Security and Privacy topics thin on the ground

I would like to see more security and privacy tools and services covered by the show.
The Android world is mostly treating security as a problem that Google and the phone vendors deal with.
As handheld devices gradually replace regular computers for many. I feel that this area is being ignored somewhat, especially when many kids are given cheep or second hand devices with OSs as old as Android 4.

When was the last AV roundup and comparisons made between them ?
When was the last review of the vulnerability scanners ?
How about 3rd party exploit patches from the various security vendors ?

There are plenty of things users can do to add more protection to their devices, especially when they are vulnerable to exploits that will never be fixed.

When it comes to vulnerability scanners, that itself is a thorny subject as once any of them become recognised as being popular they get bought by commercial interests and turned into apps for corporate users.
The public need to know what vulnerabilities are in their devices so that if they cannot be fixed they can be avoided.
As the years go on the world has more and more old devices in circulation which are not updated. This leaves a massive chunk of the planet at risk from their devices.
This is a large demographic being ignored.

Security Now may be the defacto security show on TWiT but it never covers Android security.
That is the responsibility of AAA, and as discussed in another thread the general feeling is that privacy and security need to be talked about more at every level if we expect the next generations to care about their digital safety.

Privacy and security are normal and need to be common topics, so common that when someone expresses their ignorance it is seen as unusual.

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I would agree with you, Dr. Flay, but TWIT already has Security Now. An awesome show regarding security for everything, including Android. If you don’t listen to Leo and Steve on Security Now, you should definitely give it a try.

One thing I would like to point out, is that most of the hosts of AAA, do not watch Security Now. I know this because a lot of the security concerned raised on AAA already have been addressed in Security Now.

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Could be that they address security on AAA to ensure their audience is aware of it, because people who subscribe to AA A may not subscribe to SN. Not everyone has enough listening time to be able to include multiple podcasts each week, so hosts may have to assume that a percentage of their audience may not be listening to any other podcast.

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You do have a very valid point. We do need to get more information regarding Android security and they would probably be more prompted to talk about it if they all listened to Security Now. I actually started listening to TWIiT through Security Now first and then added AAA. I also listen to This Week in Google, but cannot always handle a full episode of Jeff Jarvis trying to change the topic to politics. :joy:

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It was Security Now that brought me to TWiT a few years ago so I am very familiar with it.
SN is the 1 show I make a point of following.

Unfortunately while Steve may cover the major android security news, but he is not an android user so can only ever recommend you wait and hope a patch is pushed upstream.

AAA is the show where I would expect to see comparisons and roundups of android security patches issued by 3rd party vendors.
This is also the show that I would expect to find the monthly roundup of the current android AV ratings.
Also explanations of how Android AV is very different from desktop AV.

Unless we can get Steve to swap iOS for Android, the expertise in this area is the AAA crew.

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Seems like we followed similar paths in subscribing to Twist. I agree with you 100%. One thing that came to mind is that they do talk about compromised apps, but do not have a talk about avoiding them in the first place. There so much not covered. I had an LG with AT&T, I paid it off, unlocked it with permission and took it to T-Mobile; my phone stopped getting security updates as soon as I switched carriers. Found that on practice and never got any news on AAA that this happens. Maybe the need someone on the show who focuses only on security for us to get this information.