#581: AES Explained: How Encryption Protects Your Data

#581: AES Explained: How Encryption Protects Your Data

Big thanks to TryHackMe for sponsoring this video. Learn Cyber Security with Practical Labs on TryHackMe:https://tryhackme.com/DavidBombalTech Use my code DAVIDTECH25 to get 25% OFF on Annual Subscription! Dr. Mike Pound joins David Bombal to explain symmetric encryption, AES, secret keys, VPN encryption, TLS, block ciphers, stream ciphers and why encryption is one of the most important building blocks in modern cybersecurity. In this video, Mike explains what encryption actually does: it takes readable plaintext and turns it into unreadable ciphertext so that only someone with the correct secret key can decrypt it. He breaks down how symmetric encryption works, why the same key is used to encrypt and decrypt, and why algorithms like AES are used everywhere from secure websites and VPNs to BitLocker and full disk encryption. You’ll learn why AES is so fast on modern CPUs, how keys interact with encryption algorithms, and why AES uses rounds of substitution and permutation to scramble data. Mike also explains the difference between block ciphers and stream ciphers, including AES, DES, Triple DES, ChaCha20 and older algorithms like RC4 and A5/1. The discussion also covers why symmetric encryption is used for bulk encryption in protocols like TLS and IPsec, why asymmetric encryption is used differently, and why you should never write your own encryption algorithm or implement your own AES code for real-world security. If you want to understand how encryption protects your data, how VPNs and secure web traffic work, and why AES is still one of the most important algorithms in cybersecurity, this is a great place to start. // Mike SOCIAL // X: / _mikepound YouTube Channel: / computerphile // YouTube Video REFERENCE //Password Cracking: Can a Rainbow table reverse a hashed password?: • Password Cracking: Can a Rainbow table rev... // David's SOCIAL // Discord: discord.com/invite/usKSyzb Twitter: www.twitter.com/davidbombal Instagram: www.instagram.com/davidbombal LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/davidbombal Facebook: www.facebook.com/davidbombal.co TikTok: tiktok.com/@davidbombal YouTube: / @davidbombal Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/3f6k6gE... SoundCloud: / davidbombal Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... // MY STUFF // https://www.amazon.com/shop/davidbombal // SPONSORS // Interested in sponsoring my videos? Reach out to my team here: sponsors@davidbombal.com // MENU // 0:00 - Coming Up 0:27 - TryHackMe Sponsor 0:49 - Intro 01:18 - Symmetric vs Asymmetric Encryption 04:38 - Key Exchange and VPN Analogy 06:10 - Examples of Symmetric Algorithms 08:56 - Advantages of Stream vs Block Cyber 10:31 - Deeper AES Explanation 14:34 - Substitution, Permutation, Mixing in AES 19:24 - Don’t Implement your Own Encryption 20:16 - TryHackMe Sponsor - DEMO 24:21 - DES Algorithm and the NSA 26:01 - Where to Learn More about Encryption 27:42 - Outro Please note that links listed may be affiliate links and provide me with a small percentage/kickback should you use them to purchase any of the items listed or recommended. Thank you for supporting me and this channel! Disclaimer: This video is for educational purposes only. #symmetricencryption #aes #des

#580: Cisco's first Quantum Switch: What it means for you

Big thanks to ‪@Cisco‬ for sponsoring this video and sponsoring my trip to Cisco Live Vegas 2026. In this deep dive into the future of networking, we explore the reality of quantum networking and Cisco's groundbreaking announcement of the world's first Universal Quantum Switch. Quantum computing is no longer just a buzzword; it's moving into the mainstream, bringing massive implications for network engineers and cybersecurity professionals in 2026 and beyond. We discuss why a quantum switch is essential for scaling distributed quantum computers and how it translates different quantum modalities, acting as a universal fabric. We also break down the quantum stack, from entanglement sources generating 200 million photon pairs per second to nanosecond switching speeds. Beyond the hardware, we tackle the elephant in the room: Shor's algorithm and the imminent threat to classical encryption (RSA/Diffie-Hellman). With "harvest now, decrypt later" attacks already happening and the January 2027 CNSA 2.0 compliance deadline approaching, we cover exactly how you can prepare using post-quantum cryptography (PQC). Finally, we explore fascinating real-world applications, including high-frequency trading advantages, unbreakable eavesdropper detection using the no-cloning theorem, and secure position verification. // Ramana Kompella’s SOCIAL // LinkedIn: / rkompella // Website REFERENCE // https://outshift.cisco.com/ // Videos REFERENCE // • Cisco Quantum Summit 2026 - Quantum Data C... https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/5305787/... // David's SOCIAL // Discord: discord.com/invite/usKSyzb Twitter: www.twitter.com/davidbombal Instagram: www.instagram.com/davidbombal LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/davidbombal Facebook: www.facebook.com/davidbombal.co TikTok: tiktok.com/@davidbombal YouTube: / @davidbombal Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/3f6k6gE... SoundCloud: / davidbombal Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... // MY STUFF // https://www.amazon.com/shop/davidbombal // SPONSORS // Interested in sponsoring my videos? Reach out to my team here: sponsors@davidbombal.com // MENU // 0:00 - Coming Up 0:28 - Intro 02:13 - Universal Quantum Switch 04:11 - Why do we need a Quantum Switch? 06:42 - Scale Out Quantum Fabric 09:02 - Multi-Modality Ability 10:17 - Sharing an Entanglement Source 14:08 - Testing the Universal Quantum Switch 17:20 - The Stack: Application Layer 21:30 - Using Quantum to Detect a Tap 24:24 - Quantum Use-Cases 28:37 - The Stack: A Summary 30:26 - Advice for the Future 33:28 - Response to “Quantum is Fake” 36:12 - Holistic Quantum Security 40:06 - Shor’s Algorithm 41:47 - Cisco’s Quantum-Safe Devices 46:00 - Resources to Learn More 47:00 - Outro Please note that links listed may be affiliate links and provide me with a small percentage/kickback should you use them to purchase any of the items listed or recommended. Thank you for supporting me and this channel! Disclaimer: This video is for educational purposes only. #quantum #quantumnetworking #cisco

#579: New CCNA Exam: Stop Memorizing and Start Labbing

Big thank you to Cisco for sponsoring my trip to Cisco Live Vegas // Ryan Rose’s SOCIAL // LinkedIn: / ryanrose3 Cisco Blogs: https://blogs.cisco.com/author/ryanrose X: https://x.com/RyanRose // Cisco Blogs // Cisco Announcement: https://blogs.cisco.com/learning/ai-u... CCNA 2.0 Blueprint: https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/s/c... // Websites and YouTube Channel links // Cisco U: https://u.cisco.com/ Cisco Learning Network: https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/s/ Netacad: https://www.netacad.com // David's SOCIAL // Discord: discord.com/invite/usKSyzb Twitter: www.twitter.com/davidbombal Instagram: www.instagram.com/davidbombal LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/davidbombal Facebook: www.facebook.com/davidbombal.co TikTok: tiktok.com/@davidbombal YouTube: / @davidbombal Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/3f6k6gE... SoundCloud: / davidbombal Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... // MY STUFF // https://www.amazon.com/shop/davidbombal // SPONSORS // Interested in sponsoring my videos? Reach out to my team here: sponsors@davidbombal.com // MENU // 0:00 - Coming Up 0:18 - Intro 0:25 - CCNA Update Announcement 03:03 - Practical Skills/Troubleshooting as the Focus 08:23 - Simlets/Lablets in the CCNA 11:40 - AI in the CCNA 15:24 - Biggest Changes in the New CCNA 18:35 - Goals of the New CCNA 20:58 - Transitioning to the New CCNA 24:37 - CML, Packet Tracer and Other Free Tools 26:25 - CCIE Update Announcement 32:57 - Communication and Critical Thinking Tutorials 35:29 - Free and Paid Training Resources 38:24 - Final Thoughts Please note that links listed may be affiliate links and provide me with a small percentage/kickback should you use them to purchase any of the items listed or recommended. Thank you for supporting me and this channel! #ccna #cisco #ai

#578: How Cisco Is Using AI to Fix Networks

Cisco is bringing AI agents into network operations with Cisco Cloud Control, AI Canvas, and Agentic Ops. In this demo, David Bombal is joined by DJ Sampath (SVP and General Manager, AI Software and Platform) to look at how Cisco is using AI to simplify complex network troubleshooting, infrastructure management, agent security, and observability. Instead of jumping between multiple dashboards, tools, teams, and tickets, Cisco Cloud Control brings network, security, observability, and infrastructure context into one interface. The demo starts with a simple real-world problem: why can’t a phone connect to the network? From there, Cisco AI Canvas investigates the topology, calls the right agents, checks the wireless environment, moves into the firewall/security domain, and identifies the root cause: a site-to-site VPN tunnel issue caused by missing OSPF route exchange. You will see how Cisco is using MCP servers, topology agents, troubleshooting agents, firewall agents, and purpose-built models to help network engineers understand what is happening across Meraki, Catalyst, Firepower, Intersight, Splunk, Security, and other Cisco platforms. The video also covers the Unified Cisco Fabric app, which connects campus and data center environments with a firewall in between, plus Cisco’s agentic security app for monitoring and controlling AI agents in the enterprise. DJ also shows how Cisco is thinking about token usage, runaway agents, agent observability, Splunk, Galileo, policy enforcement, and secure AI adoption. The interview also covers Cisco’s work with OpenAI and Codex, including how frontier models, purpose-built Cisco models, MCP servers, APIs, Cisco data fabric, and real network data are being used to reduce hallucinations and make AI more useful for infrastructure teams. If you are a network engineer, cybersecurity professional, infrastructure engineer, or someone trying to understand how AI will affect networking, this demo shows where things are going. Thank you to ‪@Cisco‬ for sponsoring this video and my trip to Cisco Live! // DJ Sampath’s SOCIAL // LinkedIn:  / djsampath X:  https://x.com/djsampath / David's SOCIAL // Discord: discord.com/invite/usKSyzb Twitter: www.twitter.com/davidbombal Instagram: www.instagram.com/davidbombal LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/davidbombal Facebook: www.facebook.com/davidbombal.co TikTok: tiktok.com/@davidbombal YouTube: / @davidbombal Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/3f6k6gE... SoundCloud: / davidbombal Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... // MY STUFF // https://www.amazon.com/shop/davidbombal // SPONSORS // Interested in sponsoring my videos? Reach out to my team here: sponsors@davidbombal.com // MENU // 0:00 - Coming up 01:05 - Is AI working? 02:55 - Cisco Cloud Control quick demo 09:38 - Cisco Cloud Control Summary 10:50 - Unified Cisco Fabric demo 12:38 - Agentic Security demo // Securing agents 15:25 - Agent Observability demo // Monitoring tokens 17:38 - Cisco Cloud Control in the real world 18:49 - Summary 19:22 - Cisco Cloud Control AI model explained 20:22 - Addressing hallucinations & false information 22:19 - Conclusion Please note that links listed may be affiliate links and provide me with a small percentage/kickback should you use them to purchase any of the items listed or recommended. Thank you for supporting me and this channel! Disclaimer: This video is for educational purposes only. #cisco #ai #cybersecurity

#577: My Dream "home lab"

Join me for an exclusive, behind-the-scenes tour of Cisco's purpose-built $20 million AI data center lab in San Jose. AI is revolutionizing the tech industry, but running massive 10,000 GPU clusters can cost up to $175 million a year—and a mere 5% network bottleneck can flush $8 million down the drain. In this video, we break down the hardware, software, and networking topologies required to build, secure, and scale massive AI data centers. I sit down with Cisco engineers to explore scale-up domains with NVIDIA H200 and AMD MI350X servers, scale-out rail-optimized topologies, and the massive Cisco Silicon One G300 ASIC delivering 102.4 Terabits per second with innovative liquid cooling. We also dive into the Ethernet vs. InfiniBand debate for scaling to 100,000 GPUs, the power of Linear Pluggable Optics (LPO) to reduce power draw, and how Cisco used AI to safely refactor 500,000 lines of legacy code. Whether you are building an AI network today or upgrading your engineering skills for the future, this is video can help you learn. Big thanks to Cisco for sponsoring my trip to Cisco Data Center and Operational Control Center in San Jose. // Will Eatherton SOCIAL // LinkedIn: / willeatherton Newsroom: https://newsroom.cisco.com/c/r/newsro... // Rakesh Kumar SOCIAL // LinkedIn: / rakesh-kumar-78559b // Richard Licon SOCIAL // LinkedIn: / rlicon75 // Ram Gandikota // LinkedIn: / ramgandikota // Faraz Taifehesmatian SOCIAL // LinkedIn: / faraztaifeh // YouTube video REFERENCE // • The 100Tbps AI Switch: Inside the Beast / David's SOCIAL // Discord: discord.com/invite/usKSyzb Twitter: www.twitter.com/davidbombal Instagram: www.instagram.com/davidbombal LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/davidbombal Facebook: www.facebook.com/davidbombal.co TikTok: tiktok.com/@davidbombal YouTube: / @davidbombal Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/3f6k6gE... SoundCloud: / davidbombal Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... // MY STUFF // https://www.amazon.com/shop/davidbombal // SPONSORS // Interested in sponsoring my videos? Reach out to my team here: sponsors@davidbombal.com // MENU // 0:00 - The power of AI data centers 0:51 - Cost and challenges of AI data centers 02:35 - How to connect GPUs in an AI cluster 05:23 - The future of data centers 08:45 - NeoCloud infrastructure in Australia 10:28 - The right components matter 16:32 - Testing to avoid failures 21:43 - Ethernet vs InfiniBand 23:27 - Cisco security services 26:14 - Future of speeds in the data center 27:23 - Conclusion Please note that links listed may be affiliate links and provide me with a small percentage/kickback should you use them to purchase any of the items listed or recommended. Thank you for supporting me and this channel! Disclaimer: This video is for educational purposes only. #ai #network #datacenter