Episode 817: A Former CIA Hacker on the “Cyber Crisis”
Newt's World
Gingrich 360
4.6 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 2 March 2025
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Newt talks with Dr. Eric Cole, a renowned cybersecurity expert, entrepreneur, and author of “Cyber Crisis: Protecting Your Business from Real Threats in the Virtual World.” Dr. Cole discusses the pervasive issue of cybersecurity threats, highlighting the frequent breaches by foreign entities such as Chinese, Russian, and Iranian hackers. He emphasizes the need for federal cybersecurity laws in the U.S. and the importance of redesigning systems to protect against vulnerabilities. Their conversation covers the global nature of cyber warfare, the inadequacy of current U.S. cybersecurity measures, and the necessity for a comprehensive overhaul of the nation's cyber infrastructure. Dr. Cole provides practical advice for individuals to enhance their own cybersecurity, such as using two-factor authentication, minimizing the use of free apps, and avoiding clicking on suspicious links.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | On this episode of NUTS World, it's not often I get the opportunity to speak with someone |
| 0:08.3 | who used to be a professional hacker for the CIA. |
| 0:12.2 | My guest is Dr. Eric Cole. |
| 0:14.5 | He is a renowned cybersecurity expert, entrepreneur, and best-selling author with over 30 years of experience in the industry. |
| 0:22.9 | He is known for his work in advancing cybersecurity and his dedication to making the digital |
| 0:27.6 | world a safer place. He has advised some of the world's top companies on reducing their |
| 0:33.1 | digital threats and improving their cyber health. He's the author of the book, Cyber Crisis, Protecting Your Business from Real Threats in the |
| 0:41.7 | virtual world. |
| 0:52.7 | Eric, welcome and thank you for joining me on Newt's World. |
| 0:56.8 | My pleasure, and thank you for having me. |
| 0:58.9 | I'm very curious. |
| 0:59.8 | In December of last year, Chinese hackers breached a third-party vendor for the U.S. Treasury Department |
| 1:05.9 | to gain access to over 3,000 unclassified files. |
| 1:13.6 | How could this have happened, and what should the U.S. government learn from this? The reality is this is happening all the time. Most security vendors, |
| 1:22.6 | most companies, most organizations have been compromised or penetrated by the Chinese, the Russians, or the Iranians, |
| 1:32.5 | and we just didn't detect it. We didn't realize it. And we didn't know that it's happening. |
| 1:37.7 | So this is a much bigger problem that has been brewing for a long time. And unfortunately, |
| 1:42.4 | there's not been a lot of awareness around just |
| 1:44.8 | how bad the issue is. And governments and other organizations have to realize that the probability |
| 1:52.0 | of third party vendors or third party sources having a vulnerability or a compromise is very high. |
| 1:59.8 | And we need to redesign our systems. We need to |
| 2:03.2 | redesign how we're configured to protect against it. And most importantly, we need federal laws on |
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