The Everything Feed - All Packet Pushers Pods

Sydney Maroney, co-creator of the PEAK Threat Hunting Framework, joins Packet Protector to discuss structured threat hunting, including when to stop a hunt. The conversation covers her frameworks for organizing hunts, using AI to solve documentation and memory problems, and how these principles apply beyond security to other technical disciplines.

John Attil Johnson and John Burke of Numerides discuss when and how to make mid-course corrections to IT and AI strategies. They cover triggers for strategic reassessment, the value of wargaming and scenario planning, and how business imperatives should drive technology decisions. The episode emphasizes structured, recurring strategy reviews rather than reactive responses to crises.

Network Break episode NB577 covers a range of tech news including Cisco extending SONiC support to Nexus 9000 switches, Broadcom debuting Wi-Fi 8 SoCs, IBM's $5B Project Lightwell open-source vulnerability clearinghouse, and multiple space networking developments involving SpaceX and Blue Origin. The hosts also discuss Forward's digital twin change management tool, Dell's record-breaking AI server revenues, and a critical unpatched vulnerability in the SCADA-BR open-source controller.

Heavy Networking hosts Ethan Banks and Drew Connery-Murray interview network instructor Tony Burke about how to choose between traditional core (TradCore) networking and EVPN/VXLAN fabric designs. The discussion covers key decision factors including scale, redundancy, operational overhead, and automation requirements. Tony argues both approaches remain valid in 2026 depending on organizational context, pushing back against the industry trend of recommending EVPN/VXLAN for every scenario.

Hosts of the IPv6 Buzz podcast discuss a draft RFC by Jordy Martinez proposing updated best current practices (BCP) for IPv6 prefix usage. They cover point-to-point link addressing, the pros and cons of Global Unicast vs. ULA vs. Link Local addressing, and service provider prefix allocation conventions. The episode argues that many old IPv6 rules of thumb are outdated and need revision.

This episode of 'N is for Networking' features network security architect JJ Jabush walking through wireless Network Access Control (NAC) in detail, including 802.1X authentication, WPA2/WPA3 differences, certificate handling, wireless roaming with 802.11r Fast BSS Transition, and captive portals. The conversation builds on two prior episodes covering NAC basics and wired NAC. JJ also discusses how NAC fits into broader Zero Trust strategies in 2026.

Network Break episode NB573 covers Cisco open-sourcing DefenseClaw for OpenClaw AI agent security, T-Mobile's new Super Broadband service combining 5G and Starlink, and multiple AI security announcements from Aviatrix, BlueCat, and Palo Alto/Google. The hosts also discuss quarterly results from Extreme Networks, F5, and Checkpoint, and debate the sustainability of AI subsidies as GitHub moves to usage-based pricing.

Bruce Davie joins Heavy Networking to discuss a new shortest-path algorithm claimed to be faster than Dijkstra's, which has been foundational to link-state routing protocols since 1959. While the academic breakthrough is legitimate, Davie argues it has negligible practical impact on network routing because the SPF calculation represents only a tiny fraction of total convergence time. The real bottlenecks are failure detection, packet propagation at the speed of light, and forwarding table updates.

Ethan Banks and Holly Malitzky-Podbilak provide a beginner-friendly introduction to Network Access Control (NAC), covering its core concepts, protocols, and terminology including 802.1X, RADIUS, TACACS, EAP, and AAA. They discuss how NAC governs device admission and access policies on both wired and wireless networks, and survey major NAC vendor solutions in the market.

Network engineer and security developer Chris Cummings joins IPv6 Buzz to discuss the practical benefits of IPv6 for software developers, focusing on how eliminating NAT reduces complexity, improves logging, and lowers costs. The conversation also covers common pitfalls developers encounter when writing IPv6-compatible code and best practices for building address-family-agnostic applications.

Independent consultant Enrico Teodi shares 14 months of hands-on AI implementation experience at a software company, detailing how agentic workflows combining codebase access, production database replicas, and analytics tools dramatically accelerated debugging and product insights. He argues that curiosity and product understanding—not raw coding speed—determine who thrives in the AI era, and warns against giving AI excessive permissions or deploying code without proper testing and acceptance criteria.

Cisco's Han Li and Jay Sharma join the Packet Protector podcast to argue that post-quantum cryptography (PQC) is an urgent network issue, not just a future security concern. They explain how advances in quantum algorithms and hardware are accelerating the timeline, discuss the 'harvest now, decrypt later' threat, and outline practical steps organizations should take now. They also cover the technical impacts of PQC on network protocols, key sizes, and hardware procurement.

Network Break hosts Drew Connery-Murray and guest Scott Robon cover a range of networking and IT news including Cisco's quantum switch prototype, Cato Networks' enterprise browser, Anthropic's Mythos model both finding and introducing vulnerabilities, financial results from Nokia and Intel, a European satellite startup, and a Chinese company's flying car ambitions. Listener follow-up addresses concerns about Anthropic's Project Glasswing potentially exposing proprietary source code and Linux 7.0's removal of legacy protocols. Throughout, both hosts balance optimism about emerging technology with measured skepticism about vendor hype.

Scott Robon interviews Andy Smith, a distinguished engineer at Arcus Networks and Penn lecturer, at NANOG 96 in San Francisco. They discuss Andy's career spanning cable, hyperscaler, and software-defined networking, his university course on network engineering fundamentals, and the broader industry shift toward disaggregated networking, automation, and AI cluster infrastructure. The conversation emphasizes the enduring importance of first-principles thinking in an era of rapidly evolving network architectures.

Avi Friedman, founder of Kentik, joins Heavy Networking to discuss how different AI techniques — ML, fuzzy logic, and LLMs — each have distinct roles in network operations. He argues that LLMs are powerful but non-deterministic tools that require guardrails, domain-specific knowledge, and human oversight to be useful in networking contexts. The conversation covers agentic AI, hallucinations, autonomy, and the realistic near-term limits of AI in network planning and configuration.

Ray, founder of Libertas Consulting MSP and the nonprofit TKW (Technology Knowledge Worldwide), shares his journey from running bulletin board services at age 12 to building a consulting business and a charity that has donated over a million dollars in network infrastructure to communities in need. He discusses how early problem-solving instincts, key relationships, and a drive to give back shaped both ventures. His nonprofit's most ambitious project yet is a full infrastructure overhaul for the Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House.

Three infrastructure and automation veterans discuss the evolution from SOAR platforms to AI-driven automation, examining the gap between vendor demos and real-world brownfield infrastructure. They explore how DNS remains critically underappreciated from a security standpoint, and debate whether AI is creating more technical debt than it solves. The conversation emphasizes that automation and AI are tools that elevate engineers rather than replace them.

Ashwin Chosi, a senior solution engineer at Keysight Technologies, joins the Network Automation Nerds podcast to discuss how AI is reshaping networking careers. He distinguishes between 'AI for networking' and 'networking for AI' as two distinct disciplines, and shares his philosophy on continuous learning, community contribution, and using AI as an empowering tool rather than a replacement for domain expertise.

At RSA 2026, JJ and partner JD presented on network security trends from 2026-2030, covering Wi-Fi 7's security implications, device identity challenges, zero trust on the LAN, and post-quantum cryptography. The talk argues that enterprises have accumulated 'architectural debt' by iterating on existing configurations rather than rethinking foundational network design. Device identity — specifically moving away from MAC addresses — was identified as the single most critical blocker to implementing modern security architectures.

John Attil Johnson and John Burke of Nemertes discuss why AI systems require dedicated security strategies beyond standard enterprise protections. They cover specific AI threat vectors including LLM jacking, data poisoning, sleeper agent attacks, and prompt injection, while arguing that zero trust principles and robust data stewardship are foundational to any AI security posture.