My Connected Life

How do we know how to keep our money and our financial future safe and cyber secure? What can we do to protect ourselves and our nation against cyberattacks on financial technology? What are the latest technical innovations to keep our financial data protected, in the present and the years to come? What regulations and financial laws do we need to know about right NOW? Join us as we discuss everything Fintech with our special guest Brett King, international best-selling author of The Rise of Technosocialism, Fintech Hall of Fame Inductee and host of the #1 global Fintech radio show and podcast Breaking Banks.

Most of us have many smart devices in our homes--smart vacuums, personal assistant devices, smart TVs, smart light bulbs, smart alarms, smart mattresses, smart toys, smart cars, etc. These devices make our lives easier, but they can have major security flaws that can let hackers into your home. How can we safely use our devices while keeping malicious users away from our homes and out of our lives? Recently an exploit in a Bluetooth enabled kids toy was revealed that allows a malicious user to pair their smartphone to the toy and talk to kids. And this just one example--truly terrifying stuff! In this episode, we'll be joined by cybersecurity experts Bob Carver and Avrohom Gottheil to delve into device security and privacy at home, and show you how to make your home safe from prying eyes and ears.

We all hear stories about the Dark Web. We may even get reports from our credit monitoring services that our information has been found on the Dark Web. The Dark Web conjures up images of buying and selling illicit drugs, weapons, malware, ransomware, user credentials, bank accounts, credit cards, health records or really anything, all paid for with cryptocurrency. But what does this mean to us in our connected lives? We’ll take on the questions, explain the Dark Web in a different way, and show you how it affects you. What can I do to keep my information safe? How do I know if my information is on the Dark Web and what can I do if it is? In this episode, we’ll answer all these questions and demystify the scariest place on the internet. Join us with Dark Web cybersecurity experts Scott Schober, Bob Schiff and Ken Muir as we take you on a journey through the Dark Web to help you keep your data in your hands and protect your connected life.

Scams, Identity Theft, and Fraud destroy millions of people’s lives and the number is increasing. On this week’s episode we will speak with Scott Augenbaum, author of The Secrets to Cybersecurity and former Supervisory Special Agent for the FBI’s Cyber Crime Fraud Unit. During his 30 years of investigating cybercrime, Scott has interacted with 1000s of cybercrime victims. Through his stories from the field involving some of his toughest cases, we will learn what steps we can take to scam proof our lives.

As we celebrate International Women's Day, we need to address the urgent and pressing job and skills gaps in the cyber and STEM corporate cultures that must be addressed swiftly in order to bring about true change and progress. Issues like diversity, inclusion, solving the cybersecurity skills gap of today by both getting kids interested and encouraged as soon as possible, but also addressing the urgency by upskilling and promoting career path shifts to cyber using the vast untapped talent pool of candidates who are interested in shifting career paths into cyber but don't know where to begin. This is a complex topic but the solutions could be relatively simple. Join me and special guests Candice Dixon, Coalition Development Director at NPower, Karen McCloskey, Director Internal Communications and Corporate Giving at NETSCOUT and Michael Hopson, Sr. Manager of Social Media at NETSCOUT to explore the current and emerging landscape of our corporate cyber lives and find out how we can address these issues head on, and in ways that are beneficial to us all now and in the future.

2021 saw the highest average cost of a data breach in 17 years. With cyber attacks and their resulting cost increasing exponentially, cybersecurity insurance has become commonplace not only for businesses but for consumers as well. Good cybersecurity hygiene and preventative measures will always be the best defense against cybercrime, but just in case, cyber insurance is a protective safety net--right? Think again. That policy may not cover as much as you think it does. This week, join me, Tina Gravel, SVP Global Channels and Alliances at Appgate, and Bill Mew, CEO of CrisisTeam.co.uk, as we discuss what you need to know right now about your cyber insurance policy and what steps to take in the event of a cyber attack crisis.

You may have heard of recent terms like metaverse and omniverse and wondered what the buzz was all about. Imagine a world where we each had a digital twin, a virtual identity that lives in a place called the multiverse. This technology and others like it are becoming mainstream, and fast. What is the metaverse, and how can the it and digital twins technology help transform critical verticals like healthcare, education and finance? What other high tech advancements are coming up that will harness and realize the potential of these exciting, cutting edge technologies? Join me and Dr. Ingrid Vasiliu-Feltes, MD MBA, healthcare executive, futurist, globalist and highly respected expert on the metaverse, ominverse and digital twins, to discuss these groundbreaking advancements and what the future holds for our virtual connected lives.

According to the National Institutes of Health, as many as 25 million Americans – about 1 in 13 people - suffer from a rare or undiagnosed condition. People with these diseases often spend years being shuffled between doctors and specialists, feeling as if they are in an endless loop of siloed care that rarely gives answers to unexplained conditions. In 2018, I become one of these people. At the time, I had no idea that I would use my cybersecurity background to save my own life or that I would eventually be diagnosed with a life altering disease that threw me into a tumultuous medical journey that would change the course of my life, and in turn give me the opportunity to help save the lives of many other people like me. On our debut show, join me as I share my medical journey, along with guests Nina Alli, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Biohacking Village, and Dr. Toby Gouker, Executive Vice President at First Healthcare and Adjunct Faculty at the University of Maryland. We’ll discuss alternate healthcare methods, the convergence of technology and healthcare, and the world of biohacking. We’ll talk about what works, what doesn’t, what’s next, and what we can do about it all.

Which is scarier, losing your smartphone or your wallet? Your entire life is on your phone, from your finances to your social media, location data, photos, business, email, Alexa, home alarm system, car communications systems, information about your kids--anything and everything about you and your life is there. Your smartphone is a treasure trove for hackers and anyone or any app that wants to profile you, your family and your business. Sound frightening? It is. How can we keep our data protected and in our control? How can our phone settings keep us safe? This week, join me and YouTube celebrities David and David from Payette Forward as we go through your phone step by step and show you how to protect your cyber life!

The US is in a dire supply chain crisis. According to the Federal Reserve, many parts of the country have been hurt by supply chain issues. Gas prices are hitting record highs. Goods are sitting in harbors, waiting for trucks to send them to their destinations. Consumers are seeing empty shelves all over the country. Perhaps most frightening of all, pharmacies are reportedly running out of prescription medications. The FDA has listed 100+ medications as being on backorder. According to one report, pharmacies are having to come up with creative ways to help their patients. Frankly, it’s scary. And on top of all this, how is the current supply chain crisis impacting cybersecurity and our critical infrastructure? Is our national cybersecurity at risk? How is technology helping the problem from inventory management systems to new innovative solutions? Is there a viable solution or is this the new norm? This week join us as we discuss the supply chain crisis from a cyber perspective with special guests Chuck Brooks, globally recognized cyber thought leader and former Legislative Director of the Science & Technology Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security and Matthew Rosenquist, a globally recognized top cybersecurity expert, cybersecurity strategist, and Chief Information Security Officer at Eclipz. We’ll tackle these tough questions and offer real world solutions that will help us make it through the supply chain crisis unscathed and cyber secure.

A recent study shows that the pandemic has been associated with a three-fold increase in elevated depression in U.S. adults. Nearly 30% of American adults reported feeling depressed in an October 2021 study, up from 8.5% before the pandemic. Social media can be a major contributing factor. Most of us have probably experienced FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) or feelings of inadequacy when we compare our lives to others on social media, and we've heard about terms like imposter syndrome, but what does imposter syndrome mean and what can we do about it? This week we welcome special guests and co-founders of International Imposter Syndrome Awareness Day Nat Schooler, Kim-Adele Platts, and Lisa Ventura to discuss social media, depression, and imposter syndrome in children and adults and learn the skills you need to protect yourself and your kids from falling prey to social media depression and imposter syndrome.

In 2021, 98% of successful cyber attacks were caused by social engineering. At the same time, social engineering threats also rose by an astounding 270% in 2021. This means that social engineering is one of the biggest threats to cybersecurity and one of the hardest to combat. But first off, what exactly is social engineering and why is it so successful? What are the most successful social engineering tactics and what can we expect to see in the near future? With social engineering being so prolific, what are the steps we can take to protect ourselves, our families and our businesses from falling victim to these attacks? For this episode, we're joined by Marilise de Villiers Basson, the founder & CEO of ROAR! and cyber gurus Rob May and Scott Schober to answer these questions and discuss everything social engineering, from the good to the bad, and show you how we can shield ourselves from the social engineering onslaught.

2021 was a tumultuous year for cybersecurity. The ongoing pandemic, supply chain and widespread ransomware attacks against industries of all kinds including critical infrastructure have made the year feel like nothing short of cyber chaos. Hackers targeted and brought hospitals down. Cyber-attacks ran rampant against the Colonial Pipeline, JBS, Solarwinds, among a seemingly never-ending list of victims. And to top it all off, the Log4J vulnerability reared its face. All that being said, it wasn’t all bad. 2021 also brought needed digital disruption, global cyber collaboration, governments finally viewing cybersecurity as a serious enough threat needing major help, and groundbreaking innovations that are helping to change the cyber landscape as we know it. As 2021 winds down, we turn to look ahead at what’s to come in 2022 and imagine what the new year will bring. What does the cyber landscape look like in 2022? What threats are lurking on the horizon? What advancements will we see? How different will things look a year from now? Will the cyber chaos continue? And frankly, what do you need to know to keep yourself, your family and your business safe from new cyber threats? Join us as we welcome guests James Alliband and Karen Worstell, Senior Cybersecurity Strategists at VMWare to talk 2022 predictions and what we can expect in the cyber world this year.