EP 513 | FEBRUARY 10, 2025

UK Demands Apple Backdoor; AI Spending: Can't Stop, Won't Stop

US senators and security experts sound the alarm about DOGE employees introducing security and stability risks in sensitive US government systems, the UK government demands a backdoor in Apple's Advanced Data Protection for all users worldwide, AI spending will continue until morale improves, and more tech news analysis on this week's Network Break. | LISTEN NOW

SPONSORED | FEBRUARY 10, 2025

When the Internet Is Your Network, Catchpoint IPM Provides Critical Visibility

As more users rely on SaaS and cloud for applications, the Internet has essentially become a business-critical network. But how can you, a network engineer, be expected to manage the Internet? Enter Internet Performance Monitoring, or IPM. We talk with sponsor Catchpoint about its approach to IPM, how it measures performance and reports back to you, and get specific examples of what Catchpoint can do. | LISTEN NOW

EP 094 | FEBRUARY 11, 2025

How Risky Is Your Organization's AI Strategy?

LLMs and reasoning models can be used to generate output that the creators and users of those models didn't intend; for example, harassment, instructions on how to make a bomb, or facilitating cybercrime. Researchers have created a HarmBench framework to measure how easily an AI can be weaponized. Recently these researchers trumpeted the finding that DeepSeek failed 100% of its tests. But the scarier finding is that ALL AI models did poorly, failing anywhere from 65%-85% of the tests. John and Johna talk about some of the specific risks illuminated by these findings--and what tech strategists might consider doing in response. | LISTEN NOW

EP 049 | FEBRUARY 11, 2025

CSMM - A Practical Model for Improving Your Cloud Security

The Cloud Security Maturity Model (CSMM) is a practical blueprint for improving the security of your public cloud deployments. The model covers 12 categories, such as network security and application security, across 3 domains. It describes 5 levels of security maturity, and includes process and technical specifications to help organizations advance through each level. We talk with model developer Rich Mogull about how to use the CSMM. | LISTEN NOW

EP 085 | FEBRUARY 12, 2025

Embrace Change to Thrive in the Tech Industry

Embracing change is sometimes easier said than done. Today we talk with Monika Machado, who has held significant roles at companies like Microsoft and Oracle. She shares her story of learning and personal growth. Monika highlights the value of mentor-mentee relationships, continuous learning, understanding the difference between leadership and management, and the value of owning what no one else does. | LISTEN NOW

EP 013 | FEBRUARY 13, 2025

Spanning Tree Part 1 - An Introduction and Broadcast Storms

Spanning tree is a topic so mysterious and complicated that common advice is just to disable it. In today’s episode, we start a mini-series on spanning tree, hoping to better explain what it is and what it does. We begin with basic spanning tree terminology and its role in preventing loops in an Ethernet network. We also describe the problem of broadcast storms, which spanning tree was designed to prevent. Bonus material:  Some ideas of what to do if your network is caught in a broadcast storm. | LISTEN NOW

EP 016 | FEBRUARY 14, 2025

One Integrated Experience for NetOps, SecOps, and Business Teams (Sponsored)

Collaboration among tech and business teams is crucial to advancing your business. Extreme Networks is introducing Extreme Platform ONE to support this collaboration. In this sponsored episode, we talk about how this product is designed to streamline workflows and enhance user experience through automation and AI integration. Extreme Networks Platform ONE is a centralized platform for technical and non-technical teams to simplify workflows and licensing processes, visualize network configurations, and incorporates AI tools. | LISTEN NOW

EP 768 | FEBRUARY 14, 2025

Ctrl+Alt+Delivered App Routing Reinvented with Palo Alto Networks SD-WAN (Sponsored)

SD-WAN has changed the way we connect and secure branch offices. On today's Heavy Networking, we talk with sponsor Palo Alto Networks about how it differentiates its SD-WAN from competitors, the visibility and performance metrics it provides, the ease of tying its SD-WAN to an SSE, how it supports zero trust initiatives, and more. | LISTEN NOW