Root Causes: A PKI and Security Podcast

Episodios

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  Root Causes 643: Certificates for Stronger Agent Authentication 22.07.2026 10m

  We survey different strategies for securely authenticating agentic AI, including certificates and SPIFFE. We discuss Zero Trust and the Principle of Least Privileges as applied to agents.
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  Root Causes 642: Anthropic to Support SPIFFE/SPIRE 20.07.2026 3m

  Anthropic has announced its intentions to support SPIFFE/SPIRE with the SPIRE server rooted in an "upstream authority," which will require a root private CA rather than allowing self-attestation for agentic AI.
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  Root Causes 641: What Is SPIRE? 17.07.2026 5m

  In our episode 640 we defined SPIFFE, which provides digital identity for agentic workloads. In this episode we explain SPIRE (SPIFFE Runtime Environment), the SPIFFE certificate provisioning protocol.
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  Root Causes 640: What is SPIFFE? 15.07.2026 4m

  SPIFFE (Secure Production Identity Framework for Everyone) is a standard for digital identity for agentic workloads. In this episode we explain.
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  Root Causes 639: Fighting Static API Key Spillage Is Like Fighting Gravity 10.07.2026 8m

  Static API keys are a common security practice. In this episode we discuss the risk of these keys being revealed, including directly by the AIs that use them.
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  Root Causes 638: Catfishing 08.07.2026 21m

  Tim shares his very personal experience with would-be catfishers and we talk about how AI is set to change the catfishing attack.
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  Root Causes 637: Is It Time to Get Rid of EV SSL? 06.07.2026 10m

  The Baseline Requirements, CT logs, the Bugzilla Bloodbath, shortening certificate lifespans, all these trends serve to enforce a high level of quality and predictability across WebPKI certificates. Nearly twenty years after the introduction of EV SSL, we ask if it has served its purpose and should be retired.
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  Root Causes 636: The Future of Crypto Agility 02.07.2026 9m

  Dustin Moody of NIST joins us to talk about the evolution of standardized cryptography beyond the current PQC efforts. Topics include maintaining visibility on cryptography presently in use, 50 years of RSA, and cryptographic heterogeny.
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  Root Causes 635: Do We Need to Get Rid of ECC? 29.06.2026 9m

  Bas Westerbaan of Cloudflare joins us to discuss recent information that heightens concerns about Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) and its vulnerability to a cryptographically relevant quantum computer (CRQC). We pose the question do we need to deprecate ECC in advance of our migration to ML-DSA and other PQC algorithms.
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  Root Causes 634: White House Executive Order Accelerates PQC Deployment 26.06.2026 12m

  A new Executive Order (EO) moves the deadline for ML-DSA deployment up to 2031. We talk about why this happened and its implications on government, the technology industry, and enterprises around the globe.
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  Root Causes 633: ETSI PQC Conference Wrap Up 24.06.2026 16m

  We are freshly returned from the 2026 ETSI PQC Conference. We give a debrief on the conference, including the difference between post quantum cryptography (PQC) and quantum key distribution (QKD), the algorithmic zoo, PQC for blockchain, the Dunning Kruger Effect, and cryptographic Frogger.
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  Root Causes 632: Gartner Risk and Security 2026 Wrap Up 22.06.2026 19m

  We recently attended the Gartner Risk and Security conference for 2026, where we observed a great deal of attention on not only AI but also post quantum cryptography (PQC). Join us as we share the key takeaways.
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  Root Causes 631: Did the Bugzilla Bloodbath Change Anything? 19.06.2026 13m

  2024 saw a flurry of high profile incidents for public CA, which we named the Bugzilla Bloodbath. We look back to see how the WebPKI has changed as a consequence.
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  Root Causes 630: The PQC Physicality Crisis 17.06.2026 6m

  Resource-constrained devices may need to address PQC through real-time, seed-based, key generation. Unfortunately, this leaves the full key exposed very briefly in RAM. The potential consequences of this are far-reaching and scary. We go into the details.
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  Root Causes 629: Does the Evidence Support Moving PQC Deadlines to 2029? 15.06.2026 16m

  Sam Jaques of the University of Waterloo returns to discuss his tracking of progress in quantum computers and offer a perspective on moving our PQC deadlines up to 2029.
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  Root Causes 628: PI-DOS (Prompt Injection-based Denial of Service) 12.06.2026 9m

  An emerging attack against AIs is to create a significantly complex and recursive prompt that will occupy the AI indefinitely or for a sufficiently long time that it acts as a Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack. We describe how this works.
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  Root Causes 627: UK vs Apple E2EE Backups 10.06.2026 5m

  In the latest in our coverage of government versus encryption, the UK issued secret orders to Apple to give it a cryptographic backdoor to Apple's advanced data protection capability for iCloud. Apple responded by eliminating encryption entirely for UK users. We break it down.
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  Root Causes 626: TLS 1.3 Roadblock 08.06.2026 10m

  TLS 1.3 is required to take advantage of post quantum cryptography (PQC) algorithms. Yes, we still see a lot of TLS 1.2 or earlier in deployment. We examine why this is the case and what to do about it.
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  Root Causes 625: AI in 1000 Days - Cyber Defense 05.06.2026 8m

  Recent revelations about Mythos and its ability to expose vulnerabilities have forced us to rethink basic assumptions about cyber defense. In our "AI in 1000 Days" series, Jason Soroko and I examine the implications of these revelations three years from now. This includes upping the overall pace of attack and changes to best practices in cyber security defense.
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  Root Causes 624: Implications of Mythos 03.06.2026 15m

  Anthropic has delayed its widespread release of Mythos to give major software providers a chance to close off the many vulnerabilities it has discovered. We dig into the vast implications of Mythos and other AI models for the future of cybersecurity.