500 episodes listed below
Plain-English privacy for a tracked world.
Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons follows the messy places where surveillance, scams, ad tech, routers, phones, and platforms touch ordinary people. The host keeps the technical pieces legible, then pushes toward the practical question: what should someone actually do next?
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Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons is a long-running privacy and security show that treats consumer technology as a place where power, money, and personal risk keep colliding. It does not assume the audience already speaks the language. The host slows down for terms like identity resolution, MVNO, Section 230, retail media networks, and end-to-end encryption, then reconnects those terms to daily habits. That is the pattern. Explain the system, show where it touches ordinary life, and leave the listener with a practical warning or action. Recent episodes move from ad tracking to router security, from tax-season scams to surveillance pricing, from private cellular service to the privacy advocate community around Privacy Guides. The show is especially alert to data brokers and advertising infrastructure hiding in plain sight. Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Google, Meta, Reddit, Discord, Instagram, Amazon, Vizio, and router makers appear not as brand chatter but as examples of how data moves. The tone is skeptical, not theatrical. It can be dry about corporate excuses and grave about breaches, government requests, cyberattacks, or exposed intimate data. Interviews give the show range. Aisha White and Zach Edwards help map identity resolution and retail ad networks. Jonah Aragon and Nate Bartram bring the Privacy Guides world into view. Justin Brickman and Eric Gardner frame surveillance pricing as the moment privacy harms hit the wallet. Nicholas Merrill explains the tension inside a privacy-focused cellular carrier. The result is a show for people who want more than headline anxiety. It connects news to personal security routines: update the router, claim the IRS account, set an IP PIN, question algorithmic feeds, understand what loyalty programs reveal, and think twice about services that monetize identity. It is practical, opinionated, and built for listeners who know privacy is not just a settings screen.
Made for: For curious non-specialists, privacy-minded tech users, and anyone trying to make safer choices without becoming a security professional. It also suits listeners who want context behind headlines about tracking, scams, platforms, and consumer devices.
What sets it apart: The show turns dense privacy infrastructure into everyday examples and then keeps going until there is a clear action, not just a diagnosis. Its mix of solo explainers and advocate interviews gives it both practical rhythm and field-level perspective.
A Podcast on Computer Security & Privacy for Non-Techies
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Cary Parker makes privacy infrastructure legible by connecting malware, tracking, cellular systems, and platform policy to practical choices and consequences.
Cary Parker turns security and privacy into questions about ordinary decisions: installing an app, choosing a PIN, using a loyalty program, or trusting a cellular provider.
A ketchup coupon opens the door to retail tracking, if that's your kind of rabbit hole.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Identity resolution shows how retail data can be stitched into advertising profiles.
Kerry Parker's conversation with Aisha White and Zach Edwards offers a clear look at identity resolution and the ad-tech habit of linking small fragments of data until a person is easier to follow across the web.
A practical router checkup that ties everyday devices to the privacy and security risks around them.
Routers give this episode its clearest point of focus: an everyday box that keeps a household online, yet still asks owners to pay attention to software updates.
A privacy carrier pitch grounded in account recovery, porting, and security basics.
Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons spends its hour with Nicholas Merrill's new company, Freely, and treats it as a privacy-minded cellular carrier worth taking seriously.
A privacy-minded episode linking tax scams, Section 230, and DHS data requests.
This episode works best when it treats tax season and platform power as two sides of the same ordinary-user problem. Cary Parker starts with practical advice on tax fraud, tax scams, claims at irs.gov, and setting up an IRS IP PIN, then widens the frame to Section 230 and the…
A security chief makes privacy, age checks, and kid safety feel immediate.
Sean Zadig's visit gives Yahoo security a personal, grounded feel. Cary Parker introduces him as Yahoo's current CISO and leader of the Paranoids, then steers the conversation into kids' safety, privacy, age checks, and the hard tradeoffs that come with parental involvement.
A focused policy-minded conversation on unsupported IoT devices, consumer risk, and security as a product responsibility.
Tech Time Bombs brings a sharper policy edge to a familiar consumer-tech worry: what happens when IoT devices stay in homes and workplaces after support runs out.
A practical security tour that ties Apple updates, Chrome hygiene, and Mac malware risks together.
Gary Parker opens episode 377 with a timely reminder to update Apple devices and keep Chrome current, then moves into Cuckoo, a Mac malware campaign tied to piracy sites and fake converter apps.
Privacy news with teeth and context.
Privacy law, pressure, and real-world judgment.
Cybersecurity where daily life meets power.
Privacy tech, crypto rails, internet freedom.
Privacy law with jokes left in.
Kerry Parker interviews Chris Weisopel (Weld Pond), a founder of the L0pht hacking group, discussing hacker culture, 2600 magazine, and NSA lore.
Cary Parker discusses cybersecurity news including Bit.ly monetization, law enforcement data abuse, Russian phishing, Apple's UK encryption standoff, and the Doge phenomenon.
Host Kerry Parker interviews Paul Roberts, president of the Secure Resilient Future Foundation, about the security risks of abandoned IoT devices.
Gary Parker hosts episode 377 of Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons, covering recent cybersecurity news and a tip on choosing PINs.
Zach Edwards opens by calling himself a threat analyst, privacy researcher, and someone who likes to hunt bad guys on the internet.
Kerry Parker opens episode 475 of Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons with a shortened news rundown recorded before a week-long trip to DC, then moves straight into four security stories.
Kerry Parker hosts a panel with Nate Bartram and Jonah Aragon from Privacy Guides, discussing their work and the privacy advocate community.
Kerry Parker discusses recent cyber threats including attacks on Asus routers, Instagram dropping encryption, and a data leak from a porn addiction app, with security tips for listeners.
An interview discussing surveillance pricing, where companies tailor prices based on consumer data, and its implications for privacy and fairness.
Cary Parker celebrates the ninth anniversary of his cybersecurity podcast and introduces a story about Amazon's changes.
Cary Parker opens episode 470 for March 2nd, 2026 with Nicholas Merrill and his new company, Freely.
Cary Parker opens with a tax-season warning.
Cary Parker interviews Sean Zadig, Yahoo's CISO and self-described Chief Paranoid.
Cary Parker introduces episode 440, discussing his upcoming trip to Hacker Summer Camp and a book signing at DEF CON.
Kerry Parker interviews Debbie Reynolds about privacy issues in IoT devices, cars, and AI, and her work on the US Department of Commerce's IoT Advisory Board.