The Passwords Are the Problem with Thierry Gagnon and Philippe Desmarais

With the use of passwords, we're hoping to ensure privacy and security, but sometimes it is at the expense of convenience. As technology changes and biometric databases become more utilized, we need to remember that they may also be hacked.

Today's guests are Philippe Desmarais and Thierry Gagnon. Philippe is a tech entrepreneur who co-founded Kelvin Zero and currently serves as its CEO, overseeing the company's strategic direction. He is also a member of the Next Generation Advisory Council at Rockefeller Capital Management. Before creating Kelvin Zero, Philippe played a significant role in various start-ups, focusing on data analytics for political campaigns, remote hardware device management, and cybersecurity.

Thierry Gagnon is co-founder and Chief Technology at Kelvin Zero. He is an expert in software development, malware analysis, cryptography, and reverse engineering. He has been actively involved in the cybersecurity community, participating in renowned competitions and projects such as Malware Information Sharing Platform.

Show Notes:

• [1:18] - Philippe and Thierry share their backgrounds and their roles in the company they co-founded together, Kelvin Zero.

• [2:34] - Thierry's expertise is in cybersecurity but Philippe's interest was more in crime. They combined their strengths and passions to create Kelvin Zero.

• [6:18] - Passwords have been around for millennia.

• [7:24] - We often confuse being smarter with being faster.

• [9:45] - Passwords are not often attached to an individual. We have so many passwords and can't actually know them all.

• [11:53] - We can compromise passwords at scale.

• [13:20] - The attackers only need to be right once. The defenders need to be right 100% of the time. How can we flip this?

• [15:47] - The average person is tasked with trying to keep up with cybersecurity and, in most cases, they are not qualified to do this.

• [17:11] - What does it look like to take a password-less approach?

• [19:20] - If cybersecurity is done successfully, the opportunities are massive. But regulation holds us back.

• [21:51] - Once a tech company can serve protection, then companies can focus on their services and products.

• [24:46] - There are differences between the physical world and the logical world.

• [28:41] - How do you convince people to share medical data for research when there are constant breaches?

• [31:33] - Is privacy the same as anonymity?

• [33:52] - Technology should be able to do what we want it to do, but that's not the case.

• [36:36] - In a password-less environment, how can we validate a user?

• [39:40] - Thierry believes we should get away from the server authenticating because then it is the responsibility of the organization.

• [43:18] - Sci-fi movies sound far-fetched, but a lot of them predict technology.

• [46:35] - Thierry and Philippe share their thoughts on what we should be putting our focus on now.

• [49:40] - Stay away from single-factor authorization.

Thanks for joining us on Easy Prey. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes and leave a nice review.

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