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Today we're talking with James Atkinson from Granite Island Group, well known from his landmark SOURCE Boston 2008 presentation on Telephonic Defenses From the Dark Arts.

SOURCE: How did you get into the field of security?

James Atkinson: I started in the security and intelligence business by accept a computer programer position in the mid 1970's with a major defense contractor, where I developed software to find eavesdropping devices in classified government facilities.

SOURCE: What are your favorite security related information sources (blogs, websites, etc)?

James Atkinson: Content Rich Web-sites

SOURCE: What security-related topics are you most interested in and why?

James Atkinson: Technical Counterintelligence, because it pits highly skilled engineers against each other in a dangerous arena where the slightest error on either side can have devastating results.

SOURCE: What are the biggest challenges facing the security industry?

James Atkinson: Glorified Systems Administrators who may know a specific system, but rarely have grasp the on anything beyond the desk they sit in, or the keyboard they use as their primary tool. Real security has to extend beyond software, beyond packets, and beyond the glow of a faded CRT.  It has to encompass every aspect of the threat, and address the mudance low tech approaches as well as the glamorous high-tech stuff.

SOURCE: What projects are you working on currently?

James Atkinson: Research into Emergency Cardiac Electro-Physiology, and resolving the broadband electrical signals created or conducted by the myocardium to a 3 dimensional space. Essentially listening to the electrical signals of the heart from a distance.

SOURCE: What do you hope the top lessons learned from your session at SOURCE Boston will be?

James Atkinson: Careful attention to detail, and thinking outside the box.