Posts

UNSECURITY Podcast – Ep 104 Show Notes – Stigma Against Healthy

Last week was nuts. Is “nuts” the norm? God, I hope not.

The week started off with what seemed like a run of the mill ransomware attack against a healthcare client. The investigation led us to threat hunting with another client. During the threat hunting exercise, Brian Krebs called. He claimed to have information about 427 healthcare organizations who could be attacked by Wednesday (10/28). This led us down all sorts of paths with a few renowned researchers, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the FBI, Secret Service (don’t ask), and others.

Eventually, CISA issued a joint cybersecurity advisory with the FBI and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). See: Ransomware Activity Targeting the Healthcare and Public Health Sector.

On Friday, FRSecure issued their own statement and hosted a very well-attended webinar. See: Situation Update: RYUK Ransomware in Healthcare.

One thing we learned is that incident response in the United States, in terms of our readiness across the public/private sector is in bad shape. It shouldn’t take 3+ days to legitimize a threat and coordinate a response. Thank God we didn’t witness a coordinated attack against 427 hospitals at once. Had this been a real attack against 427 hospitals, we would have been in a world of hurt!

Other things that happened last week include:

  • Episode 103 of the UNSECURITY Podcast, Part Two with Neal O’Farrell of the PsyberResilience Project was awesome! If you missed it, you should go check it out.
  • FRSecure is rocking it! We’re running on all cylinders and making a positive difference in our industry. I’m very proud and humbled at the same time.
  • SecurityStudio finished another incredible month! People are buying into the concept of focusing on the fundamentals and simplification. In case you didn’t know, complexity is the worst enemy of information security.
  • The Security Shit Show was awesome on Thursday night! Personally, I needed the time to talk shit with my peers, Ryan Cloutier and Chris Roberts. It’s like therapy. The title for our discussion was “Kiss and Make Up?” and we talked about what life might look like after the election.

There was probably other important stuff sprinkled in last week too, but the brain can only handle so much!

On to the show!

Episode 104 Topic and Special Guest

A few important things about this episode:

  • This is episode 104, the two-year anniversary of the UNSECURITY Podcast! Holy crap, where did the time go?! It’s been an incredible ride so far, and we’ve met 100s of amazing people along the way.
  • Our topic (or, I guess title) is “The security industry’s stigma against healthy stuff“. Is there a stigma against healthy stuff in our industry? Maybe. We’ll look into it in this episode.
  • We have another special guest, and he’s a good one! We call him Richie Breathe, and he’s a great guy with interesting perspectives on wellness. He’s the perfect guest to wrap up what turned into another semi-series about us and our health.
  • Next week, we’re going to dive back in to incident response. We’ve seen some very interesting (and alarming) trends, and it’ll be good to share with you.

Let’s get on to the notes…

Oh yeah, one more thing before we forget.

GO VOTE!


SHOW NOTES – Episode 104

Date: Tuesday November 3rd, 2020

Episode 104 Topics

  • Opening
  • Happy Anniversary (to us)
    • What’s been your favorite thing about the UNSECURITY Podcast?
    • What’s been your favorite moment or episode?
  •  Special Guest Richie Breathe and the security industry’s stigma against healthy stuff
    • Who’s Richie Breathe?
    • Is there a stigma? If so, how bad do we think it is?
    • Ideas for improving wellness in our industry.
    • Where to go next.
  • News
  • Wrapping Up – Shout outs
Opening

[Evan] Hi again everyone. Welcome to another episode of the UNSECURITY Podcast! This is episode 104, the date is November 3rd, 2020, and I’m Evan Francen, your host. Joining me is my good friend and co-worker, Brad Nigh. Good morning Brad.

[Brad] Cue Brad.

[Evan] Also joining us, is a good friend Richie Breathe. Good morning Richie.

[Richie] Cue Richie.

[Evan] First things first. Today is election day. Did you guys vote?

[Brad & Richie] Well, did they?

Happy Anniversary (to us)

[Evan] This is our 104th episode in a row, meaning 104 weeks in a row, meaning two years! I can hardly believe it. Seems like yesterday we did our first episode together Brad. Happy anniversary!

[Brad] Cue Brad

[Evan] I gotta tell you man. I’ve loved every minute of this with you. Sincere gratitude for being my pal in this journey.

[Brad] Cue Brad

[Evan] Now, Richie. You’ve been listening for a while, and we actually met through the podcast, didn’t we?

[Richie] Cue Richie

[Evan] I’ve met 100s of amazing people over the past two years from this show. So many incredible memories. Brad, what’s your favorite thing about the UNSECURITY Podcast?

[Brad] Cue Brad

[Evan] How about you Richie?

[Richie] Cue Richie

[Evan] My favorite thing.

I couldn’t have imagined so much and I’m VERY grateful. How about a favorite moment or episode? Brad?

[Brad] Cue Brad

[Evan] Richie?

[Richie] Cue Richie

[Evan] My favorite moment/episode.

Like I said, it’s been an amazing ride. Here’s to many more episodes and lots more memories!

Transition

Special Guest –  Richie Breathe and the security industry’s stigma against healthy stuff

[Evan] Richie, thanks for being here man. I know we talked about this a while back, and the time has finally come. You first learned about me and Brad through the UNSECURITY Podcast, then started coming to the Daily inSANITY Checkin, right?

[Richie] Cue Richie.

[Evan] The Daily inSANITY Checkin is another HUGE blessing for me. I’ve met some incredible people there and I love sharing life with them. Shout out to you guys!

For people who want to know more, the Daily inSANITY Checkin is just what it says. It’s a daily informal meeting with people who care about each other. It’s a safe place to come, share thoughts, share ideas, or share whatever else comes to mind. The only real rules are to show respect and be yourself. Simple.

We started the Daily inSANITY Checkin immediately after the COVID-19 lockdowns started in March and we’ve been going strong ever since. It’s been incredible. So, Richie. You’re there almost every day, and I’m grateful to have gotten to know you. I know you, but tell the listeners a little about yourself.

[Richie] Cue Richie.

Begin Discussion

The security industry’s stigma against healthy stuff

  • Who’s Richie Breathe?
  • Is there a stigma? If so, how bad do we think it is?
  • Ideas for improving wellness in our industry.
  • Where to go next.

[Evan] Awesome! Great discussion. Thanks again Richie!

Now, we’re at the part of the show where we review a few news items that caught our eye this past week. Richie, please feel free to comment anytime too!

News

[Evan] Always plenty of interesting things going on in our industry. Here’s a few stories that caught my attention recently:

Wrapping Up – Shout outs

[Evan] Great! Episode 104 is just about complete. Thanks guys! Next week we’re going to tackle some incident response stuff. Things like what’s going on, what people are doing wrong, and how to do things better. Episode 105 will be great, and maybe we’ll invite a guest to boot!

Richie, loved having you join us this week. Thank you!

Any shout outs for either of you?

[Brad and/or Richie] We’ll see.

[Evan] Always grateful for our listeners! Send things to us by email at unsecurity@protonmail.com. If you’re the social type, socialize with us on Twitter, I’m @evanfrancen and Brad’s @BradNigh.

Richie, how can listeners find you?

[Richie] Cue Richie.

Lastly, be sure to follow SecurityStudio (@studiosecurity) and FRSecure (@FRSecure) for more things we do when we do what we do.

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

UNSECURITY Podcast – Ep 103 Show Notes – PsyberReslience Project Pt. 2

Happy Tuesday (again)!

There are always 100s of things to talk about each week, and if you’re ADHD like me, you know how hard it can be to stay focused on one thing for too long!

Here are a few things that are top of mind right now:

  • Security ABCs:
  • Election is next week. Please vote. Regardless of who you vote for, you have a voice. The voice might seem insignificant, but when millions of voices speak together, you have something special. This election season has been crazy, just like 2020 has been crazy. I’m looking forward to it being over, so we can return our focus to serious issues facing all of us.
  • Last week on the Security Shit Show, we talked about election security. The title of the show was “Is My Vote Secure?”. This week it’s Chris Roberts‘ topic, and he hasn’t announced it yet. Stay tuned!
  • Business is good – FRSecure is running at or near full capacity and SecurityStudio is serving people well with simple, fundamental, and effective information security risk tools. Good things! FRSecure is hiring BTW.
  • Incidents and calls for our incident response team continue to roll in. There was an incident that occurred this past weekend. Sadly, the way the incident was handled by the client provided good examples of what NOT to do. I’ll right a separate blog post on this story later, but here’s two things you need to do RIGHT NOW. Drop what you’re doing and make sure you’re squared away on:
    1. Check your incident response plan and be sure you know who to call.
      • Double-check the contact information.
      • Is there 24×7 response? Incidents will inevitably happen at the worst time.
      • Who do you call, and who do you call first? Your incident responders, your insurance provider, your legal team, executive management, law enforcement, or…?
    2. Make sure your preferred 3rd-party incident handler/provider is on your insurance provider’s approved list for reimbursement.
      • You waste precious time, energy, and money when you don’t know.
      • Engaging with a 3rd-party incident responder who isn’t on the list will force you into declined reimbursements and/or changed providers (losing more time).
  •  Not a sales push at all, but here’s what FRSecure provides. At a minimum, it makes sense to register with your incident responder (See: IR Registration Services).

  • Not digging the cold weather, but I do live in Minnesota, so…

Episode 102 Quick Recap

Originally, we weren’t planning on making the discussion with Neal O’Farrell into a series, but the talk in episode 102 was too AWESOME! Brad was out sick for the show, but Neal and I had a great talk about his 40(ish) years in our industry, his background growing up in Ireland, his organization (the PsyberResilience Project), our personal mental health issues (stress, burnout, etc.), and mental health in our industry. This is a serious issue in our industry, and we’re not doing a good enough job in tackling our problems.

I’m VERY excited to welcome Neal back again! We’ll talk about resources people can use to improve their lives. Sure to be another great discussion!

These are my (Evan) notes.


SHOW NOTES – Episode 103

Date: Tuesday October 27th, 2020

Episode 103 Topics

  • Opening
  • Special Guest – Neal O’Farrell from the PsyberReslience Project
    • Recap episode 102 – Where we left off.
    • Mental Health Discussion.
    • Specific self-help approaches, what we’ve learned from trying them.
    • Other resources and what you can do to help.
  • News
  • Wrapping Up – Shout outs
Opening

[Evan] Hi everybody. Welcome to another episode of the UNSECURITY Podcast! This is episode 103, the date is October 27th, 2020, and I’m Evan Francen, your host. Joining me is my good friend and co-worker, Brad Nigh. Good morning Brad.

[Brad] Cue Brad.

[Evan] Also joining us, for the second week in a row is our good friend and founder of the PsyberResilience Project, Neal O’Farrell. Good morning Neal.

[Neal] Cue Neal.

[Evan] How are you guys today? What’s new?

Quick Catch-up

Discussion about any current events, life or otherwise…

Transition

 

Special Guest – Neal O’Farrell from the PsyberReslience Project

[Evan] Neal, thanks for joining us for the podcast again this week. Last week we had a great talk. So great, in fact, we didn’t leave any time for news stuff. No matter though, people can always read news things for themselves.

Anyway, we talked about your background, both of us shared our personal struggles with mental health, and we talked about your organization (the PsyberResilience Project). This week Brad’s joining us, and we’re going to focus on specific self-help approaches that we’ve tried. Before we jump in, Brad, did you get a chance to listen to last week’s podcast?

[Brad] Cue Brad.

[Evan] What did you think about it?

[Brad] Cue Brad.

[Evan] Great! Let’s dig in.

Begin Discussion

Topics to discuss (or ideas):

  • Recap episode 102 – Where we left off.
  • Mental Health Discussion.
  • Specific self-help approaches, what we’ve learned from trying them.
  • Other resources and what you can do to help.

Discuss whatever else comes to mind.

[Evan] Excellent discussion, and I’m sure our listeners found value in it!

Now, we’re at the part of the show where we review a few news items that caught our eye this past week. Neal, please feel free to comment anytime too!

News

[Evan] Some interesting nation-state stuff caught my attention this week. God knows, there’s always plenty of nation-state stuff going on!

Wrapping Up – Shout outs

[Evan] Great! Episode 103 is just about complete. Thanks guys! Neal, it was great having you on the show again this week. I’m looking forward to working together to make our industry better. Brad, always happy when you’re here. Glad you’re feeling better this week!

Any shout outs for either of you?

[Brad and/or Neal] We’ll see.

[Evan] Always grateful for our listeners! Send things to us by email at unsecurity@protonmail.com. If you’re the social type, socialize with us on Twitter, I’m @evanfrancen and Brad’s @BradNigh.

Neal, remind our listeners again how they can get in touch with you.

[Neal] Cue Neal.

Lastly, be sure to follow SecurityStudio (@studiosecurity) and FRSecure (@FRSecure) for more things we do when we do what we do.

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

The UNSECURITY Podcast – Episode 81 Show Notes – Hard Truths

Welcome back! Episode 81 is sure to be a good one, but before I get started, just a few thoughts…

We just went through our first Memorial Day weekend under COVID-19. I don’t know what to say about it, other than the world seems as crazy, or crazier, than ever. Seems like 1/2 the country is out and about like everything’s normal while the other 1/2 of the country stays cooped up as though the apocalypse were upon us. To complicate matters, both halves seem to look upon each other with disdain.

We’re learning more and more each day about this coronavirus we call COVID-19. One thing appears certain, we’ve had crappy data to work with since day one. Crappy data leads to crappy decisions and crappy decisions lead to crappy outcomes. I’ll just leave it at that.

Memorial Day

This is one of my favorite holidays. I wonder how many of us know what it stands for or what it means. I wonder because I was wished a Happy Memorial Day numerous times yesterday, yet there’s nothing “happy” about it. The day is set aside to remember and honor our nation’s war dead from the Civil War onwards. It’s a day to stop what you’re doing, spend (at least) a few moments remembering the sacrifices that were made by our soldiers, and be grateful.

I suppose there are happy parts too, but these are mostly the product of what somebody else gave for you and me.

Not sure if I’m in a pissier mood today or what. No matter, I’ll snap out of it soon. Let’s get to Brad’s show notes!


SHOW NOTES – Episode 81

Date: Tuesday, May 26th, 2020

Episode 81 Topics

  • Opening
  • Catching Up (as per usual)
  • Hard Truths
  • News
  • Wrapping Up – Shout outs
Opening

[Brad] Welcome back! This is episode 81 of the UNSECURITY Podcast, and I’m your host this week, Brad Nigh. Today is May 26th, and joining me this morning as usual is Evan Francen.

[Evan] Has some sort of story for us I’m sure

[Brad] We’ve got a good show planned today! Before we get going though, let’s recap our week.

Catching Up

Quick discussion about last week, Memorial Day, last weekend, COVID-19, life, and other stuff.

[Evan] Evan talks about the cool things he did.

[Brad] I talk about the cool things I did.

Hard Truths

[Brad] So interestingly, at least to me, this is the first time I struggled with what to cover in our podcast.  Maybe the monotony of quarantine, the tidal wave of news around breaches and new attack vectors, or just plain old writer’s block but even sitting down to write this I don’t know where it ended up.

Because I was stuck I decided to start with news, there have been several really interesting things that have come out lately and that’s when I found this article from CSO Online 6 hard truths security pros must learn to live with and, yeah we can talk about this.

The Hard Truths

Discussion about the hard truths outlined in the CSO Online article:

  1. Hackers are probably inside your network right now
  2. You can do everything right and a careless end user can ruin everything
  3. You face critical staffing and skills shortages
  4. IoT creates new and unforeseen security problems
  5. You sometimes feel misunderstood and underappreciated
  6. Stress, anxiety and burnout come with the territory

[Brad] Good conversation, thank you Evan.

Let’s do some news…

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 81 is a wrap. Evan, you have any shout outs?

[Evan] Of course he does!

[Brad] Here’s mine…

[Brad] Huge thank you to our listeners! 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’s @evanfrancen. Lastly, be sure to follow SecurityStudio (@studiosecurity) and FRSecure (@FRSecure) for more goodies.

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