Can AI really write malware better than hackers ever could? This episode exposes the first real-world case of advanced, fully AI-generated malware and why it signals a seismic shift in cybersecurity risk.

• CISA's uncertain future remains quite worrisome.
• Worrisome is Ireland's new "lawful" interception law.
• The EU's Digital Rights organization pushes back.
• Microsoft acknowledges it turns over user encryption keys.
• Alex Neihaus on AI enterprise usage dangers.
• Gavin confesses he put a database on the Internet.
• Worries about a massive podcast rewinding backlog.
• What does the emergence of AI-generated malware portend?

Show Note - https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-1062-Notes.pdf

Hosts: Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte

Download or subscribe to Security Now at https://twit.tv/shows/security-now.

You can submit a question to Security Now at the GRC Feedback Page.

For 16kbps versions, transcripts, and notes (including fixes), visit Steve's site: grc.com, also the home of the best disk maintenance and recovery utility ever written Spinrite 6.

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Soaring RAM prices are about to hit your security gear where it hurts, and the fallout could change what's protecting your network. Find out who's about to pay and why the AI gold rush is reshaping more than just your server specs.

• RAM pricing to affect enterprise firewall equipment.
• Anthropic provides sizeable support to Python Foundation.
• The FTC clamps down on GM's secret sale of driving data.
• "ANCHOR" replaces "CIPAC" for industry-government sharing.
• Germany planning to legislate total access to global data.
• Grubhub becomes the latest ShinyHunters extortion victim.
• Let's Encrypt's 6-Day certs are available to everyone.
• Iran planning to permanently take itself off the Internet.
• HD Tune before and after a SpinRite Level 3 refresh.
• Some great listener feedback, and
• More trouble from GhostPoster malicious browser extensions

Show Notes - https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-1061-Notes.pdf

Hosts: Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte

Download or subscribe to Security Now at https://twit.tv/shows/security-now.

You can submit a question to Security Now at the GRC Feedback Page.

For 16kbps versions, transcripts, and notes (including fixes), visit Steve's site: grc.com, also the home of the best disk maintenance and recovery utility ever written Spinrite 6.

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Why are code signing certificates suddenly so expensive, short-lived, and tangled in red tape? Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson dig into Microsoft's "three-day certificates," the hidden costs for developers, and the security tradeoffs no one saw coming.

• A look at Microsoft's Azure cloud code signing.
• California implements DROP, global data broker opt-out.
• Where's the town of "Whata Bod" Idaho.
• iOS built-in Mail app worked itself out of a job.
• A 30-minute tutorial for non-coders about AI coding.
• Claude Code appears to be winning over the AI coding world.
• Various listener musings on code signing.
• A bit of Magnesium feedback.
• What use are 3-day code signing certs?

Show Notes - https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-1060-Notes.pdf

Hosts: Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte

Download or subscribe to Security Now at https://twit.tv/shows/security-now.

You can submit a question to Security Now at the GRC Feedback Page.

For 16kbps versions, transcripts, and notes (including fixes), visit Steve's site: grc.com, also the home of the best disk maintenance and recovery utility ever written Spinrite 6.

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Why are code signing certificates suddenly getting shorter, pricier, and more restrictive? Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte expose the "cabal" rewriting the rules for everyone who builds software—and what it means for your security and your wallet.

• Code-signing certificate lifetimes shortened by two years.
• Sadly, ChatGPT is heading toward an advertising profit model.
• The Python Package Index is strengthening its security.
• BitLocker gets hardware acceleration, but not today.
• New York City's mayoral inauguration banned Raspberry Pi's.
• An astonishingly good British time travel series.
• A critical link between Vitamin D and Magnesium.
• A look inside the very bad MongoBleed vulnerability

Show Notes - https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-1059-Notes.pdf

Hosts: Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte

Download or subscribe to Security Now at https://twit.tv/shows/security-now.

You can submit a question to Security Now at the GRC Feedback Page.

For 16kbps versions, transcripts, and notes (including fixes), visit Steve's site: grc.com, also the home of the best disk maintenance and recovery utility ever written Spinrite 6.

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In this special holiday episode, Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte revisit their classic conversation about vitamin D—diving into the science, surprising updates, and practical tips for your health. Whether you've heard it before or are tuning in for the first time, this "blast from the past" is the perfect way to kick off 2026 with wisdom, laughs, and a little bit of eggnog recovery.

Read more at https://www.grc.com/health

Hosts: Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte

Download or subscribe to Security Now at https://twit.tv/shows/security-now.

You can submit a question to Security Now at the GRC Feedback Page.

For 16kbps versions, transcripts, and notes (including fixes), visit Steve's site: grc.com, also the home of the best disk maintenance and recovery utility ever written Spinrite 6.

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What if your smart TV and Firefox extensions were secretly hijacking your security and privacy? This episode reveals the jaw-dropping discovery of a massive TV botnet and the surprisingly clever malware lurking behind innocent browser icons.

• North Korea's profitable fixation on cryptocurrency.
• Amazon uncovers a cryptomining sneaking into customer clouds.
• Insecure Docker API servers are also hosting cryptominers.
• A new and truly massive SmartTV-based botnet discovery.
• DNS Benchmark's 4th release.
• Who, besides Let's Encrypt, offers free automated certs.
• Some interesting listener feedback.
• And how a PNG Icon was used to infect 50,000 Firefox users

Show Notes - https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-1057-Notes.pdf

Hosts: Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte

Download or subscribe to Security Now at https://twit.tv/shows/security-now.

You can submit a question to Security Now at the GRC Feedback Page.

For 16kbps versions, transcripts, and notes (including fixes), visit Steve's site: grc.com, also the home of the best disk maintenance and recovery utility ever written Spinrite 6.

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Australia's nationwide social media ban has put tech's age verification tools under the spotlight, exposing the flaws and privacy risks in today's facial detection systems and sparking worldwide debate about what's coming for the rest of us.

• Home Depot's puzzling reluctance to close a bad hole.
• GNOME's shell extension manager is unhappy with AI.
• How attacks on open source repositories compares in 2025.
• China's researchers have taken aim at the US power grid.
• How bad has the React2Shell vulnerability turned out to be.
• More new React vulnerabilities.
• Apple moves to iOS 26.2.
• Let's Encrypt's crosses into one billion servers managed.
• A DNS Benchmark update.
• Some interesting listener feedback, then...
• How things going with Australia's social media ban and what we are learning

https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-1056-Notes.pdf

Hosts: Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte

Download or subscribe to Security Now at https://twit.tv/shows/security-now.

You can submit a question to Security Now at the GRC Feedback Page.

For 16kbps versions, transcripts, and notes (including fixes), visit Steve's site: grc.com, also the home of the best disk maintenance and recovery utility ever written Spinrite 6.

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A devastating new React vulnerability earned a "perfect 10" for risk, letting attackers remotely run code on a million-plus servers with a single HTTP request. Find out what happened, how fast attackers moved in, and why this bug changes everything for web security.

• France's VanityFair face a stiff fine over cookies.
• GrapheneOS pulls out of France over coercion worries.
• The EU adds to the pile-on over underage social media.
• India mandates the tracking of all smartphones.
• Apple says no.
• India abandons its smartphone tracking mandate.
• India requires all encrypted messaging to be SIM-tied.
• Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters --becomes--> SLH.
• AI demand has driven RAM pricing sky high.
• GRC's DNS Benchmark is finished and available.
• Cisco may talk a good game, but they're still Cisco.
• Browsers to ask users for local network access permission.
• React: The worst remote code exploit in a LONG time.

Show Notes - https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-1055-Notes.pdf

Hosts: Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte

Download or subscribe to Security Now at https://twit.tv/shows/security-now.

You can submit a question to Security Now at the GRC Feedback Page.

For 16kbps versions, transcripts, and notes (including fixes), visit Steve's site: grc.com, also the home of the best disk maintenance and recovery utility ever written Spinrite 6.

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Cisco has finally admitted it's time for real change and is vowing to build "secure by default" gear after decades of criticism. Steve Gibson reacts to a rare moment when a tech giant actually gets security right—and what it means for everyone running critical infrastructure.

• Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters strikes (Salesforce) again.
• Cisco actually (no kidding) sees the light.
• Next week, Australia bans all underage social media.
• The EU Parliament moves to replace US computer tech.
• When to use Passwords, Passkeys or Yubikeys.
• Do unpowered SSDs lose their data.
• How about a "Joy of Coding" podcast.
• A Bitwarden Passkeys integration glitch.
• XSLT is sneaky. It's where you don't expect it.
• We know where last week's picture came from.
• The long-awaited return of a new Stargate series.
• A simple test to check our networks for any bot infections.

Show Notes: https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-1054-Notes.pdf

Hosts: Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte

Download or subscribe to Security Now at https://twit.tv/shows/security-now.

You can submit a question to Security Now at the GRC Feedback Page.

For 16kbps versions, transcripts, and notes (including fixes), visit Steve's site: grc.com, also the home of the best disk maintenance and recovery utility ever written Spinrite 6.

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Could banning VPNs really become law in the US? This episode breaks down the jaw-dropping legislation in Wisconsin and Michigan that targets VPN access for everyone, not just kids—and what it means for your digital privacy.

• The EU finally comes to its "Chat Control" senses.
• Windows 11 to include SysInternals Sysmon natively.
• Chrome's tabs (optionally) go vertical.
• The Pentagon begins its investment in warfare AI.
• Members of the military are being doxed by social media.
• A look inside the futility of trying to corral AI.
• The surprising lack of WhatsApp user privacy.
• Exactly what happened last week to Cloudflare?
• Britain (over)reacts to the Jaguar Land Rover incident.
• Project: Hail Mary's second trailer released.
• US state legislatures want to ban VPNs altogether

Show Notes: https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-1053-Notes.pdf

Hosts: Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte

Download or subscribe to Security Now at https://twit.tv/shows/security-now.

You can submit a question to Security Now at the GRC Feedback Page.

For 16kbps versions, transcripts, and notes (including fixes), visit Steve's site: grc.com, also the home of the best disk maintenance and recovery utility ever written Spinrite 6.

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