YES! I’m on time again. If I get good at this, I won’t need to make this comment anymore. Odds of that?
As usual, I’ll give a quick review of the week, then we’ll jump right into the show notes.
It was another good and productive week. Gooder and more productiver than I probably deserve, but this is what you get when you are surrounded by awesome people all the time.
- Monday started with UNSECURITY Podcast (episode 37). Our guest was the one and only MN State Representative Jim Nash. If you missed it, you should give it a listen. We call BS on some things, then chat about some other things. All in all it was a great show. After that, it was coffee with a friend and a lot of writing.
- Tuesday started with coffee with SecurityStudio’s VP of Software Development, Ivan Peev. After coffee it was an executive leadership meeting (all executives rated it a 10, which is always good), more writing, and a global information security strategy meeting with an awesome vCISO client.
- Wednesday was great. An FRSecure Customer Advisory Board (CAB) meeting, coffee with Peter Vinge (Director of Operations – FRSecure), more writing, a few more meetings, more writing, and a meeting with legal counsel.
- Thursday started with a SecurityStudio User Advisory Group meeting, then the rest of the day was spent writing.
- Friday (today) started with a coffee meeting with my good friend and SecurityStudio’s president, John Harmon. We had a cool discussion about family, health, and some security strategy stuff. After coffee came a SecurityStudio product strategy meeting, and now I’m writing again.
What’s with all the writing?
It’s been a while since I’ve updated people on the status of this second book. The first book (Unsecurity: Information security is failing. Breaches are epidemic. How can we fix this broken industry?) was published this year, and it’s been really well-received. This first book was written to information security professionals. This second book is an information security book written to information security amateurs, or common everyday people. The book’s parts are (for now):
- Introduction
- Part 1 – Current State of Affairs (nation-state, cyberwarfare, businesses, attackers, security, privacy, and safety)
- Part 2 – Motivation (find your motivation to act, family, friends, community, country, and business)
- Part 3 – Application (applying the basics and building habits)
- Part 4 – Introducing and Using S2Me (the assessment, recommendations, and conclusions)
- Closing
If you read my first book, you might remember where I said that writing a book is a bitch. It still is. The amazingness of the experience is more than worth it though. More to come in the coming weeks and months.
Let’s get to the show…
SHOW NOTES – Episode 38
Date: Monday, July 29th, 2019
Today’s Topics:
We’re going to touch on the following topics this week:
- Civic Ransomware Awareness Project update
- The #100DaysofTruth follow-up
- Project Bacon
- Industry News
[Evan] – Hi everybody! Holy buckets, we’ve got a good show planned today. Good morning, and in case you don’t know the voice yet, this is Evan and this is episode 38 of the UNSECURITY Podcast. No Brad joining me today. He’s got a “vacation”. Who does that?! Anyway, in his place is my good friend and SecurityStudio’s president John Harmon. This is where you say “hi” John.
[John] He’s a quick thinker with a sharp tongue, so I’ll need to be on my toes with his response (probably).
[Evan] So, Brad’s on vacation. I joked a little about that, but I can hardly think of someone who deserves it as much as he does. Kudos to him for taking some time off to be with his family. Before we get into talking more about our guest and some cool things, I just want to give our listeners a quick update on our Civic Ransomware Awareness Project and an idea for a follow-up to the #100DaysOfTruth thing.
Quick Civic Ransomware Awareness Project Update and New Idea Discussion
John can talk here too, I just don’t have anything specific for him yet.
[Evan] This is our 38th episode of the podcast, and we finally have you on the show. Sorry it took so long. Now, I know you pretty well because we’ve been working together for quite some time now, but the listeners may not know who you are. Tell us about yourself.
[John] Tells us a story about himself
Talking About John
[Evan] I gotta tell you man, I love working with you every day. You’re a guy that truly gets what we’re trying to do and you’re absolutely sold out on our mission. Later this year, like October, you and I are embarking on a new journey. We affectionately call it Project Bacon. Where did the name come from?
[John] The name was John’s idea, but let’s hear him out.
[Evan] The name is awesome. Besides, who doesn’t like Bacon? So, we have this Project Bacon thing. What is it?
[John] Tells us what Project Bacon is.
[Evan] OK, I think I get it (of course I do, but I need to act like I don’t so the show is more interesting or something). Why are we doing this?
[John] Oh yeah! The “why” is the best part.
More Project Bacon Discussion
[Evan] I’m pumped about Project Bacon. It’s going to be a blast and we’re doing good things all along the way. John, you’ve listened to our podcast before. We always close this thing out with a few news stories. You game?
[John] John is always game.
Industry News
Here’s our news to discuss in this week’s show. The depth of the discussion will depend on our time.
- Louisiana governor declares state emergency after local ransomware outbreak
- Equifax Owes You Money for Failing to Protect Your Privacy. Here’s How to Get It
- The Encryption ‘Backdoor’ Debate Continues
Closing
[Evan] – OK. That’s how it is. So many cool things going on and too many things to talk about. Thank you John for filling in for Brad this week. Project Bacon is going to be great! Also, a special thank you to our listeners. Each week, the number of listeners to our podcast continues to grow, and each week we received great feedback from you. Please keep it coming. If we haven’t had a chance to respond, it isn’t because we don’t care, we just haven’t gotten around to it yet.
If you want to keep up with the haps, be sure to follow me, Brad, and/or John on Twitter. I’m @evanfrancen, Brad’s @BradNigh, and John is @HarmonJohn. Email the show at unsecurity@protonmail.com. Have a great week everybody!