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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 Episode 137 Show Notes

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It’s been a few weeks since I posted show notes, and even then, I’m late!

If you working in the information security industry, you’re probably extremely busy. My busyness is what’s kept me from updating show notes and things.

Episode 137 was a fun one. Brad was back and we talked about all Microsoft’s recent blunders/issues.

John McAfee

Before we get into it, I want to take a moment to remember John McAfee. On June 23, he was found unresponsive in his jail cell at the Brians 2 Penitentiary Center near Barcelona, Spain. Sadly, he passed away at the age of 75 after an apparent suicide by hanging. He had just lost his hearing for extradition to the United States.

John McAfee was a very interesting guy, and some might say he was nuts and a crook. While that might be true (I don’t have evidence to say either way), I remember him before the mid-2000s, when he was an icon in our industry. The guy was smart as hell!

  • 1968 – 1970, programmer for NASA working on the Apollo Program
  • Software designed for Univac
  • Operating system architect for Xerox
  • Software consultant for Computer Sciences Corporation
  • Consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton
  • Software engineer for Lockheed (where he first learned about computer viruses and came up with the idea to remove them programmatically)
  • 1987, founded McAfee Associates Inc which sold the world’s first anti-virus software
  • 1990, sold millions of copies of McAfee anti-virus software leading to John’s $5M/year salary
  • 1992, McAfee’s initial public offering (IPO)
  • August 1993, steps down as CEO.
  • 1994, sold all his remaining stake in McAfee Associates Inc.

In January 2014, after Intel (who’d acquired McAfee in August 2010) announced that McAfee products would be marketed as “Intel Security”:

“I am now everlastingly grateful to Intel for freeing me from this terrible association with the worst software on the planet.” – John McAfee

Soon afterwards, the business was de-merged from Intel and re-acquired the McAfee name.

John McAfee was all over the place after divesting from the company with his name. He invested in many ventures, travelled, dabbled in politics (two U.S. presidential candidacies), was a person of interest in a Belize homicide investigation, charged with tax evasion, posted hundreds of public remarks and videos on social media, before it all eventually ended on June 23rd. He was a very interesting person who was influential in our industry.

I will miss him.

OK, now the show notes. Here’s the notes (with relevant links). Episode 137…

SHOW NOTES – Episode 137 – Tuesday June 29th, 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 137, and the date is June 29th, 2021. Joining me is my good friend, Mr. Brad Nigh. Good Morning Brad!

[Evan] Welcome back sir. Happy that you’re back in the saddle again. Microsoft was front and center in the information security news this week. Let’s dissect some of this.

Microsoft in the (Information Security) News

Here’s a list of articles that we talk about in this episode:

Obviously, Microsoft has its hands full. Don’t we all? One issue with Microsoft is how much control they have over our industry and how much data they hold. Significant information security events at Microsoft have a significant impact for millions of organizations.

Just one other news article of interest this week: One billion dollars lost by over-60s through online fraud in 2020, says FBI – https://hotforsecurity.bitdefender.com/blog/one-billion-dollars-lost-by-over-60s-through-online-fraud-in-2020-says-fbi-26049.html

That’s a lot to unpack! Hopefully you caught all that.

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 Episode 134 Show Notes

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Alright, welcome back! We had a great run of guests over the past 7 or 8 weeks, and now it’s back to Brad and I for a bit.

If you missed any of the guest episode, here’s a recap:

Memorial Day

Monday, May 31st was Memorial Day. It’s a day of remembrance and gratitude. Here’s the text from one of my Twitter posts:

  • A small table set for one, symbolizing the isolation of our absent service member.
  • The table is round to represent the everlasting concern the survivors have for the missing.
  • The white tablecloth symbolizes the pure motives of our lost service members who responded to our country’s call to arms.
  • A single rose in the vase represents the blood our service members have shed in sacrifice to ensure the freedom of the United States of America.
  • The rose also represents family and friends who keep the faith while awaiting the return of the missing service members.
  • The red ribbon represents our service members’ love of country that inspired them to serve our country.
  • A slice of lemon on the bread plate represents the bitter fate of the missing.
  • Salt sprinkled on the bread plate represents the tears shed by waiting families.
  • The inverted glass represents the fact that the missing and fallen cannot partake.
  • A Bible represents the spiritual strength and faith to sustain the lost.
  • A lit candle symbolizes a light of hope that lives in hearts to illuminate the missing’s way home.
  • An empty chair represents the absence of our beloved missing and fallen. service members.

We are grateful for all our men and women who serve in uniform and we hold those who sacrificed all in the highest esteem.

The Show Must Go On

Visiting with our guests the past couple months has been a lot of fun and we hope it’s been educational and entertaining for our listeners. We hope listeners enjoyed listening as much as we enjoyed hosting!

This week (episode 134), Brad and I are going to take a look at some of the recent news. Lord knows, there’s plenty to cover!

Let’s get to the episode 134 show notes, shall we?

SHOW NOTES – Episode 134 – Wednesday June 2nd, 2021

Opening

[Evan] Welcome listeners! Thanks for tuning into this episode of the UNSECURITY Podcast. This is episode 134, and the date is June 2nd, 2021. Joining me is my good friend, Mr. Brad Nigh. Good Morning Brad!

[Evan] Welcome back from Memorial Day weekend. It was a beautiful weekend to pay our respects.

What’s going on in the world of “cybersecurity”?

Today, we’re going to change things up a little. There’s so much going on in the world around us, I thought it would be good for us to focus on six news articles and discuss them. Here they are:

That’s a lot to unpack! Hopefully you caught all that.

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 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.

UNSECURITY Episode 132 Show Notes

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Hey Listeners!

Spring is in full bloom (finally) in Minnesota, and life is good. The weather is great, and last week, our Governor (Tim Walz) lifted the mask mandate for people who are vaccinated and maintain some semblance of social distancing. It’s good to see people’s faces again, especially when they’re smiling. 🙂

We’re grateful for the guests who have joined our show the past four weeks! We’ve learned a ton from these conversations.

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

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.

This week, we’re not planning to have a guest, so you’ll have to put up with Brad and I.

Next week (episode 133) we’re hoping to have Gabriel Friedlander from Wizer on the show!

Let’s get to the episode 132 show notes, shall we?

SHOW NOTES – Episode 132 – Tuesday May 18th, 2021

Opening

[Evan] Welcome listeners! Thanks for tuning into this episode of the UNSECURITY Podcast. This is episode 132, and the date is May 18th, 2021. Joining me is my good friend, highly-skilled information security expert, and all around great guy, Brad Nigh.

Good morning Brad!

There are so many things happening in our world, it’s hard to keep track. One interesting event from the last week (other than the Colonial Pipeline attack) was the announcement of President Biden’s Executive Order (EO) 14028 titled “Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity”. In today’s episode, Brad and I are going to break this down.

Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity

  • The EO was announced by the Administration on 5/12/21.
  • There’s a lot of information to unpack here, including:
  • Section 1. Policy, containing:
    • Policy statement.
    • Scope.
  • Section 2. Removing Barriers to Sharing Threat Information, containing:
    • Review existing reporting requirements and procedures.
    • Recommend updates to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR).
    • Update the FAR.
    • Enforce IT/OT provider compliance.
    • Centralize reporting.
    • Provide budget for this section.
  • Section 3. Modernizing Federal Government Cybersecurity
    • Adopt security best practices.
    • Advance toward Zero Trust Architecture.
    • Accelerate movement to secure cloud services.
    • Adopt multi-factor authentication.
    • Encrypt data at rest and in transit.
    • Centralize and streamline access to cybersecurity data.
    • Invest in both technology and personnel to match the modernization goals.
  • Section 4. Enhancing Software Supply Chain Security
    • Develop standards, tools, and best practices for secure software development.
    • Enforce secure software development practices.
    • Define and enforce a “Software Bill of Materials (SBOM)”.
    • Define “critical software” and its protection requirements.
    • Consumer labeling programs for IoT and software.
  • Section 5. Establishing a Cyber Safety Review Board
    • Requirements for a new “Cyber Safety Review Board”.
    • All requirements are for the Secretary of Homeland Security and the (yet to be established) Cyber Safety Review Board (“board”).
  • Section 6. Standardizing the Federal Government’s Playbook for Responding to Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities and Incidents; the playbook:
    • Will Incorporate all appropriate NIST standards.
    • Be used by all Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) Agencies.
    • Will articulate progress and completion through all phases of an incident response.
    • Will allow flexibility so it may be used in support of various response activities.
    • Establishes a requirement that the Director of CISA reviews and validates FCEB Agencies’ incident response and remediation results upon an agency’s completion of its incident response.
    • Defines key terms and use such terms consistently with any statutory definitions.
  • Section 7. Improving Detection of Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities and Incidents on Federal Government Networks
    • The adoption of a Federal Government-wide Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) initiative.
    • CISA threat hunting on FCEB networks and systems without agency authorization.
    • Information sharing between the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security
  • Section 8. Improving the Federal Government’s Investigative and Remediation Capabilities
    • Types of logs to be maintained.
    • Time periods to retain the logs and other relevant data.
    • Time periods for agencies to enable recommended logging and security requirements.
    • How to protect logs (logs shall be protected by cryptographic methods to ensure integrity once collected and periodically verified against the hashes throughout their retention)
    • Data shall be retained in a manner consistent with all applicable privacy laws and regulations.
    • Ensure that, upon request, agencies provide logs to the Secretary of Homeland Security through the Director of CISA and to the FBI, consistent with applicable law.
    • Permit agencies to share log information, as needed and appropriate, with other Federal agencies for cyber risks or incidents.
  • Section 9. National Security Systems
  • Section 10. Definitions
  • Section 11. General Provisions

This will be a great conversation as Brad and I share our summary, thoughts and opinions on all this!

News

Just time for one news story this week. This one is from Brian Krebs, “Try This One Weird Trick Russian Hackers Hate“.

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 Episode 131 Show Notes

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Apologies for not posting something about last week’s show, episode 130. We were honored and pleased to welcome John Strand from Black Hills Information Security as our guest. John, Brad and talked openly about John’s path through information security, what Black Hills is working on, the different pockets of security people, why it’s important to work together as information security vendors to improve the community, and John’s latest Pay What You Can (PWYC) Series.

It was a GREAT talk and we’re VERY grateful that John stopped by. Check out episode 130 here; https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unsecurity-episode-130-john-strand-black-hills-information/id1442520920?i=1000520139261

Episode 131

Pumped about this week’s show!

My good friend, Security Shit Show co-host, hacker extraordinaire, and all around great guy Chris Roberts is stopping in for a chat.

Special Guest – Chris Roberts

Chris and I (Evan) were introduced to each other by our mutual friend Tony Cole maybe three years ago, but we didn’t get to know each other well until the last 13, 14 months. We’re both REALLY busy guys, so our circles just didn’t cross much. In the past year, we’ve gotten to know each other quite well which is no surprise seeing that we spend more than two hours together each week on the Security Shit Show with Ryan Cloutier (another great guy).

Things about Chris:

From his LinkedIn Profile:

  • Currently the Chief Security Strategist for Cynet Security (among many other things)
  • Currently an Executive Committee Member at the CyberEdBoard Community
  • Currently an Advisor, Researcher, Hacker, Etc. at HillBilly Hit Squad
  • Currently co-host of The Security Shit Show
  • Former Chief Security Strategist at Attivo Networks, Inc.
  • Former Chief of Adversarial Research and Engineering at LARES Consulting
  • Former Chief Security Architect at Acalvio Technologies
  • Former Senior Consultant at Sentinel Global LLC
  • Founder of One World Labs
  • Former Managing Director Electronic Intelligence/Principal Investigator at Cyopsis, LLC
  • Former President/CEO at CCi5, Inc.
  • Former Director of Coalfire Labs at Coalfire Systems, Inc.
  • and on and on…

Chris has been all over the world and all over the United States doing crazy cool hacker stuff at every stop.

He is truly on of my favorite people on the planet to talk to! Always a good time.

Other Guests – Past, Present, and Future

Lots of GREAT conversations with lots of GREAT information security folks!

SHOW NOTES – Episode 131 – Tuesday May 11th, 2021

Opening

[Evan] Welcome listeners! Thanks for tuning into this episode of the UNSECURITY Podcast. This is episode 131, and the date is May 11th, 2021. Joining me is my good friend, infosec buddy and partner in crime.

Also joining the UNSECURITY Podcast is our special guest, Mr. Chris Roberts! Welcome my friend. It’s an honor to have you on our show!

Introducing Chris Roberts

  • Let’s start with trying to figure out how Chris first got into the information security industry.
  • Next, we’ll see how far we can get down his career path before 1) we start chasing squirrels (we’re both ADD) or 2) we run out of time (because there’s A LOT there).
  • The Colonial Pipeline Attack and global security tensions/consequences.
  • Current projects.
  • Current events.

We’ll see if we get to his plane hacking antics too, but I’m not sure we’ll have the time.

News

We’ll probably skip news in this show. Guessing that Brad, Ron, and myself will have no problem filling the entire show with good discussion.

Wrapping Up – Shout Outs

Who’s getting shout outs this week?

Thank you to all our listeners! HUGE thank you to Chris for joining us. 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.

Chris is easy to find, but can be reached on LinkedIn and Twitter (@Sidragon1).

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 Episode 129 Show Notes

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We have another great guest for episode 129, and we’re excited to get his take on things!

Special Guest – Ron Woerner

In this episode of the UNSECURITY Podcast, we’re joined by another good friend of ours, Ron Woerner.

Ron and I (Evan) first met at the RSA Conference last year (2020) after being introduced to each other by Ryan Cloutier, another good friend. Ron is a no nonsense, plain English-speaking information security expert with a heart for helping people from all walks protect themselves better. I love this guy and I’m excited to chat with him on the show!

Things about Ron:

We’re in for a treat in this episode!

Other Guests – Past, Present, and Future
  • Episode 128 Special Guest – Roger Grimes (0n 4/20)
  • Episode 129 Special Guest – Ron Woerner (this week)
  • Episode 130 Special Guest – John Strand (on 5/4)
    • Believe it or not, I have never met John in person. Despite running in some of the same circles for many years, this will be the first time I meet him.
    • John also has a laundry list of accomplishments. He’s the Founder and Owner of Black Hills Information Security, Senior Instructor with the SANS Institute, teaches SEC504: Hacker Techniques, Exploits, and Incident Handling; SEC560: Network Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking; SEC580: Metasploit Kung Fu for Enterprise Pen Testing; and SEC464: Hacker Detection for System Administrators. John is the course author for SEC464: Hacker Detection for System Administrators and the co-author for SEC580: Metasploit Kung Fu for Enterprise Pen Testing. He’s also presented at the FBI, NASA, NSA, DefCon, and lots of other places.
  • Episode 131 Special Guest – Chris Roberts (on 5/11)
  • Episode 132 Special Guest – Gabriel Friedlander (on 5/18)

Lots of GREAT conversations with lots of GREAT information security folks!

SHOW NOTES – Episode 129 – Tuesday April 27th, 2021

Recorded Monday April 26th, 2021

Opening

[Evan] Welcome listeners! Thanks for tuning into this episode of the UNSECURITY Podcast. This is episode 129, and the date is April 27th, 2021. Joining me is my good friend, solid partner, and and top infosec expert Brad Nigh. Welcome Brad!

Also joining the UNSECURITY Podcast is our special guest, Mr. Ron Woerner! Welcome Ron. It’s an honor to have you on our show!

Introducing Ron Woerner

It’s great to have Ron on our show! He gets information security and he always has an interesting perspective on things.

  • Open Discussion.
  • Top of mind things.
  • Current projects.
  • Current events.

Pretty sure we’ll get to talk about Ron’s talks at RSA, his work/lectures at Bellevue University, social engineering things, information security as a life skill, and other goodies!

News

We’ll probably skip news in this show. Guessing that Brad, Ron, and myself will have no problem filling the entire show with good discussion.

Wrapping Up – Shout Outs

Who’s getting shout outs this week?

Thank you to all our listeners! HUGE thank you to Ron for joining us. 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.

Ron can be reached on LinkedIn, Twitter (@RonW123), and other places he’ll probably share during the show.

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 Episode 128 Show Notes

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Oh boy. Chalk last week up as “the lost week”.

I live in a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota (MN). The same Minneapolis, MN where George Floyd died last May, sparking civil unrest around the world. The same Minneapolis, MN where the eyes of the world are anxiously awaiting the verdict in the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin, charged with second-degree murder in George Floyd’s death. The same Minneapolis, MN where Daunte Wright lost his life on April 11th, at the hands of 26-year veteran police officer Kimberly Ann Potter.

Minneapolis seems like ground zero for crazy.

Me being me, I don’t like when things don’t make sense. Despite knowing it’s best to let some things go, I decided to embark on a journey of self reflection and sense-making.

The result?

I learned how I process things. I learned I love people. I learned I’m not crazy. I learned we have significant problems facing our society, and not enough people willing to solve them. Even worse, the leaders we elect to solve problems, selfishly use problems to score popularity points and ignorant votes. If our leaders wanted to solve problems, they would. Simple as that.

More to come, but we have a podcast to do!

Special Guest – Roger Grimes

In this episode of the UNSECURITY Podcast, we’re joined by a good friend, a bona fide information security authority, renowned author (of 12 books), and all around awesome human being, Roger Grimes. This is a man I respect deeply and hold in very high esteem. We are information security kindred spirits in a way, and we’re honored to welcome him on our show!

Things about Roger:

  • LinkedIn Profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/rogeragrimes/
  • Information technology and/or information security expert since the mid-late 1980s
  • Written more than 1,200 national magazine articles on information security and was the weekly computer security columnist for InfoWorld/CSO magazines from 2005 to 2019
  • His “goal in life is to get more people and companies to use data and the scientific method to improve their computer security.” He goes on to state, “If I leave this world without having made the Internet a safer place for all people to compute, I have failed. ” See, my kind of guy!
  • Spent more than 11 years as Microsoft’s Principal Security Architect.
  • Written 12 books (and working on two now), including:
    • Hacking Multifactor Authentication
    • Cryptography Apocalypse
    • A Data-Driven Computer Defense
    • Hacking the Hacker
    • Malicious Mobile Code
    • And more…

Seriously dig this guy, and pumped that he’s joining us this week!

Other Guests Coming

Roger is our first special guest in a series of special guests. We might keep hosting special guests indefinitely. Here’s what’s coming soon:

  • Episode 129 Special Guest – Ron Woerner
    • I met Ron through my good friend Ryan Cloutier, and I’m very grateful for it.
    • Ron has a laundry list of accolades. He’s the CEO and President of Cyber-AAA, Professor of CyberSecurity Studies at Bellevue University, featured speaker at the RSA conference for more than 12 years, and much more.
  • Episode 130 Special Guest – John Strand
    • Believe it or not, I have never met John in person. Despite running in some of the same circles for many years, this will be the first time I meet him.
    • John also has a laundry list of accomplishments. He’s the Founder and Owner of Black Hills Information Security, Senior Instructor with the SANS Institute, teaches SEC504: Hacker Techniques, Exploits, and Incident Handling; SEC560: Network Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking; SEC580: Metasploit Kung Fu for Enterprise Pen Testing; and SEC464: Hacker Detection for System Administrators. John is the course author for SEC464: Hacker Detection for System Administrators and the co-author for SEC580: Metasploit Kung Fu for Enterprise Pen Testing. He’s also presented at the FBI, NASA, NSA, DefCon, and lots of other places.

We’re finalizing details with guests for episode 131 and 132 too. Lots of GREAT conversations to come!

Let’s get right to it, show notes for episode 128 of the UNSECURITY Podcast…

SHOW NOTES – Episode 128 – Tuesday April 20th, 2021

Recorded Friday April 16th, 2021

Opening

[Evan] Welcome listeners! Thanks for tuning into this episode of the UNSECURITY Podcast. This is episode 128, and the date is April 20th, 2021. Joining me is my good friend, great guy, and infosec expert Brad Nigh. Welcome Brad!

Also joining the UNSECURITY Podcast is our special guest, Mr. Roger Grimes! Welcome Roger. It’s an honor to have you on our show!

Introducing Roger Grimes

Some of our listeners may not know Roger. That’s about to change! He has a fascinating information security mind, and we’re all sure to learn some things.

  • Open Discussion.
  • Top of mind things.
  • Current projects.
  • Current events.

Roger and I first met through a friend, Steve Marsden, a few years ago. Almost immediately it became clear that we see information security the same way. Soon after our first conversation, I flew out to see Roger give his talk at the RSA conference and have lunch with him and his wife. It confirmed that he is the “real deal” and I flew on to my next destination immediately after lunch. Since then, we’ve kept in touch, and he even served on SecurityStudio’s board of directors for a time.

This will be a fun conversation, guaranteed!

News

We’ll probably skip news in this show. Guessing that Brad, Roger, and myself will have no problem filling the entire show with good discussion.

Wrapping Up – Shout Outs

Who’s getting shout outs this week?

Closing – Thank you to all our listeners! HUGE thank you to Roger for joining us. 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. Roger, where would you like people to connect with you? (his Twitter handle is @rogeragrimes). 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 Episode 126 Show Notes

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Here we are, time for another episode of the UNSECURITY Podcast.

I came across another interesting article this week, “15 Cybersecurity Pitfalls and Fixes for SMBs“. I have a heart for underserved markets, and small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) are certainly an underserved (or poorly served) market.

NOTE: The other underserved markets I’m especially interested in are state/local government, education (higher education & K12), and individual consumers.

This is a perfect time to talk about SMB information security. As we come out of COVID (Lord, I hope we are!), more and more SMBs are getting back on their feet. As they start on this next (or first) chapter of their SMB journey, it’s imperative they take information security seriously and do things right. The last thing anyone (except for attackers) wants is to start building/rebuilding a business with limited resources only to lose everything from an attack.

Looking forward to dissecting this with Brad on this episode!

Let’s get right to it, show notes for episode 126 of the UNSECURITY Podcast…

SHOW NOTES – Episode 126 – Wednesday April 7th, 2021

Opening

[Evan] Welcome listeners! Thanks for tuning into this episode of the UNSECURITY Podcast. This is episode 126, and the date is April 7th, 2021. Joining me is my good friend, great guy, and infosec expert Brad Nigh. Welcome Brad!

Another good show today. We’re gonna talk about this article I came across the other day. The title of the article is “15 Cybersecurity Pitfalls and Fixes for SMBs”.

15 Cybersecurity Pitfalls and Fixes for SMBs

This article features a roundtable discussion between Timur Kovalev, CTO of Untangle, Erich Kron from KnowBe4 and Greg Murphy, CEO of Order. They give their take on what SMBs think about information security, the common mistakes they make, and how to do thinks better.

As you know, we have no shortage of information security “experts” in our industry. Let’s see if we agree, disagree, and/or have something to add to this discussion.

  1. Think they’re too small to be a target.
  2. Haven’t made a thorough asset inventory assessment.
  3. No network segmentation.
  4. Ignore fundamentals.
  5. Haven’t done a business risk evaluation.
  6. Insecure digital assets.
  7. Don’t know what “normal” activity looks like.
  8. No 2FA.
  9. Misconfigured cloud servers/confusion about move to the cloud.
  10. User security training.
  11. Haven’t evaluated their threat to the supply chain.
  12. Lack of business continuity plan.
  13. Aren’t thinking strategically about asset allocation and budgeting.
  14. Failing to backup.
  15. Lax patching.

NOTE: This is not our list, this is the list from the article.

If you had to pick your 15 most common information security mistakes made by SMBs, what would you pick? This will be a good discussion!

News

As of 9:15AM on 4/5/2021, the number of registered students in the FRSecure CISSP Mentor Program is 5,618!

Three interesting news articles this week:

Wrapping Up – Shout Outs

Good talk. Thank you Brad, and thank you listeners!

Who’s getting shout outs this week?

Closing – Thank you to all our listeners! Send things to us by email at unsecurity@protonmail.com. If you’re the social type, socialize with us on Twitter, I’m @evanfrancen, and Brad’s @BradNigh. 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.