Hacking Security Episode 1: What is Hacking Security?

Hacking Security is a monthly podcast on emerging trends in application security development.

Episode 1 covers how we came up with the name “Hacking Security.” Why did we decide on this name? Take five minutes to learn more, or read the transcript below.

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Transcript

Welcome to the Hacking Security podcast. Hacking Security is a podcast for emerging trends in application security development. I am your host, Steve Giguere, and full disclosure: This podcast series is sponsored by the Synopsys Software Integrity Group.

How did we name this podcast?

Welcome to Hacking Security Episode 1, where we’ll dig deep to cover how we got the name “Hacking Security.” Like all good software development projects, this is a multidiscipline effort where we put together the minds and hearts of the Synopsys Software Integrity Group. The content team used their favorite brainstorming tool, Google, and came up with a list of about 40 names to choose from. Then they narrowed it down to a short list of 11—yes, 11—potential titles. Nobody uses 10 anymore.

After reading these titles, we went and did an informal survey of my fellow developers and colleagues to find out what should be the name of our exciting new podcast. Ultimately, the name we came up to was a bit too long, and we settled in for “Hacking Security.” We felt it told the tale, and incredibly, it was available. That often becomes the final criteria for selection of any kind of domain or name or any decision, podcast, whatsoever you make it. If the Twitter’s available, if the domain’s available, if no one has a podcast already called that, holy moly, you’re onto a winner.

Brainstorming podcast names

But let’s talk about some of the ones that we threw away—and frankly, it’s a little embarrassing that we even considered some of these. So let’s go in reverse order of our top 10, shall we? Eleven, sorry. Eleven. All right.

11. Terminal Bits and Bytes. Yeah, maybe. Maybe if this podcast was being done in the eighties, perhaps.

10. Security Tribe Musings. I don’t know where—I don’t know what Google was thinking with that one.

9. Explore Security. Yeah, maybe a little bit too Microsoft!

8. Brief in Security. Somebody made a logo for that, “Brief in Security,” that had a pair of underpants, a pair of Y-fronts, and that instantly made us throw that one away.

7. Bridging Security Gaps. Eh, I don’t know. Yeah. Too long.

6. Security Missions and Musings. It’s starting to sound a little bit like we’re writing security fan fiction or true detective novels about application security. We were getting desperate at this point.

5. Quest for Security.

4. Adventures in Security! We’re getting into the top three now.

3. Tales of a Security Warrior. I like that one simply because it might mean I’d get to change my business card and my signature to say “Security Warrior,” which sounds better than my current title.

2. Security Bits and Battles. You see what we did there? Very much like the “Terminal Bits and Bytes,” except we’re all battling against security. Anyway. Yes.

The name that got away

So this is the final one, the one that actually everybody liked the most, suggested by one of my Swedish colleagues. Are you ready? We should queue up that sexy booming music again. [music] Yeah, that’s it. That’s it.

All right, here we go. The best podcast name we didn’t use is, quote: “No One Knows Hacking Better Than Us. Seriously, We Dare You to Hack Us, Plonkers. We Are the Thought Leaders, Gosh Darn It Podcast.” That was actually the most popular name. It’s very difficult to get productive information out of my colleagues sometimes.

And in the end we settled down on “Hacking Security,” mainly because that’s what we’re going for. The reason we called it “Hacking Security”—just to be completely blunt about it—is that we are looking at application security, and not only are we doing that, we’re looking to break down, how do we secure? So when we’re talking about hacking something—whether it be a server, whether it be a website, whatever it is—what you’re looking to do is point out the flaws, point out the gaps, and really dig in and discuss things. And that’s kind of what we’re looking for here at Hacking Security. So if you’re looking for subject matter about blockchain security, data privacy, cloud security, malware, ransomware, and open source management, with content crafted and designed by global experts here at the Synopsys Software Integrity Group, I think you’re going to like this podcast.

This has been the first episode of Hacking Security. We hope you come back for more. I am Steve Giguere. Thanks for listening.