Posts

The UNSECURITY Podcast – Episode 82 Show Notes – World On Fire

/in /by

So, in case you missed it, the world blew up last week. Again.

This time it’s not COVID-19 that takes the headlines, it’s rioting. Rioting that was triggered by (NOT caused by) one of the most disturbing videos I’ve ever watched, that of Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on the neck of George Floyd. As I write this, riots are taking place (or have taken place) in Atlanta, Bakersfield, Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas/Fort Worth, Des Moines, Denver, Detroit, District of Columbia, Houston, Los Angeles, Louisville, Memphis, Minneapolis, New York City, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, and San Jose, among many others. The media is reporting riots are even taking place in other countries!

Seems like the world is on fire. While this isn’t the place for us to dig into the debate about racial injustice and inequality, we’ve all got opinions (and I’ll share mine later, in another place/time). The UNSECURITY Podcast is dedicated to information security, so we’ll stay on topic. Today’s current events are hard to process, but a relevant question is, what do current events mean to/for information security? This will be our topic.

I’m not going to recap last week/weekend personal events here either. We might discuss these things a little during the time that Brad and I catch up with each other, but otherwise, we have plenty to discuss in this episode. Let’s get to it!

These are my (Evan) show notes…

SHOW NOTES – Episode 82

Date: Monday, June 1st, 2020

Episode 82 Topics

  • Opening
  • Catching Up (as per usual)
  • World On Fire
  • News
  • Wrapping Up – Shout outs
Opening

[Evan] Hey there! Welcome to episode 82 of the UNSECURITY Podcast. Today’s date is June 1st, 2020. Due to a lack of personal hygiene, well mostly a hair cut, I’m your information security chia pet, Evan Francen. Joining me is my good friend and co-host Brad Nigh. Good morning Brad!

[Brad] He wishes all the listeners nothing but the best of mornings!

[Evan] Some serious stuff to talk about in today’s show, but one of the most serious things, for me at least, is checking in with you. How you doing Mr. Nigh?

Catching Up

Quick discussion about last week, the weekend, family, safety etc.

[Brad] Gives us the low down on his haps.

[Evan] I give the low down on my haps. Also, I hit a deer on my motorcycle on Saturday (again). What the?!?! Who does this?

World On Fire

[Evan] It was easy to pick a topic for this week’s show. Just when you think the world couldn’t get any crazier, we encounter the events of last week. There are so many thoughts and emotions running through our heads. Everything from sorrow to anger to frustration and everything in between. We don’t ever want to shy away from tough issues, but we also need to keep things on topic (information security) for the show. What I’d like to do is discuss today’s current events and apply them to what we do. Ultimately, what do all these things mean to information security?

Whatya say Brad, you game?

[Brad] He’s a smart and competitive son of a gun. You know he’s game!

Things to discuss:

  • FRSecure’s Information Security Principle #1; a business is in business to make money.
  • Physical security implications, lessons, ideas, etc.
  • What does this mean for cyber/technical security?
  • Some organizations are targets.
  • Personnel information security implications.
  • If COVID-19 wasn’t enough to motivate better response planning, does this?
  • Whatever other pertinent thoughts come to mind.

[Evan] Great discussion and lots of good advice I think! Let’s do some newsy stuff.

News

[Evan] Even though information security may not be dominating the news, there are still plenty of information security news stories to choose from. Here are three news stories that caught my eye.

Wrapping Up – Shout outs

[Evan] Alright listeners! That’s episode 82. Brad, who you got a shout out for?

[Brad] Somebody special for sure!

[Evan] Here’s mine…

[Evan] Thank you to all our listeners! You guys are a big deal to us. PLEASE be safe out there; physically, mentally, and electronically. Let us know what you think of this episode or whatever else is on your mind. Send us things (preferably not malware, but whatever) by email at unsecurity@protonmail.com. If you’re the social type, socialize with us on Twitter, I’m @evanfrancen and you can find this Brad guy @BradNigh. If you wanna follow our company’s stuff, you can follow SecurityStudio (@studiosecurity) and FRSecure (@FRSecure) for whatever cool things they’re up to.

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

The UNSECURITY Podcast – Episode 73 Show Notes – COVID-19 IR

/in /by

Hope you and your loved ones are well! We can’t understate the importance of physical, mental, and spiritual health, especially in times like these.

If you missed last week’s show notes or episode 72 of the UNSECURITY Podcast, there’s some pretty good stuff there.

Episode 73 Topics

Topics for episode 73 of the UNSECURITY Podcast include:

  • Opening
  • Catching Up 
    • The first full week with a closed office.
    • Staying sane and healthy at home.
  • COVID-19 Affects on Information Security (some of them)
    • Introducing our special guest, FRSecure’s Director of Technical Solutions and Services
    • Incident Response During COVID-19
      • Current Events/Incidents
      • FRSecure’s IR Risk Registration (what is it and why would I consider it?)
    • COVID-19 Scams and Attacks
      • What have we seen?
      • What are we planning for?
    • Physical Security Considerations
  • The Daily inSANITY Check-in
  • FRSecure CISSP Mentor Program Update
  • Wrapping Up – Shout outs

You can find the full show notes near the bottom of this post. Before getting there, I need to get some thoughts out.

Thoughts

It’s been 13 days since FRSecure and SecurityStudio closed their offices. All of us are still around and working, but it’s crazy how much life has changed. Personally, I’m still struggling to make sense of things and I’m mulling over COVID-19 data almost obsessively. The COVID-19 scoreboards plastered everywhere don’t help. On one hand, I like being informed. On the other, I’m tired of tracking the number of infections and deaths.

As I write this, there are 140,164 infections in the United States and 2,476 deaths. What does this mean in the context of everything else? How do I make sense of these numbers? Here’s one attempt:

What does a “normal” 30 days look like in the U.S. for deaths/mortality? According to the CDC, there were nearly 3,000,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2018 (the latest data available). Using this data, here are the number of people who died within an average 30 day window:

  • 53,867 from heart disease (the top killer in the U.S. with 655,381 deaths)
  • 49,255 from cancer (#2 – 599,274 deaths)
  • 13,736 from accidents/unintentional injuries (#3 – 167,127 deaths)
  • 10,029 from Alzheimer’s Disease (#6 – 122,019 deaths)
  • 3,973 from suicide (#10 – 48,344 deaths)

Compare these numbers to where we’re at now with COVID-19. I’m NOT at all minimizing the impact of COVID-19. I’m trying to make sense. I know the number of infected people and deaths will rise significantly over the coming weeks/months, and sadly, we’re in for more terrible news. I’m trying to understand what the numbers mean in the context of other things that aren’t as foreign to me.

A single sick person and/or a single death is sad enough, let alone thousands.

OK. Got that off my chest. Lots and lots of great things going on at FRSecure and SecurityStudio. The best place to keep up with them right now is probably on social media:

Let’s get to the show notes now!

SHOW NOTES – Episode 73

Date: Monday, March 30th, 2020

Show Topics:

  • Opening
  • Catching Up 
    • The first full week with a closed office.
    • Staying sane and healthy at home.
  • COVID-19 Affects on Information Security (some of them)
    • Introducing our special guest, FRSecure’s Director of Technical Solutions and Services
    • Incident Response During COVID-19
      • Current Events/Incidents
      • FRSecure’s IR Risk Registration (what is it and why would I consider it?)
    • COVID-19 Scams and Attacks
      • What have we seen?
      • What are we planning for?
    • Physical Security Considerations
  • The Daily inSANITY Check-in
  • FRSecure CISSP Mentor Program Update
  • Wrapping Up – Shout outs
Opening

NOTE: The show notes were written by me (Evan), but Brad’s leading this episode.

[Brad] Hello listeners, this is another episode of the UNSECURITY Podcast. My name is Brad Nigh, this is episode 73, and the date is March 30th, 2020. Joining me is my co-host Evan Francen. Good morning Evan.

[Evan] Good morning Brad!

[Brad] Also joining us for the show is our special guest and FRSecure’s Director of Technical Solutions and Services, Oscar Minks. Good morning Oscar!

[Oscar] Says good morning or something with his cool southern accent.

[Brad] We’ve got lots to talk about! As is our custom, let’s get started by catching up quick.

Catching Up

Topics here include how we’re coping with COVID-19, the first full week with a closed office, and staying sane (and healthy) at home. Brad found a really good video online; Covid-19 Protecting Your Family, Dr. Dave Price

[Brad] Here’s a can of worms (maybe). Let’s talk about some of the effects that COVID-19 has on what we do. Some of the effects on information security, starting with incident response and physical security. We already mentioned that we’ve got our special guest Oscar Minks here. He’s got some good insights to share, and this should be a good discussion.

Discussion – COVID-19 Affects on Information Security (some of them)
  • Introducing our special guest (again), FRSecure’s Director of Technical Solutions and Services
  • Incident Response During COVID-19
    • Current Events/Incidents
    • FRSecure’s IR Risk Registration (what is it and why would I consider it?)
  • COVID-19 Scams and Attacks
    • What have we seen?
    • What are we planning for?
  • Physical Security Considerations

[Brad] Sadly, the frequency of scams and attacks only increases during times of distress. It’s important that we keep our eye on the ball and not compound our problems with an information security lapse.

OK, switching gears now. Some people are struggling right now. Struggling with making sense of things, struggling with employment, struggling with anxiety, or struggling with any number of things. We started this thing called the Daily inSANITY Check-in last week. Evan, tell the listeners about this thing.

Daily inSANITY Check-in Discussion

The purpose of the Daily inSANITY Check-in is to provide a safe place for people to discuss current events, information security things, challenges we’re facing, or whatever else comes to mind. The check-ins are short (30- to- 60-minute) daily meetings with discussion. People are always free to come and go as they please.

[Brad] The Daily inSANITY Check-in is just one place to get support out of many within our community. The point is to find help when you need it and to help people where you can. It’s cool to see so many people rally and help.

FRSecure CISSP Mentor Program Update

[Brad] Real quick, we made an announcement last week about the FRSecure CISSP Mentor Program. We’re happy to say that we are still going through with this year’s class! The only change is that we have cancelled the in-person portion of the program. As of last Monday, the 23rd, we have 1,007 registered students! That’s crazy! Oh, and I should mention, if you haven’t registered yet, registration is still open.

Wrapping Up

[Brad] No news this week because we had so many other things to talk about. Two last things to mention:

  • Our pal Ryan Cloutier, aka “Cola” just wrapped up the second episode of his K12 Cybersecurity Podcast. It’s a great podcast and you should give it a listen!
  • A shout out to one of our regular listeners, Olga Hoogendoorn – Startseva. Evan promised to give her a shout out because she’s pretty awesome!

Well, that’s it for this week. Plenty going on and lots to do.

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 @BradNigh, and this other guy is @evanfrancen. Also, don’t forget to check out @studiosecurity and @FRSecure. They post some good things! Let us know how we can help you!

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