Plaintext with Rich
Cybersecurity is an everyone problem. So why does it always sound like it’s only for IT people?
Each week, Rich takes one topic, from phishing to ransomware to how your phone actually tracks you, and explains it in plain language in under ten minutes or less. No buzzwords. No condescension. Just the stuff you need to know to stay safer online, explained like you’re a smart person who never had anyone break it down properly. Because you are!
Episodes
25 episodes
Physical Health in Cybersecurity: The Body Keeps the Receipts
It's Friday morning. You stand up to refill your water and your back doesn’t move the way it used to. The systems are up and running smoothly. Your body hasn’t gotten the same memo.Episode 25 of Plaintext with Rich is the third installme...
Spiritual Health in Cybersecurity: The Why Behind the Work
Spiritual health on a cybersecurity podcast sounds like a stretch. Stay with us. Because somewhere between the vendor pitches, the patch cycles, and the 3 a.m. page, a lot of us stopped working for the why and started working for the number.
Mental Health in Cybersecurity: The Weight of Vigilance
It's 6:47 a.m. The incident was contained hours ago. The systems are fine. You're the one still running hot.This episode opens the Month of Mindfulness, a five-week Plaintext with Rich series on mental health, spiritual health, physical ...
Threat Intelligence: Why Most Organizations Get It Backwards
A dashboard lights up with indicators of compromise. The analyst copies the top five into a ticket, tags it "actionable," and sends it to the SOC. Nobody reads it not because they don't care, but because it didn't tell them what to do or why it...
Roll for Security: What D&D Teaches About Cyber Defense
The fighter absorbs hits up front. The rogue finds traps before the party walks into them. The cleric keeps everyone alive when things go wrong. And the bard convinces the people with resources to actually fund the quest. Nobody does everything...
Why Reading Code Makes You Dangerous (In a Good Way)
A vulnerability advisory drops on a Tuesday. Two people read the same report. One sees a severity score and waits for a patch. The other understands what a heap-based buffer overflow actually means and starts reducing risk before a fix even exi...
Hacking on Screens and Pages: Pop Culture That Shaped Cybersecurity
Someone sits down at a keyboard, mashes keys for six seconds, and says "I'm in." Every security professional dies a little inside but that scene is probably the reason half of us got into this field.This episode walks through the movies,...
Linux vs. Windows vs. macOS: Where Security Actually Differs
People love to ask which operating system is the most secure. That's the wrong shape of question. Each one is designed for a different job, and that shapes how it gets attacked.This episode clears up what Linux actually is, how it compar...
APIs: The Control Points Hiding Inside Every App
You tap a button and a ride shows up. You check out online and your bank approves it in seconds. It feels automatic. But nothing in software is automatic. Something received a request, decided it was valid, did some work, and sent back a respon...
Securing AI at Work: What the Chat Box Actually Touches
At 4:47 p.m., someone pastes a customer escalation into an AI assistant and asks it to rewrite the tone. The reply is perfect. It also includes a private note from the internal thread. No breach. No attacker. Just a new workflow that doesn't kn...
AI Is an Umbrella Word (And That's the Problem)
Every company says they're using AI. Some mean chatbots. Some mean automation. Some mean statistics with a new logo. If everything is AI, the word stops meaning anything.This episode untangles what people actually mean when they say "AI"...
Why Security Fails When Everyone Is Right
The access made sense. The exception was justified. The shortcut saved time. Each decision worked on its own. And somehow, together, they added up to failure.This episode tackles the uncomfortable truth that most security failures aren't...
Zero Trust: What It Actually Means Beyond the Buzzword
The breach didn't come through a broken firewall. It walked in through a valid login. Nothing exploded. Nothing looked suspicious at first. Someone just signed in and kept going.This episode clears up what Zero Trust actually is and what...
Supply Chain Cybersecurity: When the Breach Starts Upstream
You can lock down every system you own. Patch everything. Train everyone. And still lose control, because the failure didn't start with you. It started somewhere upstream.This episode breaks down supply chain cybersecurity by explaining ...
Phishing and Social Engineering: Why the Strongest Defense Is Being Slower
You don't need to break a system if someone will open it for you. You don't need malware if a message feels urgent enough. Most modern breaches don't start with code. They start with a conversation.This episode breaks down phishing and s...
Ransomware and Double Extortion: Why Backups Alone Don't Save You Anymore
You don't get locked out first. You get watched. Someone maps your systems quietly, copies your data quietly, and waits until they're sure you can't avoid the conversation. Only then do the screens go dark.This episode breaks down how ra...
IoT Security: Why Every Smart Device Is a Computer That Inherits Risk
Your house didn't suddenly become unsafe. It just became chatty. Little devices, quietly talking to the internet, all day, all night. Most of them were never meant to be guarded.This episode explains IoT security by starting with a trans...
Cloud Security: Why Identity and Configuration Are the Real Perimeter
Nothing broke. Nothing crashed. No alarms went off. Someone clicked a box, someone skipped a setting, someone assumed the default was safe. And the cloud did exactly what it was told.This episode explains cloud security by starting with ...
Passkeys and Passwordless Login: Why Shared Secrets Are the Problem
You don't lose access to an account because someone knows your name. You lose access because they reused something you were told to keep secret. For years, the internet has worked on copying secrets and then acting surprised when copies escape....
Quantum Computing and Encryption: Why "Harvest Now, Decrypt Later" Matters
Some secrets are meant to stay secret for decades. Medical histories. Legal records. Trade agreements. Now imagine someone copying all of it today. Not to read it. Just to wait. Because someday, the lock changes.This episode explains wha...
The Dark Web: Where Stolen Data Gets a Price Tag
When your data is taken, it doesn't fall into a void. It moves. It gets packaged. It gets priced. And while you're changing a password, someone else is deciding how many times they can reuse your name.This episode strips away the mytholo...
Identity Theft: Why Data Breaches Don't Stay Abstract
Nobody needs to take anything from your pocket to steal your identity. They don't need your wallet or your phone. They just need information that already exists, and most of it didn't come from you.This episode breaks down how identity t...
AI Deepfakes: When Trust Becomes the Attack Surface
Someone calls you, sounds exactly like your boss, uses the phrases they always use, and says they need help right now. You don't hesitate. But what if the voice is real and the person isn't?This episode breaks down AI deepfakes: audio, v...
What Cybersecurity Actually Is (And Why It's Everyone's Job)
You lock your doors at night. Not because you expect a break-in. Because the world is messy and you'd rather sleep. Cybersecurity is the digital version of that decision.This episode strips cybersecurity all the way down to what it actua...
Plaintext with Rich: Security and Tech Without the Jargon
Most tech talk feels like it was written for someone else. Too many acronyms, too much fear, and not enough clarity. That changes here.This is the first episode of Plaintext with Rich, and it lays out a simple promise: short, story-drive...