Jared's Technology Podcast Network · Jared Rimer

Sans 36: The Newsletter that is for January 6, 2026

·2 hr 19 min

Jared Reimer opens by welcoming listeners to SANS episode number 36 and framing it as the January 6, 2026 edition of SANS News Bytes. He notes that the show is Volume 28, number 1, and that the recording is being assembled over multiple days. He starts the year with a weather-and-world observation, saying he would rather see rain than fires because the damage from fires can be much harder to recover from. From there he moves into the security material that gives the episode its weight. The central story is a South Korean government report about KT and femtocell security. The report says the company mismanaged those mobile base stations in a way that let criminals snoop on customer communications and carry out micropayment fraud. Jared reacts to that in a direct way, treating it as the kind of mistake that should make engineers stop and think. He points out that KT deployed thousands of femtocells with the same network authentication certificate. He then highlights an analysis from Youngdae Kim, identified as a professor at CAST, an IEEE fellow, and CAST ICT endowed chair, saying KT had deliberately disabled end-to-end encryption on some femtocell models. The host's response is immediate and practical: why would anyone do that, and why would a company make one set of devices secure while leaving another set exposed. That pattern, for him, is the story, because it turns a technical decision into a real-world breach path. The episode keeps returning to the idea that good intentions do not make sloppy security safe. He contrasts ordinary human tiredness with failures that can become catastrophic when they happen at company scale. The delivery remains loose and spoken, with the host pausing to think through the implications as he goes. Near the end, he shifts into his usual service material and asks listeners to leave a message when they call, since caller ID alone does not tell him who is reaching out. He also notes that there will be no TSB for the week of the 17th and that the next scheduled TSB will be on January 21. The closing is familiar and unhurried, with Jared signing off and promising another SANS installment when it is ready. The overall shape is a spoken security roundup with a strong sense of accountability. It favors explanation over polish and concern over theatrics. The result is a useful listen for anyone who wants a human voice walking through a telecom security failure and spelling out why it matters. It also preserves the slightly rambling, side-by-side feel of a host talking while assembling the program. The episode never loses sight of the core warning: security shortcuts have consequences, and some of them are visible to customers right away. Even the small production notes reinforce that this is a one-person operation trying to stay timely and careful at the same time.

As heard by us

A loose security roundup that turns telecom mistakes into plain, urgent consequences.

Jared Reimer uses this SANS News Bytes installment to open the new year with a practical security briefing, built around how telecom mishandling of femtocell security can open the door to snooping and micropayment fraud.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Want a plainspoken security bulletin about a telecom mishap and why it matters now?

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify