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UNSECURITY Episode 133 Show Notes

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We’re back with another amazing guest this week! It’s our treat to welcome Gabriel Friedlander from Wizer to the show!

The guests from the last month (or so) have been incredible. There are so many great people in our industry who are in this for the right reasons, primarily to serve other people!

If you missed any of these shows, you can find them here:

This week, episode 133, we’re joined by a really cool guy with a huge heart for serving the underserved, Gabriel Friedlander from Wizer!

A quick introduction to Gabriel and Wizer is in the show notes (below).

This will be a GREAT episode for sure!

NOTE: We’re looking for people from other walks of life to share their perspectives too, especially men and women of color. Let us know at unsecurity@protonmail.com if you have suggestions.

Let’s get to the episode 133 show notes, shall we?

SHOW NOTES – Episode 133 – Tuesday May 25th, 2021

Opening

[Evan] Welcome listeners! Thanks for tuning into this episode of the UNSECURITY Podcast. This is episode 133, and the date is May 25th, 2021. My buddy Brad is here, as usual. Good morning Brad!

[Evan] I’m excited to welcome our guest this week. He’s someone I greatly admire, and a true asset to our community, Gabriel Friedlander from Wizer. Welcome Gabe!

Getting to know Gabriel Friedlander

An open and honest dialog with Gabriel about his background, ObserveIT, Wizer, and whatever else comes up in our conversation.

About Gabe – From His LinkedIn Profile

I founded wizer-training.com in early 2019 with a mission to make basic security awareness training free for everyone. Since then Wizer has been rapidly growing with over 6000 organization who signed up for our free training. And in 2020 we partnered with several local counties to offer free Citizen Training. We believe that in this day an age, security awareness should be a basic human skill.

Prior to founding Wizer I was the co-founder of ObserveIT (acquired by ProofPoint) , a company specializing in the detection and prevention of insider threats. I am also the co-author of the book, “Insider Threat Program: Your 90-Day Plan”. For more than a decade I have researched insider threat and trained numerous organizations on how to avoid and mitigate the risk it poses.

About Wizer

Did you know the average human attention Span is 8 Seconds – that’s just 1 Second Less Than A Goldfish! So we created training videos to be around 1 min long, entertaining, and to the point.  Our goal is to train employees on how to avoid today’s most common cyber attacks and to help create a “Human Firewall”.  Since there are officially more mobile devices than people in the world, we made Wizer mobile-friendly so you can access it from anywhere, anytime, with or without sound. Happy learning!  

Gabriel didn’t need another job (or necessarily the income) when he started Wizer. He started Wizer because he saw a need, wanted to help, and was looking for something fun to do. At first, everything Wizer did was free, and Gabriel didn’t have a plan for making money. Since then, things have taken off and he’s had a tremendous positive impact on our community.

News

Guessing we’ll use up the entire hour talking to Gabriel. Maybe we’ll cover some news next week.

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.

Gabriel, how do you want people to find you?

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.

FRSecure CISSP Mentor Program Welcome Message

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Only 46 more days. It’s almost time to start the FRSecure CISSP Mentor Program!

As of yesterday (2/23/21), we have more than 3,500 registered students for the 2021 class. That’s awesome! (and a little nuts) For context, we started the program in 2010 with six students. At the time, FRSecure was a teeny startup (3 employees), but our size didn’t matter. We started with a simple goal:

Provide quality information security training for free.

No strings. No ulterior motive. No marketing gimmicks. Nothing but helping people on their journey.

Why this goal?

We love people. By proxy, we love people in our industry, and by (another) proxy, we love the people served by our industry. Our mission (“to fix the broken industry”) is born from and rooted in love, and we will always do right by our mission. Makes sense, yeah? We’re all #MissionBeforeMoney around here!

Fast forward, this will be our 12th consecutive year. We’ve been a positive influence (to one degree or another) in the lives of more than 6,000 people through the CISSP Mentor Program in the past two years alone (3,500+ students this year so far, 2,400+ students last year). Everyone is welcome here, regardless of background, experience or education. If you don’t want to take the CISSP exam, or don’t feel ready, join us anyway. You’ll learn more about information security, and maybe you’ll pick up some life skills along the way!

Welcome Message

Posted in the 2021 CISSP Mentor Program Study Group on 2/19/21:

Hello 2021 FRSecure CISSP Mentor Program Class,

I’m Evan Francen, the founder and CEO of FRSecure (and SecurityStudio) and one of the instructors here. We’ll get to know each other once class gets going, but I wanted to introduce myself now and welcome you.

Welcome to the 2021 FRSecure CISSP Mentor Program!

I’m excited that you’re here and honored to be part of your journey.

A little history…

In 2008, we started FRSecure with this mission:

To fix the broken information security industry.

Our mission came from a deep passion to do things right and serve others. You see, information security isn’t about information or security as much as it is about people. People cause the havoc (intentionally or accidentally) and people suffer the consequences. If nobody suffered, nobody would care.

The information security industry is still young. There’s no shortage of work to do, and the sooner we get to work on the right things, the better off everyone will be. Two things are at (or near) the core of our information security industry problems:

  • People take advantage of other people. If there was a single motivator for me, this would be it.Attackers – people who don’t hide their intent to do others harm. Most people think we’re only concerned about the attackers, but there’s much more.Frenemies – people in our industry who sell products and services that are not in the best interests of the buyer and/or do not do what they claim.
    • “Experts” – yes, in quotes. There are people in our industry who are in it for the wrong reasons. They are motivated by selfishness and not to serve others. This wouldn’t seem so bad, but most of these people are charged with securing information that does not belong to them. Inflated egos intimidate and discourage others, ignorance leads to poor decisions, comfort leads to inactivity, etc., etc.
  • Information security fundamentals are not universally understood or applied. This is true in the public sector and private industry. It’s also true at home. If we (as an industry) mastered the application of fundamental information security concepts, we’d reduce the number of breaches by as much as ~80-90% (my conservative estimate) and significantly reduce the impact to society.

Fixing these problems is certainly easier said than done, but the pursuit continues…

So, where does the FRSecure CISSP Mentor Program fit in this equation, and what does it mean for you?

Simple. Our industry needs more good information security people. We need you!

The FRSecure CISSP Mentor Program was born out of our mission. In our first year (2010), there were six students. All six students went on to pass their exams and became CISSPs. Today, they are all working in our industry and making a positive difference in the lives of others. Last year was the 11th consecutive year for the program, and we had more than 2,400 registrations. It’s been an incredible experience for us, and for me personally. We do this because we love people, and we do it for no other reason. No strings, just #MissionBeforeMoney!

The 2021 CISSP Mentor Program

We’re sticking with the formula that works. Due to COVID still being COVID, we will once again teach all classes remotely. We’ve already surpassed last year’s record number of student registrations, and we’re on track for more than 5,000! This will be the best class yet, and I’m VERY excited to get to know some of you along the way! You’ll see me and some of the other FRSecure folks drop in here (the study group) from time to time. We’re here to help you as much as we are able (given day job and family stuff).

Once again, welcome! Thank you for letting us be part of your success. In know I speak for the other instructors (Brad Nigh and Ryan Cloutier) and the entire FRSecure team when I say that.

Let’s do this!

If you’ve thought about signing up, but haven’t yet, go do it. If you know somebody who could use some of this, tell them about it. See, more simple!