI datacenter in her town. We then get into discussing the limitations of AI, the potential of the AI bubble popping, and general limitations of AI that are becoming obvious. One of the key limitations is AI's inability to apply personal experience, have strong opinions, or any sense of 'taste'. I think I shared my observation that AI is becoming a sort of 'digital junk food'. "NO AI" has become a common phrase used by creators - a source of pride that media consumers seem to be celebrating and seeking out. Segment Resources: Kagi absolutely did NOT sponsor this episode. I have become a big fan of paying for search so that I am not the product. There are other players in this market, but I've settled on Kagi. We mention Ira Glass's bit on taste, which is a small bit of a longer talk he did on storytelling. The shorter bit is here, and is less than 2 minutes long. The full talk is split into 4 parts and posted on a YouTube channel called "War Photography" for some reason. Part 1: https://youtu.be/5pFI9UuC_fc Part 2: https://youtu.be/dx2cI-2FJRs Part 3: https://youtu.be/X2wLP0izeJE Part 4: https://youtu.be/sp8pwkgR8 Finally, we also bring up a talk we also discussed on episode 437, Benedict Evans' AI Eats the World Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/esw for all the latest episodes! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/esw-439

You survived the click—but now the click has evolved. In Part 2, the crew follows phishing and ransomware down the rabbit hole into double extortion, initial access brokers, cyber insurance drama, and the unsettling rise of agentic AI that can click, run scripts, and make bad decisions for you. The conversation spans ransomware economics, why paying criminals is a terrible plan with no guarantees, and how AI is turning social engineering into a whole new wild west. Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/swn for all the latest episodes! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/swn-541

The crew makes suggestions for building a hacking lab today! We will tackle: What is recommended today to build a lab, given the latest advancements in tech Hardware hacking devices and gadgets that are a must-have Which operating systems should you learn Virtualization technology that works well for a lab build Using AI to help build your lab Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/psw for all the latest episodes! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/psw-906

Join Business Security Weekly for a roundtable-style year-in-review. The BSW hosts share the most surprising, inspiring, and humbling moments of 2025 in business security, culture, and personal growth. And a few of us might be dressed for the upcoming holiday season... Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/bsw for all the latest episodes! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/bsw-427

It’s the holidays, your defenses are down, your inbox is lying to you, and yes—you’re gonna click the link. In Part 1 of our holiday special, Doug White and a panel of very smart people explain why social engineering still works decades later, why training alone won’t save you, and why the real job is surviving after the click. From phishing and smishing to click-fix attacks, access control disasters, and stories that prove humans remain the weakest—and most entertaining—link in security, this episode sets the stage for the attack we all know is coming. Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/swn for all the latest episodes! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/swn-540

Using OWASP SAMM to assess and improve compliance with the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) is an excellent strategy, as SAMM provides a framework for secure development practices such as secure by design principles and handling vulns. Segment Resources: https://owaspsamm.org/ https://cybersecuritycoalition.be/resource/a-strategic-approach-to-product-security-with-owasp-samm/ As genAI becomes a more popular tool in software engineering, the definition of “secure coding” is changing. This session explores how artificial intelligence is reshaping the way developers learn, apply, and scale secure coding practices — and how new risks emerge when machines start generating the code themselves. We’ll dive into the dual challenge of securing both human-written and AI-assisted code, discuss how enterprises can validate AI outputs against existing security standards, and highlight practical steps teams can take to build resilience into the entire development pipeline. Join us as we look ahead to the convergence of secure software engineering and AI security — where trust, transparency, and tooling will define the future of code safety. Segment Resources: https://manicode.com/ai/ Understand the history of threat modeling with Adam Shostack. Learn how threat modeling has evolved with the Four Question Framework and can work in your organizations in the wake of the AI revolution. Whether you're launching a formal Security Champions program or still figuring out where to start, there's one truth every security leader needs to hear: You already have allies in your org -- they're just waiting to be activated. In this session, we’ll explore how identifying and empowering your internal advocates is the fastest, most sustainable way to drive security culture change. These are your early adopters: the developers, engineers, and team leads who already “get it,” even if their title doesn’t say “security.” We’ll unpack: Why you need help from people outside the security org to actually be effective Where to find your natural allies (hint: it starts with listening, not preaching) How to support and energize those allies so they influence the majority What behavioral science tells us about spreading change across an organization Segment Resources: Security Champion Success Guide: https://securitychampionsuccessguide.org/ Related interviews/podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPb14P8f4T1ITv3p3Y3XtKsyEAA8W526h How to measure success and impact of culture change and champions: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/from-soft-skills-hard-data-measuring-success-security-yhmse/ Global Community of Champions sign up: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScyXPAMf9M8idpDMwO4p2h5Ng8I0ffofZuY70BbmgCZNPUS5Q/viewform This interview is sponsored by the OWASP GenAI Security Project. Visit https://securityweekly.com/owaspappsec to watch all of CyberRisk TV's interviews from the OWASP 2025 Global AppSec Conference! Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/asw for all the latest episodes! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/asw-362

Interview with Frank Vukovits: Focusing inward: there lie threats also External threats get discussed more than internal threats. There’s a bit of a streetlight effect here: external threats are more visible, easier to track, and sharing external threat intelligence doesn’t infringe on any individual organization’s privacy. That’s why we hear the industry discuss external threats more, though internally-triggered incidents far outnumber external ones. Internal threats, on the other hand, can get personal. Accidental leaks are embarassing. Malicious insiders are a sensitive topic that internal counsel would erase from company memory if they could. Even when disclosure is required, the lawyers are going to minimize the amount of detail that gets out. I was chief incident handler for 5 years of my enterprise career, and never once had to deal with an external threat. I managed dozens of internal cases over those 5 years though. In this interview, we discuss the need for strong internal controls with Frank Vukovits from Delinea. As systems and users inside and outside organizations become increasingly connected, maintaining strong security controls is essential to protect data and systems from both internal and external threats. In this episode, we will explore the importance of strong internal controls around business application security and how they can best be integrated into a broader security program to ensure true enterprise security. This segment is sponsored by Delinea. Visit https://securityweekly.com/delinea to learn more about them! Topic Segment: Personal Disaster Recovery Many of us depend on service providers for our personal email, file storage, and photo storage. The line between personal accounts and work accounts often blur, particularly when it comes to Apple devices. We’re way more dependent on our Microsoft, Apple, Meta, and Google accounts than we used to be. They’re necessary to use home voice assistants, to log into other SaaS applications (Log in with Google/Apple/FB), and even manage our wireless plans (e.g. Google Fi). Getting locked out of any of these accounts can bring someone’s personal and/or work life to a halt, and there are many cases of this happening. I’m not sure if we make it past sharing stories about what can and has happened. Getting into solutions might have to be a separate discussion (also, we may not have any solutions…) Friend of the show and sometimes emergency co-host Guillaume posted about this recently A romance author got locked out of her books A 79 year old got locked out of her iPad with all her family photos. Sadly, this is one of the most common scenarios. Someone either forgets their pin and locks out the device permanently, or a family member dies and didn’t tell anyone their passwords or pins, so the surviving family can’t access data, pay the bills, etc. Google example: Claims of CSAM material after father documents toddler at doctor’s request https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/22/google-csam-account-blocked Dec 2025 Apple example: she tried to redeem a gift card that had been tampered with: https://hey.paris/posts/appleid/ Google example: developer lost all his work, because he was working on preventing revenge porn and other sensitive cases, and was building a better model to detect NSFW images: https://medium.com/@russoatlarge_93541/i-built-a-privacy-app-google-banned-me-over-a-dataset-used-in-ai-research-66bc0dfb2310 My partner’s mom’s Instagram account got hacked. Meta locked out all of it (Whatsapp, Instagram, Facebook) and she couldn’t get it reinstated. They wouldn’t even let her open a NEW account. Weekly Enterprise News Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/esw for all the latest episodes! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/esw-438

Auld Lang Syne, Ghostpairing, Centerstack, OneView, WAFS, React2Shell Redux, Crypto, Josh Marpet, and More, on the Security Weekly News. Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/swn for all the latest episodes! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/swn-539

This week in the security news: Linux process injection Threat actors need training too A Linux device "capable of practically anything" The Internet of webcams Hacking cheap devices Automating exploitation with local AI models Lame C2 Smallest SSH backdoor Your RDP is on the Internet These are not the high severity bugs you were looking for Low hanging fruit Your TV is spying on you, again no such thing as "offensive security" MCPs and RCEs Browser extensions collecting your AI chats And flooding TikTok with AI influencers Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/psw for all the latest episodes! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/psw-905