In today's show, I interview CEO/founder Todd Weaver about his computer company Purism and how they were fixing Vault 7 exploits before it was cool.
As anyone watching this show probably already knows, Vault 7 is an archive of documents released by WiliLeaks that prove the CIA recently lost control of a suite of hacking tools, including malware, viruses, trojans, and un-patched “zero day” exploits, which allow an attacker to subvert most common operating systems and take control of the target’s device.
Unfortunately, many of the vulnerabilities “exposed” in Vault 7 have been known to the privacy and security community for a number of years, but device and software manufactures have not addressed these exploits because: 1) up to this point, most customers don’t seem to care about digital privacy and security; and 2) fixing many of them would reduce the manufacturing company’s own ability to gather lucrative data on its customers.
Thankfully not all companies think this way – Enter Purism. For the last three years, Purism has been producing high-quality privacy, security, and freedom focused computers and software.
In this interview, Todd discuss how the privacy, security, and freedom philosophy influences Purism’s hardware design choices (Purism is the first company to introduce physical kill switches for device microphones, cameras, and transmitters – which should be an industry standard in my opinion), software development, and even the corporate structure of the company.
During the interview, Todd also gave us a look behind the curtain on Purism’s development of a privacy and security focused mobile phone, which goes on pre-order in 3Q2017 and is set to be released in 2Q2018!
Overall, it was a great interview from a solid company that is leading the industry on privacy, security, and freedom. Enjoy!
Today’s Links:
WiliLeaks Vault 7 Archive: https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/
Todd Weaver’s post on Vault 7: https://puri.sm/posts/what-the-cia-vault-7-documents-mean/
Purism philosophy on digital privacy, security, and freedom: https://puri.sm/why-purism/
Purism’s Core Team: https://puri.sm/about/team/
Purism’s Privacy, Security, and OpenSource Advisory Board: https://puri.sm/about/advisory-board/
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https://www.cryptotech.solutions/3-17-17-purism-vs-vault-7-interview-with-todd-weaver-founder-ceo/