1033: Hide and Seek: Malicious Websites Hidden in Plain Sight

The Tech Talks Daily Podcast

Imagine you're surfing the web to read about the latest round of political debates, catch the score from last night's football game, or even make a simple online purchase -- all pretty common mobile activities. Would you expect any of the websites you visit to inject malicious code or malware on your device? Probably not. Well, it turns out you might want to think again, as sites that appear to be "good" may not be as safe as you think.

Nearly half of the internet's most popular websites are deemed "risky," according to Menlo Security's 2018 State of the Web Report. Even more troubling, at least 42% of the sites have used server software known to be vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks, had distributed malware or even launched attacks at some point in the past, or had suffered a security breach within the past 12 months.

I invited Kowsik Guruswamy, CTO at Menlo Security, to discuss known critical issues with popular websites and the potential impact for users? Kowsik also sheds light on how 10% of "good" websites are actually bad, how the web browser, or other site functionalities, serve as one of the primary conduits for delivering malware, and what can be done to easily defend against these issues.

Kowsik also considers himself as an entrepreneur, polyglot hacker, app tinkerer, DevOps dude, cloud whisperer, startup advisor, speaker, and a blogger/writer. With a diverse hands-on experience in product development and vision, including gaming, network & application security, performance, NoSQL, cloud, DevOps and polyglot frameworks.

I learn how he also has a unique perspective on connecting unrelated dots together in unique ways. A passionate, lead-by-example kind of CTO that can inspire a team to do amazing things.