The UNSECURITY Podcast – Episode 77 Show Notes – Lots Going On

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Keeping the show notes short again this week. We’ve been swamped here at FRSecure and SecurityStudio, so not a lot of time to recap what we’ve been up to.

Let’s just get to it, episode 77 show notes below…

SHOW NOTES – Episode 77

Date: Tuesday, April 28th, 2020

Episode 77 Topics

  • Opening
  • Catching Up (as per usual)
  • Remote Working and COVID-19 Stuff
  • Quick Zoom Update
  • Other Things
  • News
  • Wrapping Up – Shout outs
Opening

[Brad] Welcome back! This is episode 77 of the UNSECURITY Podcast, and I’m your host this week, Brad Nigh. Today is April 28th, and joining me this morning as usual is Evan Francen. Good morning.

[Evan] Evan says his “blah, blah, blah”.

[Brad] We have a jam packed show this week for sure, but before we jump in, let’s catch up quick. Lots going on.

[Evan] Yep. LOTS going on! Good things, but a helluva lot of good things!

Catching Up

Quick discussion about some of the cool things we’re doing.

[Brad] Good! Let’s shift gears now quick and talk about security remote workers. We’ve briefly touched on it over the last few weeks but as this appears to be becoming the “new norm”, I would like to spend some time dedicated to the topic.

[Evan] Yeah man! Sounds good.

Remote Working and COVID-19 Stuff

Discussion about many news articles, topics, announcements and such…

[Brad] First up, a news article titled “Malware Risks Triple on WFH Networks: Experts Offer Advice”

[Brad] Obviously this is bitsight so we know the limitations however I think in this use-case the data is valuable. We’ve got some other good resources and guidance to share, including:

[Evan] Yeah, these are all great resources that are worth looking at. I think our listeners will appreciate them all. Quick announcement, S2Me version two is releasing this week! It’s a limited release, but it’s a VERY good one! We’ll get into S2Me and how it works with S2Team to offer a unique (and what we think is a better) approach to securing the remote workforce.

[Brad] Cool. Should be a good show next week then!

Quick Zoom Update

[Brad] Zoom has been all over the news since the COVID-19 outbreak, and the stories have been all over the place. Thought we’d mention some of the latest developments. As a quick aside, we’ve touched on Zoom the last few weeks and it’s interesting that some of the other options have flown under the radar despite attacks that seem to be more severe.

And Zoom has released quite a few new security features, there’s this good write-up on Tech Republic titled “Zoom 5.0 Includes Security and Privacy Improvements” https://www.techrepublic.com/article/zoom-5-0-is-coming-with-improved-security-features-heres-whats-new/

Other Things

[Brad] Like we said, there’s always a lot going on around here at FRSecure and SecurityStudio. Quick list of things:

  • FRSecure CISSP Mentor Program (we started this 11+ years before the COVID-19 pandemic)
  • Safety and Cybersecurity at Home 101 Webinar Series (Videos here).
  • SecurityStudio Partner Community (Join here).
  • The Daily inSANITY Check-in (Join here).

[Brad] Good conversation. Thank you Evan. Let’s do some news quick.

News

[Brad] Always plenty of things to talk about in the news, and here’s a few stories that caught my eye:

Wrapping Up – Shout outs

[Brad] That’s it. Episode 77 is a wrap. Thank you listeners! We hope you’ve enjoyed the show. Any quick shout outs for you Evan?

[Evan] Yes, I have two…

[Brad] Keep the questions and feedback coming. Send things to us by email at unsecurity@protonmail.com. If you’re the social type, socialize with us on Twitter, I’m @BradNigh, and Evan is @evanfrancen. Lastly, be sure to follow SecurityStudio (@studiosecurity) and FRSecure (@FRSecure) for more goodies.

That’s it! Talk to you all again next week!

The UNSECURITY Podcast – Episode 76 Show Notes – Tough Times

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Keeping the show notes short this week. We have a special guest, a great friend of mine, Serge Suponitskiy!

There are many, many things going on around here (@FRSecure and @SecurityStudio). I can’t recap everything for you, to do so would be very time consuming. There was one highlight from last week that stood out from the rest though…

2020 FRSecure CISSP Mentor Program

The 2020 FRSecure CISSP Mentor Program kicked off last week with Class #1 on Monday (4/13) and Class #2 on Wednesday (4/15)! It’s crazy, this is the 11th consecutive year of our free training program. With 1,444 students registered in 2020, we have now helped more than 2,825 students over the years!

We’ve had many people try to convince us to charge for this, even if only a small sum, but the answer is always “NO”. This is one of the ways we try to give back to our community, and we’ll continue to do this well into the future. We have done this since 2010, well before COVID-19 showed up at our front door.

Since COVID-19, we moved class to 100% online, with live streaming to YouTube. We archive the videos so anyone can watch any time (even those who never registered). The archives are here:

We’ve also setup an online study group. The study group, as of this morning, has 470 active members.

Here’s to a great 2020 program, and here’s to much success for the students!

On to the episode 76 show notes now.

SHOW NOTES – Episode 76

Date: Monday, April 20th, 2020

Episode 76 Topics

Opening

[Evan] Good morning everyone! This is the 76th episode of the UNSECURITY Podcast. The date is April 20th, 2020 and I’m Evan Francen. Joining me is my co-host Brad Nigh.

Good morning Brad.

[Brad] Brad says “hi”.

[Evan] We have a special guest! Let me give you a little background about this guy.

He’s a global business and technology leader with more than 20 years experience building enterprise innovative solutions. He’s guided many organizations through successful transformations, but arguably none more difficult than the one he’s currently facing with COVID-19. He’s currently working at Fight Centre, a global travel company, and as you know, the travel industry has been decimated by the pandemic.

His name is Serge Suponitskiy, and he’s the CTO, CISO, and now interim CIO at Flight Centre, Americas Region.

Welcome Serge!

[Serge] Serge does Serge.

Catching Up

[Evan] As is customary for us, before we jump in to the meat of the show, let’s catch up. If you’re a new listener, you might not know the first motivator for starting the UNSECURITY Podcast. It was to spend an hour shootin’ the breeze with Brad. So what’s up guys? How’s things?

Catching up. Recent events. Coping with *&#!

Introducing our Special Guest

[Evan] I invited Serge to our show for a couple of reasons, the first is, I really like the guy. He’s somebody I respect. The second reason I invited him was to get his perspective on dealing with COVID-19. Serge works in the travel industry, and everything in the travel industry has been turned upside down. He works for Flight Centre, a really great company, and it’s crazy what’s happening…

Topics for discussion:

  • Welcome Serge!
  • Our history and past together.
  • What’s happened to the travel industry since COVID-19?
  • What’s changed for you and your company?
  • What’s the focus for the next 3-6 months?
  • What do you think Flight Centre looks like on the other side?

[Evan] Thank you Serge. You’re a helluva guy and I’m sure everything will work out OK, even if it doesn’t seem like it sometimes.

Middle School Fight

[Evan] Interesting happenings last week between to industry middleweights; Rapid7 and Qualys. I’d like to get your take guys. On Thursday, I get this email…

It goes on…

[Evan] This sort of thing gets under my skin. In our industry, which is about serving and protecting people, we’re supposed to be better than this. So I wrote a short post on LinkedIn and reached out to my friend Chris Roberts for a sanity check.

Here this skinny:

[Evan] What do you guys (Brad and Serge) think about this?

Discussing the middle school playground fight between Rapid7 and Qualys.

News

[Evan] Just one news story this week; IT Services Giant Cognizant Hit by Maze Ransomware Cyber Attack.

Wrapping Up – Shout outs

[Evan] Alright, good show. Thank you for joining us Serge.

[Serge] May or may not say something.

[Evan] Lots going on this week. We continue our Daily inSANITY Checkins, everyone is welcome to join us. Just register online and you’ll get the invites. We also continue the CISSP Mentor Program with classes on Monday and Wednesday. Brad’s teaching tonight and Ryan (“cola”) Cloutier is teaching on Wednesday. I get the week off!

OK, shout out time. Brad, who you want to give a shout out to?

[Brad] We’ll see if he’s got someone.

[Evan] Serge, how about you? You have someone you want to give a shout out to?

[Serge] Maybe he does, maybe he doesn’t.

[Evan] I’d like to give a shout out to __________!

Well, that’s a wrap.

Huge thank you to our listeners. Episode 76 is about to go in the can. We love hearing from you, so if you’ve got something to say, email us at unsecurity@protonmail.com. If you would rather do the whole social thing, feel free to follow us on Twitter. You can find me @evanfrancen, you can find Brad @BradNigh, and you can find Serge too @SergeSup.

That’s it. Talk to you all again next week!

The UNSECURITY Podcast – Episode 75 Show Notes – Hope

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Keeping the show notes short this week. Last week’s show notes post should have been broken into two or three posts!

I’m writing this on Easter Sunday, and I’m wishing everyone a Happy Easter! The meaning behind today is promise and hope. Hope is the key talking point for this episode of the UNSECURITY Podcast.

If you missed last week, we had Jim Nash on the show. Jim is our Minnesota State Representative. He shared his perspectives on things like COVID-19, information security in state government, etc. It was a good talk!

Give episode 74 a listen.

Let’s get right to it! Here are the episode 75 show notes…

NOTE: These are my show notes (Evan), but Brad is leading the show.

SHOW NOTES – Episode 75

Date: Monday, April 13th, 2020

Episode 75 Topics

  • Opening
  • Catching Up 
    • Easter Sunday
    • Another week at home.
    • What’s new?
  • Hope
    • Hope in our (information security) industry.
      • Signs we’ve seen during the pandemic.
      • Signs we hope to see post-pandemic.
    • How information security fits into the hope of economic recovery.
    • What’s FRSecure doing to instill hope?
    • What’s SecurityStudio doing to instill hope?
  • More About Zoom
    • What happened (without the BS)?
    • Is it safe to use Zoom or not?
  • Other Things
    • FRSecure CISSP Mentor Program (we started this 11+ years before the COVID-19 pandemic)
    • Safety and Cybersecurity at Home 101 Webinar Series (Videos here).
    • SecurityStudio Partner Community (Join here).
    • The Daily inSANITY Check-in (Join here).
  • Other News – Just one: Coronavirus-themed attacks April 05 – April 11, 2020
  • Wrapping Up – Shout outs
Opening

[Brad] Good morning everyone! This is the 75th episode of the UNSECURITY Podcast. The date is April 13th, 2020 and I’m Brad Nigh. Joining me is my co-host Evan Francen.

Good morning Evan.

[Evan] I’ll say good morning too, but the enthusiasm behind my words will depend on how early I got up today.

[Brad] We’re remote still, recording the show on Zoom. Yes, you heard that right. We’re on Zoom right now. We’ll talk more about this later on in the show.

First, as is customary for us. Let’s catch up a little.

Catching Up

[Brad] Yesterday was Easter Sunday. Did you have a good Easter, Evan?

[Evan] Maybe I did. Maybe I didn’t. Ooooh, the suspense!

Discussion between Evan and Brad

Hope

[Brad] Hope is a beautiful thing. Sometimes it’s all we have to hold on to. Let’s talk about the role that hope is playing these days, in our industry and in our companies.

Discussion about the following:

  • Hope in our (information security) industry.
    • Signs we’ve seen during the pandemic.
    • Signs we hope to see post-pandemic.
  • How information security fits into the hope of economic recovery.
  • What’s FRSecure doing to instill hope?
  • What’s SecurityStudio doing to instill hope?
More About Zoom

[Brad] The news and noise about Zoom and their information security issues didn’t slow much last week. Some of the issues are nothing more than FUD, but there are some legitimate concerns too. I think our listeners could really benefit from a continued discussion about this.

Discussion about Zoom issues.

[Brad] There are always two sides to the story. I can’t remember seeing a company go through such a roller coaster of ups and downs in such a short period of time.

Other Things

[Brad] Lots of other things happening around here, that’s for sure! The pandemic, the lockdown, working remotely, and everything else that comes along with those things has not stopped us for a second! We’re just as busy as always.

Discussion about other things.

  • FRSecure CISSP Mentor Program (we started this 11+ years before the COVID-19 pandemic)
  • Safety and Cybersecurity at Home 101 Webinar Series (Videos here).
  • SecurityStudio Partner Community (Join here).
  • The Daily inSANITY Check-in (Join here).

[Brad] Alright. Lots going on. We’ll see what this week brings!

News

[Brad] Just one news story this week. Let’s look at a recap of Coronavirus-themed attacks from this past week posted on Security Affairs.

Wrapping Up – Shout outs

[Brad] Alright, good show. Give someone hope and encouragement today and every day this week! Evan, who do you have a shout out for this week?

[Evan] Some people for sure…

[Brad] I’d like to give a shout out to ________.

Thank you for listening to episode 75. We love hearing from you, so if you’ve got something to say, email us at unsecurity@protonmail.com. If you would rather do the whole social thing, we tweet like that. I’m @BradNigh, and Evan’s @evanfrancen.

That’s it. Talk to you all again next week!

The UNSECURITY Podcast – Episode 74 Show Notes – COVID-19 MN Response

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If you reading this, I hope you and your loved ones are well! From what I read, we have another few tough weeks ahead of us in the U.S. before (maybe) we turn the corner a little. Keep up the good work by staying at home and/or maintaining your distance from others. Now is NOT the time to let up.

If you missed last week’s show notes or episode 73 of the UNSECURITY Podcast, we had a great time taking with our special guest, Oscar Minks. Oscar leads FRSecure’s Technical Services Team, and he shared some great insight into their current incident response activities.

Episode 74 Topics

Topics for this episode of the UNSECURITY Podcast include:

  • Opening
  • Special Guest – Jim Nash
  • Catching Up 
    • Another week at home.
    • What’s new?
  • COVID-19 Talk With Jim Nash
    • What’s going on in MN state government
    • What’s he hearing from other states
    • How he’s helping our community and tips for listeners
    • Opinion about impact on information security
  • Web Conferencing Craziness (mostly Zoom)
    • The Rise
    • The Bug
    • Zoombombing
    • Other Stuff
    • Overreaction
    • Benefactors
    • Logic and Reason
  • Work From Home – S2Me
    • NASCIO – COVID-19 Response Resources for State IT
    • Safety and Cybersecurity at Home 101 Webinar Series
    • Version Two
  • Other News
    • The Daily inSANITY Check-in
    • FRSecure CISSP Mentor Program
  • Wrapping Up – Shout outs

You can find the full show notes later in this post.

Thoughts

It’s good to get things off your chest from time to time, and it doesn’t matter if anyone else reads what you write. If you are reading this, I hope you get some value from it.

Good News

It’s been hard the last few weeks to find good news. Seems like everywhere I look, there’s bad news. Most of the time is related to Covid-19, but now always. The bad news can come from another breach, vulnerabilities in some application (this week it was Zoom), or any number of things.

If you want to find good news, you have to be intentional about it.

Here’s some good news sources/stories:

See? There are lots of good things happening around the world. Look for them and be encouraged.

Struggling

In the middle of all that’s going on, there are many people struggling. I may be OK and you might be OK too, but the number of people who aren’t OK has grown fast and continues to increase every day. People are losing their businesses, losing their jobs, and losing their minds.

For people who have lost their business, it may feel like you’ve lost your dream. You haven’t! The dream is still alive, it’s just deferred. It’s paused. You may have to start over, or maybe not. The point is to NOT give up. Starting over gives you a chance to do it better this time, using all that you’ve learned from the last time.

For people who have lost their jobs, you might be worried about bills or even where your next meal comes from. When you’re in the middle of the crap, it’s hard to see the other side. Missing payments can be stressful, but it’s not the end of the world. Do what you can to survive this (and you WILL survive this) and try to focus on what you will do or be on the other side. Plan now for what’s to come.

Personal Story

When we started FRSecure in 2008, the U.S. was in the middle of a recession. I thought we could power through it, and succeed despite the odds. I was wrong. We couldn’t find customers, and within a year, it became evident that we wouldn’t be able to pay our bills, including our house payment. I could have given up on the dream of my business and entered the job market again, or I could believe that things would get better. 11-12 years later and FRSecure is a very healthy company, employing more than 70 people and serving more than 1,000 customers. Foreclosure with a wife and five kids was very hard, but we didn’t give up.

Mental Health

For people who have or feel like they’ve lost their minds, please get help. Maintaining mental health during times of crisis can be extremely difficult. It’s OK to not be OK, but it’s not OK to let it rule you. There are many people who care about you and want you to let them help. This is the truth! The most common lie (I think) is believing that you’re not worthy and nobody cares. That’s the lie. Believe and follow the truth, here are some people who care (100%):

Remember, there is hope and there is help! This is the truth, and you have to believe it.

Social Media Stuff

It dawned on me that we have a lot going on, and we share a lot of it on social media. Here’s the list of social media accounts for us:

Those are some thoughts right now. Let’s get to the show notes!

SHOW NOTES – Episode 74

Date: Monday, April 6th, 2020

Show Topics:

  • Opening
  • Special Guest – Jim Nash
  • Catching Up 
    • Another week at home.
    • What’s new?
  • COVID-19 Talk With Jim Nash
    • What’s going on in MN state government
    • What’s he hearing from other states
    • How he’s helping our community and tips for listeners
    • Opinion about impact on information security
  • Web Conferencing Craziness (mostly Zoom)
    • The Rise
    • The Bug
    • Zoombombing
    • Other Stuff
    • Overreaction
    • Benefactors
    • Logic and Reason
  • Work From Home – S2Me
    • NASCIO – COVID-19 Response Resources for State IT
    • Safety and Cybersecurity at Home 101 Webinar Series
    • Version Two
  • Other News
    • The Daily inSANITY Check-in
    • FRSecure CISSP Mentor Program
  • Wrapping Up – Shout outs
Opening

[Evan] Good morning everyone! This is the 74th episode of the UNSECURITY Podcast. The date is April 6th, 2020 and I’m Evan Francen. Joining me is my co-host Brad Nigh along with our special guest Jim Nash.

Good morning Brad.

[Brad] He’ll say what he wants.

[Evan] Welcome to the show again Jim and good morning!

[Jim] He’ll also say what he wants.

[Evan] Jim, do you remember the last time you were on the show? How long ago was that?

[Jim] Still saying what he wants.

[Evan] It’s customary now that we start the show by catching up a bit with each other.

Catching Up

Discussion between Evan, Brad, and Jim.

[Evan] Alright! We invited Jim to be on the show again for a couple reasons. #1 – We like him and #2 – We want to get his perspectives on COVID-19. He’s certainly got some unique things to share.

COVID-19 Talk With Jim Nash
  • What’s going on in MN state government?
  • What’s he hearing from other states?
  • How he’s helping our community and tips for listeners?
    • Supporting the community and small business.
    • Where can we find his videos, pictures, and updates?
  • Opinion about impact on information security

[Evan] For those who don’t know, Jim is my state representative. He represents the district in which I live and I couldn’t be prouder of the way he represents me!

OK, last week, news about Zoom was all the rage it seemed. There’s plenty of fear, misinformation and confusion about the web conferencing solution. I think our listeners could benefit from some straight talk about the issues.

I put together a series of stories and organized them into subtopics. It’ll be cool to get you guys’ perspective.

Web Conferencing Craziness (mostly Zoom) DIscussion

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[Evan] Crazy. The plot is thick surrounding Zoom, isn’t it. The noise is loud and it’s hard to find the truth in all of it.

Let’s switch gears now and talk about something else that’s related. There is no shortage of articles and guidance for working from home. We built a simple assessment in the beginning of 2019, before all hype surrounding the pandemic. The simple assessment is known as S2Me, and it’s importance is higher than it’s ever been.

Work From Home – S2Me

Discussion about S2Me, including:

[Evan] There you go. S2Me is free and always will be free. Either of you guys feel comfortable sharing your personal S2Score?

Other News

[Evan] We had so many things to talk about this week. We’re going to skip other news stories again. Two quick things to tell you about though, before we go.

  • The Daily inSANITY Check-in
    • Still going strong.
    • Everyone is invited all the time!
  • FRSecure CISSP Mentor Program
Wrapping Up – Shout outs

[Evan] Well, that’s it for this week. Plenty going on and lots to do. Either of you guys have any shout outs?

Thank you for listening. We’re a couple of guys who really care about you. We’re hoping you all stay healthy and sane! We love hearing from you, so if you’ve got something to say, email us at unsecurity@protonmail.com. If you would rather do the whole social thing, we tweet like that. I’m @evanfrancen, and this other guy is @BradNigh. Jim, you’re all over the place. Want to share some places where people can interact with you online?

Jim, thank you for coming on and sharing with us today!

That’s it. Talk to you all again next week!