Security Now! playlists

[LeStart]

Hi All,

I keep hearing how awesome old episodes of SN are. The most recent episode is now the 2nd or 3rd time hearing this (I'm new).

The first time this piqued my interest was when Leo mentioned he's seen/heard of scripts and/or curated playlists of SN by subject matter.

This sounds amazing, however I can't find evidence of these playlists and/or scripts anywhere. Does anyone know what the heck Leo is referring to?

Thank you,

 

[miquelfire]

I think almost everyone who had used such a script had made their own. It's a programming 101 type of script.

Just a for loop from number 1 to whatever the latest episode is you want to download (or, if you're doing downloads in groups, A to B, like 1 to 10, then 11 to 20, etc.), then in the loop itself, just construct the URL (padding as needed if the source does it, so 1 would be 001, 10 would be 010, etc.) and download the mp3 or mp4 file.

Note, the grouping of downloads would be recommended, as Twit.tv may have a limiter that might block downloads if you try to download too much at once. GRC.com might have such a limit as well. Also, this is just courtesy to not purposely cause bring more work to the servers then one person should.

 

[PHolder]

Well, I had the idea that *maybe* ChatGPT could help with this. Boy did I get misled by it. It "made up" examples to explain the concept to me (it must think me very simple) but it doesn't appear to have access to recall the data if it ever had it. I gather I could potentially feed it all the data and ask again, but that would be a LOT of work. I'm going to suggest to Leo maybe he give it a try with one of his custom GTPs.

Can you analyze the Security Now podcast transcripts and come up with some playlists of older episodes by common topics?

ChatGPT said:​

ChatGPT
Sure, I can help you with that! Security Now is a popular podcast by Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte that covers a wide range of security topics. To create playlists of older episodes based on common topics, we would first need to identify those topics and then categorize the episodes accordingly. Here’s a general approach you could use to achieve this:

1. Identify Common Topics: Common topics in Security Now episodes might include:
   • Security vulnerabilities and exploits
   • Patch and update news
   • Encryption and privacy
   • Malware and spyware
   • Network security and firewalls
   • Identity protection and authentication
   • Security tools and utilities
   • Major data breaches and security incidents
2. Gather Episode Data: You would need to collect the transcripts or summaries of older episodes to identify which episodes cover which topics.
3. Categorize Episodes: Based on the content of each episode, categorize them into the identified topics.
4. Create Playlists: Once categorized, you can group episodes into playlists based on the topics.

Example Playlists​

Here’s a hypothetical example of how playlists might look based on common topics:

1. Security Vulnerabilities and Exploits​

• Episode 10: “The Stuxnet Worm”
• Episode 25: “Heartbleed and the OpenSSL Vulnerability”
• Episode 50: “Meltdown and Spectre Exploits”

2. Encryption and Privacy​

• Episode 15: “The Evolution of Encryption Standards”
• Episode 40: “End-to-End Encryption: Why It Matters”
• Episode 65: “Privacy Concerns with New Encryption Technologies”

3. Malware and Spyware​

• Episode 20: “The Rise of Ransomware”
• Episode 30: “Tracking and Removing Spyware”
• Episode 55: “Analyzing Recent Malware Trends”

4. Network Security and Firewalls​

• Episode 35: “Configuring Firewalls for Maximum Security”
• Episode 45: “Understanding VPNs and Their Benefits”
• Episode 70: “Securing Your Home Network”

5. Identity Protection and Authentication​

• Episode 60: “The Future of Multi-Factor Authentication”
• Episode 75: “Protecting Your Identity Online”
• Episode 80: “How Biometric Security Measures Are Evolving”

6. Major Data Breaches and Security Incidents​

• Episode 85: “Analysis of the Equifax Data Breach”
• Episode 90: “Lessons from the SolarWinds Hack”
• Episode 100: “The Impact of Recent Data Breaches”

To create these playlists in real life, you would:

1. Access Transcripts: Obtain transcripts or episode summaries from the Security Now website or other sources.
2. Identify Topics: Read through the transcripts to determine the main topics covered.
3. Organize Episodes: Use a spreadsheet or database to keep track of episodes and their corresponding topics.
4. Create Playlists: Group episodes into playlists based on the topics.

If you need specific episode information or have access to particular transcripts, I can help further analyze them to build out these playlists in more detail!

 

[Recovery9787]

I've been using this Python3 script (credit to @Sushi for inspiration) a while to grab several episodes at a time. So far so good. Works well as wget follows the redirect unlike curl. Could be modified to grab shownotes or transcripts as well but it has been mentioned before that @Steve would appreciate not hitting grc.com with an extraordinary number of requests.

# Prompt the user for the starting and ending episode numbers
s = input("Episode Start Number (4 digits): ")
e = input("Episode End Number (4 digits): ")

# Create a folder to store the downloaded files (in the user's home directory)
import os
folder = os.path.expanduser("~/Desktop/SecurityNow")
os.makedirs(folder, exist_ok=True)

# Download the files and show a progress indicator
current = int(s)
while current <= int(e):
    current_string = f"{current:04d}"
    episode_url = f"https://media.grc.com/sn/sn-{current_string}.mp3"
    os.system(f"wget {episode_url} -P {folder}")
    print(f"Episode {current_string} downloaded")
    current += 1

# Show a message that the download is complete
print("\nDownload complete. Please check your desktop for a directory named 'SecurityNow' containing the downloaded episodes.")

input("Press enter to exit")