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UNSECURITY Podcast – Episode 98 Show Notes

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Here we are again, another Tuesday, and another episode of the UNSECURITY Podcast!

Tons going on, as usual.

Last week we released a couple new FREE things at SecurityStudio:

  • Work From Home Security Policy Template – Located at the bottom of our S2Team page. If you don’t know what S2Team is, you should definitely take a look. If you just want the template and don’t care, here it is.
  • Ransomware Recovery Contract – A simple contract between executive management and IT to ensure accountability for ransomware recovery. Executive management likes it because they finally know what to ask for, and IT likes it because they can use it to show they’re doing what they should/can to prevent a prolonged ransomware outage. I’ve uploaded the contract to my site here.

ADDED: Brad reminded me on the show that FRSecure made a free Incident Response Plan Template available last week. Take a look. It’s really, really good (and free)!

Other goings on include developing and improvement of new services (including the release of SecurityStudio v3.9 and an incident response capability assessment), continued collaboration with great partners, a few speaking engagements, episode 19 of the Security Shit Show, deployment of S2Team, and other things.

Alright, enough about that. Let’s get to the show notes, shall we? These are my (Evan) notes.

SHOW NOTES – Episode 98

Date: Tuesday, September 22nd, 2020

Episode 98 Topics

  • Opening
  • Catching Up
  • Accountability
  • News
  • Wrapping Up – Shout outs
Opening

[Evan] Good morning everyone. Thanks for tuning in to episode 98 of the UNSECURITY Podcast. Today is September 22nd, 2020 and joining me is my co-host and friend Brad Nigh.

Good morning Brad.

[Brad] Cue Brad.

[Evan] I think we have a good show planned for listeners this week. This episode is all about accountability. I’d like to discuss how accountability works in information security, who should be accountable for what, and give some tips for improving accountability where we work and in the world around us.

Lots to cover on the topic of accountability. Before we jump in, quick catchup with Brad.

Catching Up

[Evan] Brad, how you doing? What’s new?

[Brad] Cue Brad.

[Evan] Cue Evan.

Transition

Accountability

[Evan] Alright, let’s talk about accountability, or maybe the lack of accountability, in information security. This has been a topic that’s been dominating my thoughts again for the past couple weeks. I say “again” because this isn’t the first time we’ve talked about it.

During an episode of the Security Shit Show a couple weeks ago, I think it was episode 18, we were talking about ransomware. The talk was great, but the frustration we all felt was apparent. Why do we keep doing the same things over and over again? Why don’t people do the basics? My take was the lack of accountability. So, I drafted a Ransomware Recovery Contract to help.

Have you seen the Ransomware Recovery Contract?

[Brad] Cue Brad (I’m sort of springing this on him).

[Evan] So, the greater issue of accountability in general. Let’s talk about it here, for our benefit and the benefit of our listeners.

  • The importance of accountability.
    • Repeating the same mistakes over and over.
    • Safe to assume people know?
    • People die now.
  • When to define accountability.
  • Who’s ultimately accountable for what?
    • In tech – buggy software, social media (see the social dilemma), etc.
    • Big organizations.
    • Small organizations.
    • Public organizations.
    • School districts.
  • Examples of accountability disfunction.
  • Examples of good accountability.
  • What to do about it.
    • Get out ahead. Better now than never (or later).
    • Will CEOs be personally liable someday?

[Evan] This is a deep subject with much to be said. Everything moves so fast, and sadly accountability is severely lagging behind.

[Evan] For listeners who are wondering about us doing a series titled “Politics and Information Security”, it’s still being considered. We just have to put it all together.

[Evan] OK, news. Let’s do some quick news stories.

News

[Evan] Three news stories to talk about briefly this week:

Wrapping Up – Shout outs

[Evan] OK. That’s about it. Episode 98 is almost a wrap. Brad, any shout outs this week?

[Brad] Shout out…

[Evan] We’re very grateful for our listeners and we love hearing from you. Send us messages by email at unsecurity@protonmail.com or check us out on Twitter, @UnsecurityP.

If you wanna socialize with me or Brad directly, we dare you! I’m @evanfrancen, and Brad’s @BradNigh. We work for people and if you want to follow those people, SecurityStudio is @studiosecurity and FRSecure is @FRSecure.

That’s it, talk you all again next week!

The UNSECURITY Podcast – Episode 61 Show Notes – 2020 Look Ahead

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Hello 2020! What do you have in store for us?

In last week’s episode, Brad and I discussed some of the crappy things from 2019. It’s no doubt, we’ve got a lot of work to do in this industry. Now, in this episode, we’re going to discuss some of the great things we did this year as an industry, and we’re going to look at what 2020 should have in store for us!

Exciting Announcements

We’re starting 2020 off right, and we have some cool announcements:

  1. Our good friend Ryan Cloutier has joined SecurityStudio!
  2. We’re writing a new book!
  3. I’m in Cancun (I guess this is sorta cool for me)!
Ryan Cloutier

If you’ve been listening to our podcast for a while, you might remember Ryan. He joined us on the show in episode 27, and again in episode 44. Ryan brings a wealth of knowledge, a refreshing perspective, and an unbridled passion for information security , and we’re jacked he’s on board! Ryan will be helping me and the rest of the SecurityStudio team reach K-12, local governments, and whoever else wants to get on board with establishing rock solid information security fundamentals.

New Book

I took off for my annual trip to Cancun yesterday (1/4) to begin writing our next book. This one will be co-written with Brad and probably Ryan too. The book is unofficially titled “Securing America” and it will provide an easy-to-use manual for building fundamental information security programs and habits in the most under-served areas; SMBs, local governments, education (K-12 and post-secondary), and home.

If you haven’t read my first book, I invite you to! You can either purchase it, or if you’re with us on our mission to fix the brokenness in our industry, contact me and tell me so. I’ll send you a free signed copy! P.S. I’m not publicizing this everywhere, so let’s see if your paying attention.

Cancun

Yeah, this is year three for this trip. Year one was spent writing UNSECURITY. Year two was spent starting a book that I shelved (for now) about information security for normal people. This year, I’m starting this book (referenced above) and we’ll publish it sometime in Q3/Q4 of 2020.

We’ll cover these things (above) and some of the good things from 2019 in this episode of the UNSECURITY Podcast.

Brad’s leading the show this week, joined in studio by Ryan Cloutier. I’m calling in from Mexico, and these are my notes.

SHOW NOTES – Episode 61

Date: Monday, January 6th, 2020

Show Topics:

Our topics this week:

  • Opening
    • Exciting News.
    • 2019 in review, some of the good things.
    • What we expect 2020 to bring us.
  • Closing
Opening

[Brad] Welcome to the first UNSECURITY Podcast episode of 2020! We’ve got a jam-packed show for you today. It’s Monday, January 6th, 2020, and I’m Brad Nigh. Joining me in studio is the newest member of our team, Ryan Cloutier. Welcome Ryan!

[Ryan] Ryan does Ryan. Would you expect anything different?

[Brad] Joining us by phone from Cancun, Mexico is my usual co-host, Evan Francen. Hi Evan.

[Evan] I do me.

[Brad] Probably says something about Cancun and how he should be here too, or instead or me. Maybe he’ll ask about the weather, maybe not.

[Brad] Well, let’s get started. We have a ton of stuff to talk about today. Let’s start off by talking about you Ryan. Today is day #1 at SecurityStudio, right?

[Ryan] Says stuff.

Exciting News – Welcoming Ryan

Quick discussion and welcome.

  • Questions that may come up:
    • What will you be doing at SecurityStudio?
    • What made you want to come to SecurityStudio?
    • What are some of the challenges that lie ahead?
  • We’re pumped that Ryan’s onboard, and we’re looking forward to great things!

[Brad] Alright, Evan’s down in Cancun starting another book. He’s getting it started, and rumor has it that I and you (Ryan) will be co-writing this sucker!

Exciting News – Another Book

Quick discussion about this upcoming book.

  • Questions that may come up:
    • What’s the point for this book?
    • Who’s the audience?
    • What’s it like to write a book?
    • When can I get a copy?
  • We’re jazzed about this book because it’s a way to get the word out and make an impact on people’s lives. The fact that it’s going to be a collaboration between the three of us makes it extra exciting!

[Brad] Alright, some cool things to look forward to in 2020 and beyond! Let’s take a quick look back at 2019 and find some positive news. As infosec people, we sometimes get caught up in the bad news, but there are many good things happening.

2019 in Review – Good Things

[Brad] I think I speak for both Ryan and Evan when I say that we love this industry. There’s plenty of brokenness, but the people in this industry are amazing! Evan has a say that he uses a lot; “information security isn’t about information or security as much as it’s about people.” Using this as a segue, what good things happened in 2019 that we can be proud of?

Some things to discuss (in a positive light):

  • Is the information security industry more diverse now than it was at the beginning of 2019?
  • How are the job prospects for information security practitioners?
  • Are people more aware of information security?
  • Are CISOs emerging as real business leaders in greater numbers?
  • Is there improved collaboration among information security professionals?
  • More people are beginning to focus on fundamentals.

[Brad] Let’s focus on progress in 2020 and we should each be asking ourselves:

  1. Am I making a positive difference?
  2. Are my motives focused on greater good or selfish greed?
Closing

[Brad] OK, no news for today’s show. We’ve discussed plenty and we’re looking forward to another great year! We’re also wishing the best for all our listeners. Let’s kick some ass together in 2020!

That’s a wrap for today’s show. Thank you and welcome to the family Ryan. Evan, stay out of trouble.

Next week, we’ll start to devote 10 minutes out of every show to help someone who’s looking for a job or career change. If you’re one of these people, get in touch with us and we’ll feature you as a guest on future episode.

Get in contact with us through email at unsecurity@protonmail.com. If you’re the social type, socialize with us on Twitter, I’m @BradNigh, Ryan can be found at @CLOUTIERSEC, and Evan’s in his usual spot, @evanfrancen.

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

The UNSECURITY Podcast – Episode 60 Show Notes – 2019 Year End Review

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Goodbye 2019. It’s been real.

“Where did the time go?”

A common question, we ask ourselves. This year I decided to take a stab at answering it.

Here’s where my time went, for what it’s worth (roughly):

  • 38.58% (or 3,380 hours) working
  • 27.09% (or 2,373 hours) sleeping
  • 23.90% (or 2,094 hours) personal (family, friends, etc.) quality time
  • 10.42% (or 913 hours) other

I spent ~15% more time working than I did making memories with my family in 2019. Some priority adjustments are overdue for me in 2020.

Thank God for the gift of reflection.

The end of the year is a good time to reflect. Reflection is healthy. As I reflect on 2019, I can think of many good things about us like improved industry diversity, great personal growth, business accomplishments, and amazing people working round the clock for our collective benefit.

Unfortunately, there are also bad things. Since we’ve got plenty to cover, both good and bad, we’ll use this episode (#60) to discuss the bad. We won’t want to leave a sour taste in your mouth for too long, so we’ll cover the good things, and the things to look forward to in 2020, in next week’s episode (#61).

Now, the bad.

I already mentioned one of the bad things I discovered from 2019, that my priorities are out of whack, but I also learned things about the sad state of our industry. I learned that we’re (still) losing the war, and we’re losing it on multiple fronts.

Are you wondering what war?

The war where the bad people take advantage of the good people. The war where the immoral ones take advantage of the decent ones. Where the informed and corrupt beat the ignorant and noble every single time.

Let me preface the rest of this by saying I’m not a doomsayer. I’m a realist. I’m a realist with a deep desire to share the truth. If you’ve been paying attention, and can be objective, you’ll find it easier to predict our future. Predicting where a path leads is easier when there’s no (or little) change of course.

Our discussion points for episode 60’s year-end review:

  • Front #1 – Breaches are more common than ever, but we seem to care less than ever.
  • Front #2 – Our local governments and schools are losing their battles.
  • Front #3 – Our homes are part of the battleground and we’re not prepared.

All is not lost, and there’s hope. There’s good news too. We’ll cover good news next week. 2020 is the year for you, me, and our industry to get real. It’s time for us to tackle our most significant issues head-on, together!

I am (Evan) leading the show this week, and these are my notes.

SHOW NOTES – Episode 60

Date: Monday, December 30th, 2019

Show Topics:

Our topics this week:

  • Opening
  • The year (2019) in review.
    • Priorities and life adjustments
    • Front #1 – Breaches are more common than ever, but we seem to care less than ever.
    • Front #2 – Our local governments and schools are losing their battles.
    • Front #3 – Our homes are part of the battleground and we’re not prepared.
  • Closing
Opening

[Evan] Welcome to the last UNSECURITY Podcast episode of 2019! We’ve got a great show planned for you. The date is December 30th, and this is episode number 60. Joining me as (almost) always is my guy Brad Nigh. Hi Brad.

[Brad] Early morning version of Brad…

[Evan] No guest today. It’s just me and you. How you doing?

[Brad] More early morning version Brad things…

[Evan] When I put together today’s show notes, I felt like I was a little harsh, maybe even depressing. It’s not like I was depressed when I wrote the notes, but when I take an objective look at what took place this year, it’s sort of depressing to me. 2019 brought with it a record number of breaches, a record number of records disclosed/stolen, ransomware everywhere, etc. Crap man. Do I seem depressed to you?

[Brad] He’s got something to say.

[Evan] Maybe I take this too personal, but I HATE seeing people get taken advantage of. There were too many times this year that we read about people being taken advantage of, and it sucks. Ugh. Maybe I am depressed.

[Brad] More things…

[Evan] Alright, let’s get to it. The 2019 year-end review…

The year (2019) in review discussion
  • Priorities and life adjustments
  • Front #1 – Breaches are more common than ever, and we seem to care less than ever.
    • Another record year for breaches, do we care?
    • Sources; https://www.cnet.com/news/2019-data-breach-hall-of-shame-these-were-the-biggest-data-breaches-of-the-year/ and https://lifehacker.com/the-worst-data-breaches-of-2019-1840616463
    • “total number of breaches was up 33% over last year”
    • “medical services, retailers and public entities most affected”
    • “5,183 data breaches for a total of 7.9 billion exposed records”
    • Risk Based Security stated that 2019 is/was the “worst year on record” for breaches
      • January – Marriott breach (383 million)
      • February – 617 million accounts, from 16 websites and for sale on the dark web
      • March – 100s of millions of Facebook and Instagram accounts
      • April – 540 million Facebook records
      • May – 885 million First American Financial records
      • June – 20 million patients, bill collector American Medical Collection Association
      • July – Capital One and 100 million credit card applications
      • August – MoviePass and 160 million unencrypted/unauthenticated records
      • September – 218 million Words with Friends accounts
      • October – 4 billion social media profile records (???)
      • November – Facebook again…
      • December – we’re still waiting…
    • Breach fatigue.
    • Are we getting better at finding/reporting breaches? Are breaches happening more often? Are we getting worse?
  • Front #2 – Our local governments and schools are losing their battles.
    • Ransomware nails our local governments and schools.
    • A great article by Michael Mayes at CPO Magazine; the Top 10 Ransomware Stories of 2019.
      • “As the year ends, it’s time to declare 2019 the Year of Ransomware Escalation.”
      • Baltimore was “just one of 82 cities and municipalities to publicly report being struck by ransomware” in 2019.
      • “By December 1, a total of 72 US school districts have fallen victim to ransomware, impacting 867 individual schools and over 10,000 students.”
      • Nine “school districts representing 98 individual schools have been attacked by ransomware just in November. They include:
        • Wood County Schools, Parkersburg, West VA
        • Port-Neches Grove Independent School District, Port Neches, TX
        • Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation, Mishawaka, IN
        • Livingston New Jersey School District, Livingston, NJ
        • Chicopee Public Schools, Chicopee, MA
        • Claremont Unified School District, Claremont, CA
        • Sycamore School District 427, DeKalb, IL
        • Sunapee Middle High School, Sunapee, NH
        • Main School Administrative District #6, Buxton, ME”
      • Louisiana declared a state of emergency twice in 2019
    • Do we just accept it?
    • We started a civic duty push in 2019, calling for citizens to inquire about ransomware protections from their local government officials. We’ll need to pick this up again this year, and include schools too.
  • Front #3 – Our homes are part of the battleground and we seem ignorant about it.
    • Security, privacy, and safety at home.
    • We still don’t emphasize information security, privacy, and safety enough at home.
    • Did this problem get worse in 2019?
    • Will this get worse before it gets better?

[Evan] That wasn’t too depressing, was it?

[Brad] Gives his honest opinion.

[Evan] We’ve got a lot of work to do, and there are no easy answers. No easy buttons. I think the answer is found in learning and applying information security fundamentals. We spent 2019 working hard at SecurityStudio and FRSecure to reach people with simple, but practical information security solutions like our vCISO, S2Org (information security risk assessment for all organizations), S2Vendor, S2Me (information security risk assessment for all people) and others. We even made some of our tools free! We’ll continue our quest to reach people and help wherever we can!

Got anything to add Mr. Nigh?

[Brad] Adds if he wants to add.

Closing

[Evan] That’s a wrap for another show. Heck, not just another show, but another year!

Thank you and Happy New Year to our listeners! Be sure to tune in next week, when we’ll cover some positive developments from 2019 and maybe a prediction or two. We love recording these shows for you, and we hope you enjoy them. Send us your questions and feedback at unsecurity@protonmail.com. If you’re the social type, socialize with us on Twitter, I’m @evanfrancen, and this other guy is @BradNigh.

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

#S2Roadshow Recap – Week Six

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Fargo, ND and Rochester, NY

If you’re new, or you’re confused about this #S2Roadshow thing, start here (maybe). It’s hard to believe that each week gets better, but it’s true, it does! Week #6 (this one) was the best yet.

Previous Week’s Recaps:

The purpose of the SecurityStudio Roadshow (#S2Roadhow) is to meet people and make partners. We want to meet people, understand their businesses, and help them grow using simple, fundamental, and compliant solutions (S2Score, S2Org, S2Vendor, and S2Team/S2Me).

Our mission is to fix the broken information security industry. Success requires collaboration, partnership, and transparency.

John and I spent half the week together and the other half in separate towns.

BBQ Reviews

In full transparency, we have a secondary mission on the #S2Roadshow. We eat as much BBQ as we can. After stuffing ourselves, I summarize our BBQ reviews at the end of each recap article (see below).

Fargo, North Dakota

If you’ve never been to Fargo in November, you’ve got to give it a try sometime. You can visit Bonanzaville USA, the Fargo Air Museum, or you could come to do what we did, attend Network Center’s nVision conference. We left on Tuesday for the 3-1/2 hour drive to Fargo, and got there just in time for the vendor social hour.

Network Center is a great company, and we’re big fans. It helps that they’re a trusted SecurityStudio partner.

On my trip up north, I was joined by three of my favorite SecurityStudio people; John Harmon, Justin Kallberg, and Steve Krause (all pictured below).

nVision 2019

We’ve been at the nVision conference for years now, and this one was the best yet. There were 500+ people packed into the Fargo Holiday Inn Conference Center, all there to learn and network together. Of course, there were plenty of vendor booths there (including ours – below) too.

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There were so many incredible people at this event, and it was great catching up with people I hadn’t seen in a while. After spending a few hours hanging out with cool people, I gave my talk on the main stage at 1:00. I changed my talk at the last minute (as per usual) and decided to give the “How do we secure America” sermon that I developed the week prior.

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The place was packed and the audience was amazing! We hung out at our booth afterwards and gave out a whole box of UNSECURITY books for free. I met countless awesome people, including Zoe Bundy (pictured below with her brother Grover), Frank LaLonde (from Nativity Church of Fargo – also pictured below), John Nagel (Cybernet Security), and Larry Schwab (Discovery Benefits CISO).

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One person who stands out from the rest is Zoe. She’s incredible, and she’s the founder of Brainy Ladies. Brainy Ladies is a cool organization with an awesome purpose; “We help young girls find their inner genius by helping them remain interested in STEM.” I met Zoe for the first time at last year’s nVision conference, and it was wonderful to see her again. Read her story here, and tell me you’re not impressed! I’ll get her on the UNSECURITY Podcast one of these days, hopefully soon.

nVision was a great conference. Sadly, we didn’t have time to grab any BBQ in Fargo. Curious, is there any good BBQ in Fargo? The platter of bacon laid out at the nVision lunch buffet will have to do.

Rochester, New York

Made it back to the Twin Cities early enough to grab five hours of sleep before catching my 5:15am flight to Rochester. I have an affinity for Rochester because one of my favorite customers (@FRsecure) is Excellus BlueCross BlueShield. Funny thing is (sort of), I’ll be back in Rochester to do some work for Excellus the following week.

The purpose for this particular visit was to attend and present at the Rochester ISSA chapter meeting being held on Thursday night.

Two trips to Rochester in five days. Weird.

First thing after landing in Rochester was to find BBQ. Took out my phone, opened my Apple Map and typed “BBQ”. The closest BBQ joint that looked legit was Unkl Moe’s BBQ & Catering at 493 West Ave (review below). That’ll do.

After BBQ, it was time for an early check-in at the hotel and a short nap.

Rochester ISSA

The Rochester ISSA meeting started at 6:00pm, and I was almost late. I started doing some work in the hotel and got a little caught up in it. The meeting was held at the offices of Nixon Peabody, a nice law firm located at 1300 Clinton Square. Guess what they had catered in? BBQ! Before the meeting started, we enjoyed some Dinosaur BBQ (one of my favorites in Rochester) while we got to know each other.

The meeting was great! Attendance was good, participation was awesome, and they let me preach for a full hour and a half. I preached about mental health, getting our industry’s security #*(! together, and civic duties for security people. Great talk and discussion!

Gave away a few books, and headed back to the hotel at 10:00pm. Ray Feldman left me a nice shoutout before I got back.

Most of the day Friday was spent at Starbucks catching up on email and other things that I’d neglected over the week. Tried another BBQ joint before heading to the airport, Texas Bar-B-Q Joint in Spencerport (review below).

Overall, this was another great week. Met a ton of new and wonderful people!

BBQ Reviews

Only two BBQ reviews again. We still need to step up our game.

Unkl Moe’s BBQ & Catering – no website – Overall: 6.5

Hard to believe that I didn’t nab any BBQ this week until Thursday after getting off the plane in Rochester. It is what it is. I chose Unkl Moe’s because it was the closest BBQ joint to the Rochester airport and it got fairly good reviews.

I walked in the front door and the smokey smell hit me nicely. The inside of this place reminded me of a small town southern diner with most of the seats occupied by regulars. My hopes were high. I bellied up to the counter, grabbed a menu, and ordered the BBQ ribs and pulled pork platter (choosing french fries and cabbage as my sides).

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Sadly, I was a little disappointed by the place, except for the conversations I had with the regulars. One conversation in particular was great! While eating, I struck up a conversation with a retired OTR trucker named Howard and we talked about all sorts of things; politics, his hometown in Georgia, etc.

The food definitely wasn’t the best thing about this place. The pulled pork had a nice texture, but the flavor was missing. The ribs were OK, but they were smothered in sauce. I’d go back to this place for the conversation, but not the food.

Texas Bar-B-Q Joint (Spencerport) – https://www.bbqrochester.com/spencerport – Overall: 7.00

I didn’t realize that this was a small chain of BBQ joints until I sat down to write this. This was my first trip to Spencerport and I was excited to try this place. The reviews were good and I felt like I could almost taste the pictures online.

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Walked in and ordered my food at the bar (sliced brisket, pulled pork, and sausage with macaroni and cheese and steamed vegetables for sides). The guy taking my order was helpful, and I took my seat at one of the open booths in the corner. This joint looked very promising and the it smelled amazing. It was lunch time and there were maybe eight people in the place.

It didn’t take long before I realized how cold it was. They must have had the thermostat set at 60! Whatever, I blew it off. I came here for some meat.

The cook called my name, and I jumped to grab my tray. I was excited and hungry. Turned out, I was also a little disappointed. Everything was OK, but nothing was exceptional. The portions were good. The pulled pork was a little watery. The brisket was OK, but it was cut too thick and it wasn’t smokey enough. The best part of the meal was sadly the macaroni and cheese.

Remember how I said the place was cold? A cold BBQ joint makes things suck more. This is because the meat on your plate starts cooling off too quickly and by the time you’re getting towards the end, the meat is cold, dry, and chewy.

The BBQ wasn’t bad. Just not sure I’ll be back. Maybe in the summer.

BBQ Summary

Again, two new BBQ joints to add to our list. This was a disappointing BBQ week. The winner was Texas Bar-B-Q Joint (Spencerport, NY). Pecan Lodge easily retains it’s top place as overall #S2Roadshow leader with a score of 9, and Bowlegged BBQ is still in the #2 spot. The current overall standings are listed below.

Overall Standings (at the end of #S2Roadshow Week Three):

  • Pecan Lodge – 9
  • Bowlegged BBQ – 8.75
  • Divine Swine – 8.5
  • Big Ed’s BBQ – 8.25
  • Mission BBQ – 8
  • Cousin’s BBQ – 7.75
  • Blackwood BBQ – 7.5
  • Broad Street BBQ – 7.5
  • Hard Eight – 7.25
  • Spring Creek Barbeque – 7.25
  • Redd’s BBQ – 7.25
  • Lucille’s Smokehouse BBQ – 7
  • Texas Bar-B-Q Joint – 7
  • Smoque – 6.75
  • Sweet Lucy’s Smokehouse – 6.75
  • Red Coal BBQ – 6.75
  • Unkl Moe’s – 6.5
  • Hambone’s Smokehouse – 6.25
  • Shakedown BBQ – N/A (wasn’t open when it was supposed to be, wasted trip)

Next Week’s #S2Roadshow

This is a crazy week. I’ll be back in Rochester, NY on Monday and Tuesday, flying back to Kansas City, MO on Wednesday, then out to Sacramento, CA. John joins me in Kansas City and Sacramento.

I’m pumped about Kansas City BBQ, but I’m there to talk with members of Greater Kansas City ISACA Chapter . This will be a good meeting for sure. Some of the members have been hyping it up online.

On Friday, I’m speaking at the Sacramento Valley ISSA meeting. I’m excited to meet a bunch of cool people, but I’m also excited about the weather!

Looking forward to another great week!

Stay tuned for next week’s #S2Roadshow updates. You can follow us on Twitter (@evanfrancen, @HarmonJohn, @StudioSecurity, and the #S2Roadshow hashtag) and on LinkedIn.

See you next week! If you want to collaborate with us, get in touch!

#S2Roadshow Recap – Week Five

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St. Paul, MN and Dallas, TX

If you’re new, or you’re confused about this #S2Roadshow thing, start here (maybe).

Previous Week’s Recaps:

The purpose of the SecurityStudio Roadshow (#S2Roadhow) is to meet people and make partners. We want to meet people, understand their businesses, and help them grow using simple, fundamental, and compliant solutions (S2Score, S2Org, S2Vendor, and S2Team/S2Me).

Our mission is to fix the broken information security industry. Success requires collaboration, partnership, and transparency.

Together again! This week, John and I were together doing our thing. Good times!

BBQ Reviews

In full transparency, we have a secondary mission on the #S2Roadshow. We eat as much BBQ as we can. After stuffing ourselves, I summarize our BBQ reviews at the end of each recap article (see below).

Sideshow – Cyber Security Summit

This wasn’t a stop on the SecurityStudio Roadshow, but a stop for FRSecure. FRSecure rocks and I love getting to preach for us/them! The Cyber Security Summit is an annual event that brings all sorts of great security folks together in the Minneapolis Convention Center for three days of security awesomeness. I gave my talk on Monday, titled “Tackling the Talent Shortage Problem: An Honest Look at Challenges Related to Finding and Retaining Information Security Talent.”

I’m the guy with the beard (in the pic). If you’d like a copy of my deck, it’s available here. Use it. Steal it. Distribute it. Do whatever you’d like with it. 😉

Great conference. Great attendance. Great everything. It was fun.

St. Paul, Minnesota

In case you didn’t know, John and I are both from Minnesota, so this is a short road trip. We traveled all the way from Minnetonka (where our offices are) to St. Paul on Wednesday.

John and I both spoke at the Minnesota Counties Computer Cooperative (MNCCC) Halloween Cybersecurity Workshop titled “The Wicked Web”. There were a hundred (or so) people there representing local governments throughout the state. Originally, only John was scheduled to speak at this event, but a scheduled speaker backed out at the last minute. The fine folks at MNCCC asked if I would fill in.

Sure I said! What will I talk about though? I whipped up a presentation titled “How do we secure America?” Why not, it’s fitting for government people, right? It turned out to be a good talk, primarily because the audience was awesome!

If you’d like a copy of this deck, I put it here. Same as the last one, feel free to use it however you’d like.

John gave a demonstration of the S2Org tool for the audience and we invited them all to use it. It’s free for crying out loud! It was nice to see many counties/cities (~10) take us up on our offer. If you haven’t tried the free S2Org tool yourself, do it!

Dallas, Texas

John and I left for Dallas on Thursday morning. We grabbed our car from Wonder Woman, then headed to our first meeting.

We drove straight to Hard Eight BBQ where we had a meeting scheduled with some of the guys from @Risk Technologies. The BBQ was good (see below) and the meeting was great! @Risk has some really cool things going on and we’re happy to be friends!

We took a partner phone call in the car while we drove to another meeting. This meeting was with Ryan at FRG Solutions to collaborate on some cool go to market ideas. Great ideas and a great call!

Along the way, we were a little troubled with this picture.

Our next meeting was with John Ross, a super cool technology executive from Dallas. John was in the audience during my ISC2 keynote a few weeks back. In the middle of that talk, he went out to the lobby and grabbed me a cup of coffee. How cool is that! Anyway, we’re meeting again. He chose this coffee shop called Ascension, and these guys take coffee to a whole new level!

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It was cool to catch-up with John and talk about ways to work together. We talked a lot about starting businesses, finding the right path, and our faith. I LOVE good people and I love working with them too. This was a wonderful way to end my day (John went on to have another meeting or two after this one).

ICI Events

On Friday, we attended a really cool event put on by ICI Events at the Four Seasons Resort and Club. The event featured a unique format for bringing vendors, partners, and business consumers together, starting with a speed dating round where a few business consumers would sit at your table for six minutes while you told them about your solution. After the six minutes was up, people would switch places, and you’d do it again. This would continue until all business consumers had seen all vendors. After the speed dating round, consumers would vote on which vendors they’d like to know more about. It was pretty cool and we made a lot of friends!

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JP Hill (pictured above) was a key player in putting this all together and he made us feel very welcomed. JP was the key person who put together the ISC2 Cyber Aware Dallas event too, and he’s Dallas ISC2 Chapter President. In his free time (joking), he’s the CISO at Secutor Consulting.

Like I said, we made a lot of friends here.

Trip Home

Normally, my trip home is spent working on the plane, but this trip home was a little different. I met a guy named Chad on the plane. Chad is a social worker from MN, and we somehow got to talking about Jesus. We talked about everything from marriage and family to work and hobbies, and everything in between.

Well, that was that. Great trip(s) this week!

BBQ Reviews

Only two BBQ reviews again. We need to step up our game.

Hard Eight – https://hardeightbbq.com/ – Overall: 7.25

We met the guys from @Risk here and they paid for it, so the value was great! I don’t even know how much our food cost. The experience was unique. You walk up to a big pit full of meat and grab what you want. There’s everything in this pit; turkey, pulled pork, brisket, ribs, sausage, etc. There were even some kind of weird shrimp kabob things. Once you grab your meat, you go inside to pick your side dishes and beverages. At the end of the line is the cashier, and after paying, you go find a seat somewhere.

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The meat was OK. It tasted sort of rushed and bulk-prepared where I like meat that feels like it was cooked in the back yard. I could hardly notice the smoke in the meat and the pulled pork was watery. The best meat I had was the turkey, which was really good. Overall, this place was OK. I’m not sure if it’s a place that I’d make a special trip to go back and visit.

Cousin’s BBQ – https://www.cousinsbbq.com/ – Overall: 7.75

I arrived at the DFW airport for the trip home and realized that I’d only done one BBQ joint so far on this trip! I sort of panicked a bit before finding this little gem in the DFW airport. Thank God! A man can’t take a trip with only one portion of BBQ.

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My expectations for this place were low to begin with. After all, what kind of BBQ can you expect to get in an airport? Needless to say, I was very pleasantly surprised! I ordered pulled pork and brisket, with broccoli salad and cole slaw on the side. The meat was surprisingly moist a very flavorful. The smoke ring was good too. In a pinch, this place will definitely do!

BBQ Summary

Again, two new BBQ joints to add to our list. The winner this week was Cousin’s BBQ. Pecan Lodge is still the the overall #S2Roadshow leader with a score of 9, and Bowlegged BBQ is still in the #2 spot. The current overall standings are listed below.

Overall Standings (at the end of #S2Roadshow Week Three):

  • Pecan Lodge – 9
  • Bowlegged BBQ – 8.75
  • Divine Swine – 8.5
  • Big Ed’s BBQ – 8.25
  • Mission BBQ – 8
  • Cousin’s BBQ – 7.75
  • Blackwood BBQ – 7.5
  • Broad Street BBQ – 7.5
  • Hard Eight – 7.25
  • Spring Creek Barbeque – 7.25
  • Redd’s BBQ – 7.25
  • Lucille’s Smokehouse BBQ – 7
  • Smoque – 6.75
  • Sweet Lucy’s Smokehouse – 6.75
  • Red Coal BBQ – 6.75
  • Hambone’s Smokehouse – 6.25
  • Shakedown BBQ – N/A (wasn’t open when it was supposed to be, wasted trip)

Next Week’s #S2Roadshow

John and I are together again for the first half of the roadshow, then I’m going solo for the second half. We’re excited to go up to Fargo, ND this week to hang out with Network Center, our partners to the north. They put on this amazing event every year called nVision, and both John and I are speaking on the main stage there. John comes back home and I head out to Rochester, NY to make some new friends. I’ll be speaking at the ISSA chapter there.

Looking forward to another great week!

Stay tuned for next week’s #S2Roadshow updates. You can follow us on Twitter (@evanfrancen, @HarmonJohn, @StudioSecurity, and the #S2Roadshow hashtag) and on LinkedIn.

See you next week! If you want to collaborate with us, get in touch!

CALL TO ACTION UPDATE – Doing your part about civic ransomware

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Does the all caps “CALL TO ACTION UPDATE” get your attention? It’s supposed to.

The facts:

  1. The call to action still stands.
  2. Our municipalities are still under siege.
  3. The ransomware threat has far from abated.
  4. Too many communities are under-prepared.

You aren’t powerless. You have options.

  1. You can sit there and do nothing, playing the victim.
  2. You can point fingers and complain, playing the critic.
  3. You can wait for somebody else to do something, playing the sluggard.
  4. You can be part of the solution by doing something constructive, playing the responsible citizen. In my opinion, this is the best option.

If you choose (or have chosen) option 4, pen an email to your local government officials. Respectfully ask them how they’ve prepared for an eventual ransomware attack. If you are willing and able, offer to help them if they need it. If you aren’t willing or able to help them, refer them to one of us who is willing and able to help them.

Follow the guidance in my previous CALL TO ACTION article or follow your own charge.

For those of you who choose to do nothing, you have no right to play the victim card or complain. You give up those rights, in my opinion.

UPDATE

Now for the update. Many of you have taken me up on the CALL TO ACTION. You have emailed your local government officials and you’ve shared some of their responses with us at unsecurity@protonmail.com.

Kudos to you for choosing option 4 (above)!

Here are some of the responses that have been shared with us, protecting the names of the innocent/guilty.

Response from small city in a rural area:

We are familiar with these attacks on cities and we utilize network security professionals to protect our systems.  We also utilize a firm to audit us and test for gaps or issues proactively as well as routinely backing up and storing our data off site to protect against ransom demands and other risks.

Not too bad. The resident followed up with the city to gain more insight and offer help. Nice work!

Response from a medium-sized U.S. county:

Thanks for reaching out. No organization can claim with 100% certainty that they are protected from any cyberattack. However this is a very front and center topic for <REDACTED> County, and many efforts have been taken to reduce our risk and exposure to various kinds of cyber attacks, including Ransomware.

The County does not have a defined policy regarding what they would do if faced with this decision (in fact none of the metro counties have one, last time I checked), but in my conversations with Administration I do not believe paying a ransom would be an option they would choose.

Hope that helps answer your question.

This is good to know, yes? Someone (why not us/you) should work with this county to address the issue, and while we’re at it, address the issue with all “metro counties”. Kudos to this county official for responding with some transparency!

Response from a mid-sized suburban city:

Thanks for the email. For the security of the City’s network and systems, we follow the recommendations set by the <REDACTED – state’s criminal justice system>. We also use a third party vendor that does penetration testing against our firewall to try to stay ahead of the malicious attacks. We conduct staff cybersecurity training with this third party vendor to ensure our staff is behaving appropriately as well.

OK, maybe not a great response, but a response nonetheless. Didn’t really address the ransomware preparedness question directly, but a conversation has begun. The resident will be following up. Making a difference!

Response from another mid-sized city:

Thank you for your email. The City of <REDACTED> has a multi-faceted approach to cybersecurity.  We have improved security both internally and externally.  While no system is immune from attack, we are actively scanning and patching for vulnerabilities.  A specific key to protecting against ransomware is to have good, frequent, and tested backups.  We maintain a healthy backup system and in the case of a ransomware attack being successful, could restore lost data as needed. It is our policy to not pay ransomware demands.   Our <REDACTED> has made security a top priority, and has taken many steps to enhance the City’s security posture.  This includes revamping the firewall and anti-virus infrastructure.  We continue to take cybersecurity very seriously, and are constantly striving to keep our data secure and protected against attack.

Not bad. Another conversation starter and another difference made, even if a small one.

Final Words (for now)

Responses from good citizens continue to come in to our mailbox (unsecurity@protonmail.com) and we’re encouraged by the actions some of you are taking! For those who haven’t yet reached out to your local government officials, get on it! Again, you can follow the guidance here if you want.

The problem isn’t going away. Here’s some recent news about ransomware and our local communities:

My other related posts in chronological order:

OK, the rest is up to you (or not). That’s the way it is.

CALL TO ACTION – Do Something About Civic Ransomware

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Another city ransomware attack, another payment to the attackers. Another win for the bad guys, and another loss for the rest of us. The question is, are you going to do anything about it?

This time the news comes from Lake City, Florida. The 12,000+ citizens of the small(ish) northern Florida town will foot the 42 bitcoin (~$500,000) bill for the city’s poor preparation. Actually, insurance will cover the direct cost and the city only pays $10,000. Chalk up another loss up for U.S. cities (and their citizens). The money the attackers walk away with will most certainly be used to attack other victims, including other cities. Oh, and as far as insurance goes, we all pay a price in higher insurance premiums and limited coverage options. Insurance companies aren’t in the business of losing money.

The quote of the day; “I would’ve never dreamed this could’ve happened, especially in a small town like this” – Lake City Mayor Stephen Witt.

(BTW, I don’t view this as his fault. We, the information security community, obviously failed in reaching him with the message)

Additional details of this latest ransomware payment:

So, what are YOU going to do about this? Yes, you! When I refer to “you”, I’m referring to everyone/anyone, security people and non-security people alike. All of us are in this together.

Should we wait until your city gets hit, or maybe we believe in the false narrative that it will never happen to you/your city?

Will your mayor or local government official be quoted on the news, having “never dreamed” that such a thing could happen?

DO SOMETHING – START HERE

Earlier this week, I posted an article about an email that I was going to send to my city and county officials. I sent the emails a couple of days ago, but haven’t heard anything back yet. Not to worry, I’m determined (and so should you be).

One of the things I didn’t really expect was for people to follow my lead. It was impressive to read and hear about people who took this as a call to action. They’ve been inquiring of their local governments about ransomware protections too! That’s great news! So far, more than a dozen people have told me that they have written their city and/or county government. Some are even getting good responses back.

Here’s what I’m asking you to do:

  • If you haven’t emailed your city and county government officials (inquiring about their ransomware readiness), PLEASE DO IT.
  • If you’ve emailed your city and/or county government officials, but haven’t received a response within a few days. PLEASE EMAIL AGAIN. Stay engaged until you get an answer.
  • If you’ve emailed your city and/or county government officials, and have received a response PLEASE SEND THE RESPONSE TO US. You can send it to us through the UNSECURITY Podcast email address (unsecurity@protonmail.com).
  • No matter what you do, please follow these rules:
    • DO – Always be courteous.
    • DO – Always be respectful.
    • DO – Help if you can.
    • DO – Remember the goal, we are trying to help and we are trying to prevent more occurrences of the Atlanta, Baltimore, Riviera Beach, and now Lake City ransomware events.
    • DO – Ask us questions and make suggestions (unsecurity@protonmail.com).
    • DON’T – Try to answer questions that you don’t feel (or know you’re not) qualified to answer. Email unsecurity@protonmail.com, and we’ll find a good resource/answer for you.
    • DON’T – Use threatening language or insinuate threats of any kind.

EMAIL TEMPLATE

Feel free to use this sample email template that I used or create your own.

———-START EMAIL———-

Dear <INSERT NAME>,

I’ve been a resident of <CITY/COUNTY> since <YEAR>.

I have a quick question for you.

How can you assure me and other city residents that the <CITY/COUNTY> has taken the appropriate measures to protect its systems and data from a ransomware attack?

I ask you because there have been a rash of ransomware attacks that have hit city governments recently. The most current ones being the City of Baltimore (https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/06/a-tale-of-two-cities-why-ransomware-will-just-get-worse/), the City of Riviera Beach (https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/20190621/in-depth-how-riviera-beach-left-door-wide-open-for-hackers), and Lake City, Florida (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ransomware-attack-lake-city-florida-pay-hackers-ransom-computer-systems-after-riviera-beach/). I hope we’ve planned well and will not pay a ransom (even through insurance) if/when an attack was to occur. Rather than reacting for such an occurrence, I’m hoping that our <CITY/COUNTY> has planned ahead.

Although I work in the information security field, I have no interest in selling anything. I’m just a concerned/interested citizen. If I can help, I will.

Thank you for making <CITY/COUNTY> a great place to live!

Respectfully,

-<YOURNAME>

———-END EMAIL———-

Let’s make this a way we can start fighting back against criminals who are fleecing our cities and our friends. This is only the start. Next steps come after getting responses.

Again, we are all in this together. Please be helpful, respectful, and courteous.

 

Ask Questions – Get Answers (hopefully)

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Yesterday I wrote a pointed blog post about ransomware (Don’t Suck – Stop Paying Ransoms) and how it ticks me off when people pay a ransom to an attacker. This morning we recorded episode 33 of the UNSECURITY Podcast about the same subject. During the discussion with Brad on the show, I made the comment that I was going to email my local government officials to inquire about how they will avoid the same mistakes that the City of Baltimore and the City of Riviera Beach made.

Here’s the email that I wrote. I encourage you to write your local government officials too. Accountability is good for everyone.

I sent this email to my City Administrator and the County Administrator where I live.

———-START EMAIL———-

Dear <INSERT NAME>,

Hope you are well.

I’ve been a resident of <CITY/COUNTY> since <YEAR>.

I have a quick question for you. How can you assure me and other city residents that the <CITY/COUNTY> has taken the appropriate measures to protect its systems and data from a ransomware attack? I ask because there have been a rash of ransomware attacks that have hit city government recently. The most current ones being the City of Baltimore (https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/06/a-tale-of-two-cities-why-ransomware-will-just-get-worse/) and the City of Riviera Beach (https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/20190621/in-depth-how-riviera-beach-left-door-wide-open-for-hackers). As a citizen, I hope we’ve planned well and will not pay a ransom if/when an attack was to occur. Although I work in the information security field, I have no interest in selling anything. Just a concerned/interested citizen is all.

Thank you for making <CITY/COUNTY> a great place to live!

-Evan Francen

———-END EMAIL———-

I’m sharing this because I hope it will motivate you to do the same thing in your city and/or county. Please be helpful, respectful, and courteous. Once I get an answer back, I will probably offer free help. We’ll see.