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UNSECURITY Episode 138 Show Notes

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Hope you had a wonderful Independence Day (July 4th)! We’ve gone through a lot together in this country, and I love this place we call home. Lots to do in making the USA better, but this will always be the case. This is the best country in the world, and I’m grateful!

In case you missed it, two big events last week; the Kaseya ransomware attack and Microsoft’s PrintNightmare.

Kaseya Ransomware

So, you might have heard. On Friday (going into July 4th weekend), computers around the world (not all of them, but maybe ~1,000,000 of them) started to lock up. The announcement came around midday that Kaseya’s VSA servers were being used to distribute ransomware, primarily to MSP customers. My first thought was “Oh shit! We might have another SolarWinds.” Thank God, this wasn’t the case.

Facts started to come in, and it became evident that this was an attack directed at VSA servers hosted by MSPs. Some MSPs (about 2,200 of them) installed their VSA servers so that they were accessible from the Internet. I’m not a VSA expert, but this high number implies this as standard practice. A zero day vulnerability (and exploit) was discovered by the REvil ransomware gang (or an affiliate) and was used to infect clients.

Kaseya already knew about the vulnerability thanks to the good work by Wietse Boonstra and his compatriots at NIVD. The vulnerability was reported to Kaseya and the two groups were working on a patch at the time of the ransomware attack. The end result was somewhere between 60-70 MSPs affected and somewhere between 1,200-1,500 companies infected. Kaseya did a good job responding, and so did many MSPs. Lessons learned are TBD after the dust settles.

Links referenced in today’s show are below.

Microsoft PrintNightmare

If it hadn’t been for Kaseya, this would have been top news. In terms of scope, this is much bigger, affecting many millions of servers (and companies). In terms of potential impact, this also exceeds the Kaseya attack. News broke on June 30th about an impressive and potentially very damaging vulnerability in the Microsoft Print Spooler service. On July 1st, Microsoft released additional information about the vulnerability and offered (un)helpful guidance.

There is an exploit in the wild for this vulnerability that allows complete control over a server (and Active Directory).

We’ll talk a little about this too. Links referenced in today’s show are also below.

 

OK. Show notes for episode 138…

SHOW NOTES – Episode 138 – Tuesday July 6th, 2021

Opening

[Evan] Welcome listeners! It’s good to have you join us. Thanks for tuning into this episode of the UNSECURITY Podcast. This is episode 138, and the date is July 6th, 2021. Joining me is my good friend, Mr. Brad Nigh. Good Morning Brad!

[Evan] Hope you had a wonderful 4th of July. Many people had the day off yesterday, but some people were fighting the fire caused by ransomware deployed through Kaseya’s VSA servers. This is where we’ll start.

Kaseya Ransomware Attack

Here’s a list of links/articles we’re explore in this episode:

All in all, this attack could have been MUCH worse than it was. Incident responders did a great job and communicated well. More to come in time…

Microsoft PrintNightmare

This one is a doozy. Here are the three links/articles we’ll reference in this episode:

Last week’s show was all about Microsoft security debacles, and now this. A patch is not available yet and many IT teams are scrambling right now. I’m become less and less of a Microsoft fan with each passing day.

That’s it for today’s show. Lots of work to do!

Wrapping Up – Shout Outs

Who’s getting shout outs this week?

Thank you to all our listeners! Thank you Brad for a great conversation! If you have something you’d like to tell us, feel free to email the show at unsecurity@protonmail.com. If you’re the social type, socialize with us on Twitter, I’m @evanfrancen, and Brad’s @BradNigh.

Other Twitter handles where you can find some of the stuff we do, UNSECURITY is @unsecurityP, SecurityStudio is @studiosecurity, and FRSecure is @FRSecure.

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

…and we’re done.

UNSECURITY Podcast – Ep 100 Show Notes – The Social Dilemma Pt2

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Hard to believe that this is episode 100 already! I’ll have to write a recap of the journey sometime soon.

Crazy things all over the place here at FRSecure and SecurityStudio. If you’ve been an information security consultant, or if you know one, you know that 4th quarter is a crazy time of year. Turns out, COVID-19 and 2020 is NOT the exception. We’re happily swamped.

Having said all that, we’re a day late getting the podcast out again this week. Not because we didn’t try, but because life and work get in the way sometimes.

Hope you’re happy and healthy! On the the show; Brad’s leading and these are Brad’s notes.

SHOW NOTES – Episode 100

Date: Wednesday October 7th, 2020

Episode 100 Topics

  • Opening
  • Catching Up (as per usual)
  • the social dilemma, Part Two
  • News
  • Wrapping Up – Shout outs
Opening

[Brad] Welcome back! This is episode 100 of the UNSECURITY Podcast, and I’m your host this week, Brad Nigh. Today is October 6th, and joining me this morning as usual is Evan Francen.

[Evan] Talks about how busy things have been

[Brad] Last week we had a really good discussion about The Social Dilemma and we didn’t get to everything so we are doing part 2 today. But before we get going let’s recap our week.

Catching Up

[Evan] Evan’s cool story

[Brad] A recap of my week

Transition

the social dilemma, Part Two

[Brad] Okay let’s pick up where we left off. There are no shortage of takes on the movie, here are some I found interesting.

[Brad] Great discussion here are some news stories

News

[Brad] Here are news stories that caught me eye this week:

Wrapping Up – Shout outs

[Brad] That’s it for episode 100. Thank you Evan, do you have any shout outs this week?

[Evan] We’ll see.

[Brad] Thank you to all our listeners! 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 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 87 Show Notes – Women in Security Pt4

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Welcome back! Hope you and your loved ones had an enjoyable 4th of July holiday. It was a HOT one here in Minnesota!

Women in Security Series

So far, the Women in Security Series has been a smashing success! We’ve had three women share their perspectives on our show thus far, and we’ve got another five or six planned. We’re honored that our guests would share their stories about being a woman in our industry and also give us their opinions about women in information security in general. We’ve learned a ton already, and we’re hungry to learn more!

Our series will be at least ten parts long, meaning 1) we’re not even half done yet and 2) we’ll continue this until mid-August (episode 93 or 94).

Here’s our guest line up thus far:

  • Episode 84 – Renay Ruter (an information security business/IT executive)
  • Episode 85 – Lori Blair (a 35-year information security veteran)
  • Episode 86 – Victoria Fogarty (relatively new to the industry)
  • Episode 87 (today) – Kristin Judge (founder and CEO of the Cybercrime Support Network, SC Media “Women in IT Security Influencer” in 2017, former Director of Government Affairs at the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), thought leader, and all-around amazing information security expert)
  • Episode 88 – Andrea Hatcher (Senior majoring in Cybersecurity Analytics and Operations at Pennsylvania State University)
  • Episode 89 – Judy Hatchett (Information security corporate leader and expert formerly with Accenture, Best Buy, SUPERVALU, 3M, Fairview Health Services, and current VP, Information Security and CISO at Surescripts)
  • Episode 90 – Amy McLaughlin (Information security leader and expert in education, having served with the State of Oregon, the Consortium for School Network (CoSN), Chemeketa Community College, and Oregon State University)
  • Episode 91 – TBD/not-yet-confirmed (information security executive in healthcare, CISO in higher education, or senior information security sales executive)
  • Episode 92 – TBD/not-yet-confirmed (information security executive in healthcare, CISO in higher education, or senior information security sales executive)
  • Episode 93 – TBD/not-yet-confirmed (information security executive in healthcare, CISO in higher education, or senior information security sales executive)

How awesome is this lineup?!  WOW! We purposely selected a variety of different perspectives from within the women in our field, but this is way better than we expected!

Here’s what we’ve done so far…

Women in Security Series – Part One

We kicked off the Women in Security series on June 15th, and we couldn’t have chosen a better first guest! Renay Rutter, FRSecure’s COO, got the series started with sharing her experience, wisdom, and insight she’s gained over her 30+ year IT career. Brad and I learned a ton!

If you missed this episode, you can catch up here; https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unsecurity-episode-84-women-in-security-pt-1-renay-rutter/id1442520920?i=1000478037575

Thank you Renay!

Women in Security Series – Part Two

We kept things in the FRSecure family for week two, hosting Lori Blair. Lori is a treasure chest of information security knowledge and wisdom, beginning from when she started her information security career in 1985. Think about that for a second; 1985?! For the math folks in the house, that’s 35 years!

I have a TON of respect for Lori, and her opinions carry weight for me (and many others). It’s not just her experience that makes Lori amazing, she’s a wonderful, practical, and level-headed person who loves mentoring others. This is a can’t miss episode, go give a listen here; https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unsecurity-episode-85-women-in-security-pt-2-lori-blair/id1442520920?i=1000479175255

Thank you Lori!

Women in Security Series – Part Three

Part Three was incredible! Victoria is very relatable and she’s a natural when it comes to effective communication. She did a great job explaining how she transitioned from Insurance Adjuster to Information Security Associate Analyst at FRSecure. Her journey is pretty cool so far, and her future is VERY bright in our industry. She even shared a shocker (at least for me) in this episode. Definitely worth the listen! If you missed episode 86, here it is; https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unsecurity-episode-86-women-in-security-pt-3-victoria/id1442520920?i=1000480167348

Thank you Victoria!

Women in Security Series – Part Four

This is our first guest in the series who works outside the FRSecure/SecurityStudio family, and we’re honored to have her join us! We welcome Kristin Judge to our show for Part Four and Episode 87. We don’t know Kristin as well as we know the previous three guests, but judging from her BIO and LinkedIn profile, she stacks up with the best our industry has to offer! This episode is Brad’s to lead and there is no shortage of things we could talk to Kristin about (her work as Washtenaw County Commissioner, her start in information security, her time as Executive Director of Trusted Purchasing Alliance at the Center for Internet Security, her time as Director of Special Projects and Government Affairs for the National Cyber Security Alliance, her time as an information security entrepreneur, her founding of the Cybercrime Support Network, etc., etc.). Truly an amazing person that we’re very excited to chat with!

WELCOME KRISTIN!

Let’s get on with the show!

Brad’s leading the show this week, and these are his notes…

SHOW NOTES – Episode 87

Date: Monday, July 6th, 2020

Episode 87 Topics

  • Opening
  • Introducing Our Special Guest: Kristin Judge (current CEO/President of the Cybercrime Support Network)
  • Catching Up (as per usual)
  • Women in Security
  • News
  • Wrapping Up – Shout outs
Opening

[Brad] Welcome back! This is episode 87 of the UNSECURITY Podcast, and I’m your host this week, Brad Nigh. Today is July 6th, and joining me this morning as usual is Evan Francen.

[Evan] Hopefully Evan took the holiday weekend off to relax, let’s find out.

[Brad] We have an incredible guest this week, our 4th in the Women in Security series! She’s our first guest in the series from outside the FRSecure family, and I’m sure she has great stories and wonderful insights to share with us. She’s got a long BIO, including:

  • Former Washtenaw (MI) County Commissioner
  • Former Center for Internet Security (CIS) Director of Partner Engagement and Executive Director of Trusted Purchasing Alliance
  • Former National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) Director of Special Projects and Government Affairs
  • Former Principal and Owner of Opcio Solutions
  • Current Cybersecurity Author of numerous education and awareness courses
  • Current CEO/President and Founder of the Cybercrime Support Network (CSN)

And I’m sure, many, many other cool things. We’re honored to have Kristin Judge join us on the show this morning. Welcome Kristin!

[Kristin] I haven’t actually met Kristin prior to this so I don’t know what she will say.

[Brad] We sort of have a tradition around here. Before we dive in, we catch-up with each other quick. Let’s recap our week.

Catching Up

Quick discussion about last week, the weekend, or whatever else comes to mind.

[Evan] Short week and long weekend…

[Brad] And what about you Kristin?

[Kristin] I’m sure she did something very cool.

[Brad] Alright, let’s get on with the series!

Women in Security, Part Four

[Brad] This is the fourth week of our series discussing the topic of women in the information security industry. Personally I’ve found the first three weeks to be incredibly enlightening, even with people that I’ve worked with very closely for years. I’m really looking forward to hearing an “outsider’s” perspective and continue this conversation. So with that let’s dive in!

Do we have a shortage of women in our industry? If so, what’s the big deal? Why is the topic important for us to talk about? Lot’s of questions and I’m sure just about everyone has an opinion. Instead of people listening to our opinions, we’re going to talk to the people this relates to the most; women! What better way to get a woman’s perspective on things than to talk to a woman? Let’s do this.

Open Discussion (~30 minutes)

  • How you got into the industry?
  • Your journey in the industry.
  • Advice you have for someone starting out.
  • Do you think we need more women in our industry and why?
  • Opinions about the talent shortage in our industry.
  • What can we do better in recruiting more people, and specifically more women in our industry?
  • Whatever else we’d like to share.

[Brad] Thank you Kristin! Again, we’re honored to have you join us! Please feel free to stick around while we cover a few news stories from the past week.

News

[Brad] Here are a few news stories from the pas week that I thought were interesting…

Wrapping Up – Shout outs

[Brad] That’s it for episode 87. Thank you Kristin for a joining us and making this fourth installment of to the Women in Security series a great one! We’ve got more amazing guests lined up for the next five(ish) weeks, again I’m really looking forward to hearing their perspectives. Either of you have any shout outs this week?

[Evan and/or Kristin] We’ll see.

[Brad] Thank you to all 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 is @evanfrancen. Kristin, is there a particular way you’d prefer people to find you?

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 81 Show Notes – Hard Truths

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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!

The UNSECURITY Podcast – Episode 80 Show Notes – Zero Trust

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We write our show notes either at the end of the week (Friday) or at the very beginning of the next (Sunday). It’s easier to remember the things that happened during the week on Friday than Sunday, that’s for sure! Only one day away (Saturday), and it’s easy to forget all that we did.

Most weeks are crazy, for us at FRSecure and SecurityStudio, and for people in general.

Normal(ish)

Are you feeling like things are slowly returning to normal? I am, and it’s great news! Personally, I don’t like the term “new normal”. I think I don’t like it because I feel like people have twisted it to serve their own desires and/or opinions without any factual basis. Normal is normal, and the greatest abnormality (in my opinion) has been our lack of in-person contact. We’ve been built, or wired, for analog personal interaction. Digital, online interaction will never substitute for it, and the longer we go without it, the more mentally unhealthy we become.

Four Things

Last week was a great week! Four cool things stand out in particular:

  1. Last week’s podcast was awesome! I love every opportunity to chat with Brad, and it’s a blessing to hang out every Monday morning. Recording episode 79 was a great way to kick things off last week. If you missed it, we talked about information security in K12, and you should go catch it.
  2. We made great progress in helping state governments last week! Had a great conversation with Minnesota’s CISO, Rohit Tandon, on Wednesday as we discussed third-party information security risk management. This was followed by the scheduling of a similar meeting with the State of New Mexico and joining the National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO) Cybersecurity Committee on Thursday.
  3. Chris Roberts, Ryan Cloutier, and I did Episode #1 of The Security Shit Show on Thursday night. It was a ton of fun hanging out with these guys! We’re planning to do our episodes/shows live every Thursday night at 10pm CDT, record them for future playback, and use he audio for our podcast. It’s definitely entertaining for our viewers/listeners and therapeutic for us. Be sure to tune in if you can!
  4. The Daily inSANITY Check-ins are still going strong, and this past week was great! People supporting each other and helping where we can is what it’s all about. Come join us when you can.

There were many great things about last week, but these were the four that came to mind when I sat down to write these show notes.

Speaking of show notes, let’s get to it! Today we’re going to talk about Zero Trust; what it is, why it’s a hot topic today, and what you should be doing about it.

SHOW NOTES – Episode 80

Date: Monday, May 18th, 2020

Episode 80 Topics

  • Opening
  • Catching Up (as per usual)
  • Zero Trust
  • News
  • Wrapping Up – Shout outs
Opening

[Evan] Hey everyone! Welcome to the UNSECURITY Podcast. This is episode 80, the date is May 18th, 2020, and I’m Evan Francen. With me today is my co-host, Brad Nigh. Good morning Brad!

[Brad] We’ll see what sort of mood Brad is in this morning…

[Evan] We’ve got a good show planned today! There’s this thing called “zero trust” that people are talking about, and I thought it’d be good for you and I to discuss it. Personally, I’ve received a lot of questions about it, and I’m sure you have too Brad. Like always, before we dig in, let’s catch up. What were some highlights for you from last week and how was your weekend?

Catching Up

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

Zero Trust

[Evan] A simple Google search of Zero Trust turns up “About 691,000,000 results”. A Google search of “Zero Trust” (with quotes) turns up “About 1,940,000 results“. So, clearly there are a lot of people who know what it means, right? Here’s some returns from the first page of search results:

The fact that there are so many “what is zero trust?” search returns might be a hint that people are confused. Let’s tackle this!

Zero Trust Discussion

Let’s try to clear some of the confusion:

  • What is Zero Trust?
  • Is it really new?
  • Is Zero Trust possible?
  • If I want Zero Trust, what do I need to do?
  • What common mistakes should I look out for?

[Evan] Alright. Good talk Brad. Thanks for sharing your insight! I think our listeners have a clearer picture of Zero Trust and what it means to them. If they have additional questions or comments, they can always contact us for more!

News

[Evan] News stuff! What the heck happened in the world last week? Let’s see…

I found four articles that caught my attention. Let’s talk about them!

Wrapping Up – Shout outs

[Evan] Never a shortage of things to talk about in this industry is there? Well, episode 80 of the UNSECURITY Podcast is just about a wrap. Brad, you have any shoutouts?

[Brad] Maybe he does, maybe he doesn’t…

[Evan] Here’s mine…

[Evan] Can’t say enough thanks to our listeners! Crazy how we run into you in all sorts of places. Stay safe and let us know how we can help you. 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. Thinking about coming to hang out at the Daily inSANITY Check-in? You can follow this on Twitter too at @InSanityIn.

There you go, have a great week!