Late 2009 I started becoming interested in security podcasts. In general, security podcasters put out a lot of excellent information in an entertaining format. I’ve come to find that many of them follow the same format to the point of being a bit cliche. Things like crazy sound boards, beer de jour, etc. ISD has a couple of these formula elements but they also have their own unique angles that give them value and make them entertaining.
ISD is the first podcast I ever listened to so I didn’t really have anything to judge it against. I’ve listened to a lot more podcasts since then however and I still find that ISD stands out as one of the better ones. I find Matthew and Rick very entertaining since the dynamic they share reminds me of the way myself and a former co-worker used to banter about and finally solve our heated discussions with Google. I also applaud Rick and Matthew’s dedication. These guys podcast EVERY WEEKDAY. Wow!! Most podcasters would(and do) run out of steam but these guys have put out more content already than 95% of the other podcasters out there ever will.
One of the best things about ISD is Thursdays where they bring on Adrian Crenshaw, the Irongeek for a weekly technical segment. Adrian must clone himself or something because I hear him calling in and talking on all the other podcasts, I see that he goes to a zillion cons, holds a day job and tweaks with hardware hacks as a hobby. Incredible. He’s very interesting to listen to and is always working on a fascinating project.
Overall, the ISD guys are obviously dedicated to providing good content. They haven’t even been around for a year yet (as of 5/7/10) but they have brought on plenty of interesting guests to interview and spewed off a lot of well-thought out content so far. I think these guys are definitely worth a listen even if you aren’t directly in the computer security field yourself.
One last thing to keep in mind is that the ISD guys are VERY slanted towards security and local events in the southeast since they are based in Georgia. They proudly pimp all of their hometown security conferences, events and training. If you don’t live in the southeast, you’ll probably have to find information about local events from another source. Nothing wrong with that, it’s just an observation.
Keep up the great work guys!
