"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness." - Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)
I love a good story. Now, I've never read Paul Clifford, but that opening line does make me wonder what sort of gothic tale awaits me were I to set aside the time. It has a favorable rating on Goodreads - apparently it's a tale about a highwayman!
I'm presuming my audience is mostly male, because statistics, so it follows that when you see "highwayman" you will, like my husband, picture this:
(this was discovered when I suggested "highwayman" as a Halloween costume)
Most women know that "highwayman" is more like this:
Like the man in the Loreena McKennitt song:
"He'd a french cocked hat at his forehead
A bunch of lace at his chin
A coat of claret velvet
And breeches of brown doe-skin
They fitted with nary a wrinkle
His boots were up to the thigh
And he rode with a jeweled twinkle
His pistol butts a-twinkle
His rapier hilt a-twinkle
Under the jeweled sky"
Ah, yes, a highwayman...
(spoiler: it doesn't end well for the highwayman)
I not only love a good story, I love a good procedural crime story. I don't watch TV as a rule, but if you sit me down in front of any of the Law & Order shows I will have to watch them to the end. It doesn't matter to me if I know how a story ends; it's the story itself I find engaging - the journey, as it were. (I actually read spoilers before I go to movies so I can relax and enjoy the story.) Storytelling is not only a excellent form of entertainment, an enjoyable story can help us remember things. Stories aid learning because hearing stories lights up areas of the brain that PowerPoint just can't do. So, it's no wonder that the podcasts I enjoy the most tend to feature storytelling. (If you remember my earlier entries to this blog I'm a huge fan of podcasts, not only for when I'm driving but also folding laundry and getting ready)
I came to this realization about the storytelling podcasts upon reading an op-ed in the Washington Post written by a fellow who doesn't care for podcasts: "I think they’re tedious and samey and sedative". The author's point was more about music and sound quality, but as I was reading his examples I mentally went through the sorts of podcasts I listen to. A few of them are the conversational type (Happier by Gretchen Rubin, Happier in Hollywood by Gretchen's sister and her writing partner, etc.) and I find those well-produced and interesting enough. A few of the cybersecurity podcasts, such as the Motherboard CYBER one I reviewed earlier, feature interviews. If the content is interesting and the voices don't annoy me I will keep listening. But, the ones I binge listen like rats in drug studies are the storytelling ones - the ones that have suspense and action and a satisfying conclusion. The top two are Darknet Diaries hosted by Jack Rhysider (probably not his real name, but it could be) and Malicious Life hosted by Ran Levi. Both podcasts are widely available on a variety of streaming or listening platforms, or one can visit their sites, which also contain supporting resources. Malicious Life has transcripts on their website, too, so if you need to go back and check on something you won't have to re-listen. Rhysider and Levi both have real-world cybersecurity experience in addition to being skilled storytellers.
Now, I wasn't unsympathetic to the points about sound quality from the anti-podcast op-ed author I mentioned above, although my sticking points with podcasts tend to be the presenter's voices and not production quality. I'm happy to report that Rhysider and Levi are both quite charming to listen to. Rhysider has the drama club voice, but without trying too hard, and Levi has a pleasing accent (he's Israeli). So, in addition to having engaging content, told in a manner that lights up my brain, my ears are happy, too.
The content of both podcasts is centered around cybercrime stories - Darknet Diaries has the tagline, "True stories from the dark side of the Internet". In some stories I knew before listening how they end, or at least whodunnit, but as I indicated above, knowing how something ends has never dimmed my excitement for the story itself. I can't say that I generally have sympathy for cybercriminals the way I might romanticize an 18th century highwayman (I will admit I'd like to high-five the folks who wrote Stuxnet...) but I can abstractly admire the cleverness and the cat-and-mouse nature of cybercrime while lamenting any damage done to individuals (I am unequivocally horrified by the Equifax hackers, I'll note - although the Equifax "leadership" at the time of the hack is equally villainous in my opinion). There was one episode, though, of Malicious Life - on DeCSS - where I was all in with the highwayman, but that comes from my philosophical stance on "intellectual property" and my strong dislike of the term "piracy" being applied to anything that doesn't involve the high seas and bad folks with weapons. I also felt a kinship with Manfred, the video game hacker from Darknet Diaries. If there weren't others out there like me, who like to hear stories about crime, I doubt it would be such a lucrative market for TV and movies. It's frankly just more fun to hear about when things went wrong rather than a how-to on setting up security controls properly - not that how to set up security controls properly isn't important, but when you hear a famous penetration tester - @TinkerSec - talking about how he [tries to] break into a company, the security controls take on a new meaning; they have context.
Outside of possibly getting CPE credits for listening to podcasts, why should someone in cybersecurity spend their time listening to these two, particularly out of all the other cybersecurity podcasts out there? These podcasts not only tell older stories - such as the Morris Worm episodes - that are important to know for background and context, but also new ones. Darknet Diaries interviewed Hacker Giraffe pretty much right after that happened. You're not going to get breaking news from these two, but you will get thoughtful, well-researched analysis of cybercrime events relayed in a riveting presentation. If the formula for storytelling involves something along the lines of "put your character in a tree, set the tree on fire, get your character safely down" they are following this formula. There are ways to tell these cybercrime stories without the suspense of what will happen to the character in the tree on fire but they generally involve PowerPoint. Because of the storytelling aspect you will remember more of the stories - and not only the stories, but the cybersecurity technologies and issues that have starring or co-starring roles in the stories. You will feel the anxiety of the government intelligence agents who realize their expensive espionage malware implant might be discovered and lead to a diplomatic incident (not to mention have everything you learned about social engineering validated). If these podcasts were books you'd be turning the pages, waiting to see what happens next. No one eagerly clicks the next PowerPoint slide. If content is engaging it's more likely to be consumed. You can queue up all the cybersecurity podcasts out there and have the best intentions of listening to them, but unless you actually listen and pay attention, they aren't much good sitting in the queue. I'm not saying Darknet Diaries and Malicious Life are the dessert of the cybersecurity podcast world because they contain an overwhelmingly useful amount of brain nutrition. They aren't comfort food, either (that would Happier) They are perhaps the meal that is both tasty and nutritious: filet mignon coated with an almond and shallot mix with a side of steamed broccoli. You look forward to consuming it and feel virtuous and satisfied afterward.
