a16z Podcast

a16z Podcast: Security’s Wakeup Call

Ashton Carter, John M. Jack, and Alex Stamos

Posted December 3, 2014

 

Sony Pictures, Home Depot, JP Morgan Chase, Target. Those are just some of the companies to suffer security breaches and the resulting damage — to bottom lines, reputation, and people’s lives. Yet security is increasingly front-and-center not just for companies but for nations, too (with government-sponsored hacks to Snowden and nameless perpetrators across the globe).

But the security landscape is changing. Can companies fight back against an increasingly well-armed and sophisticated set of bad players? “I think it is the beginning of a wakeup call,” former deputy secretary of defense Ashton Carter says. “That said, I think there are a lot of people at the top that don’t know what to do.”

Carter (pictured), who is expected to be formally nominated as the next Secretary of Defense, joins a16z board partner John Jack and Yahoo security chief Alex Stamos for a wide-ranging discussion about the state of security; this conversation took place as part of the a16z 2014 Tech Summit.

related read: How Government Drives Innovation — our Q&A with Ashton Carter from earlier this year

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The a16z Podcast discusses the most important ideas within technology with the people building it. Each episode aims to put listeners ahead of the curve, covering topics like AI, energy, genomics, space, and more.

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