Happy (belated) Birthday America!

Hope you all had a great 4th of July holiday! Both Brad and I (sort of) took the week off last week. We got some much needed rest for the 2nd half 2019 push. Brad spent time with his family, catching some huge fish with his kids. I made a road trip on my bike from Minnesota to Ohio. My wife and 14-year-old daughter joined me and we spent the week celebrating our great country.

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The first half of 2019 has been wildly successful on multiple fronts, and both Brad and I are grateful.

I left Brad alone this week. I didn’t even reach out to him for our podcast show notes, so I’m not sure if he was planning to write some. Out of respect for his time away from the office, I’m writing this week’s notes.

Haven’t run this past Brad yet, but I think we’ve got the next three shows planned. We’ll see if he’s game. Here’s my plan:

1. This week (episode 35) – Transfer of Wealth
2. Episode 36 – The Money Grab
3. Episode 37 – Project Bacon

Are you intrigued? Yeah, maybe.

OK, let’s get to it…

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SHOW NOTES – Episode 35

Date: Monday, July 8th, 2019

Today’s Topics:

• Civic Duty? – An update
• Transfer of Wealth
• News

[Evan] Hi everyone, this is Evan Francen, your host for episode 35 of the UNSECURITY Podcast. Welcome back from last week’s 4th of July holiday. My security bestie, Brad Nigh is joining me. He’s my co-host and stuff.

Welcome Brad.

[Brad] Brad probably greets me/us here. Assuming that he’s polite and engaged.

[Evan] How was your week off?

[Brad] Brad shares stuff about his time off.

[Evan] I’ll share some brief things about last week.

The meat of the show starts here.

[Evan] Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been talking about ransomware. We haven’t been talking about the technical details related to how ransomware works because the attack vector essentially hasn’t changed drastically over the past, I don’t know, 20 years!

What we’ve been focused on is the destruction that ransomware is causing organizations, specifically local government organizations. We talked about cities that are suffering millions in losses and those that have chosen to pay ransoms to attackers. These things really strike a nerve in us, and we’ve encouraged people to do something about it.

For reference, see other related posts in chronological order:

• DON’T SUCK – STOP PAYING RANSOMS
• ASK QUESTIONS – GET ANSWERS (HOPEFULLY)
• CALL TO ACTION UPDATE – DO YOUR PART, CIVIC RANSOMWARE

Let’s catch up quick on this Brad.

Open Discussion – Civic Duty? – An update

[Evan] So, before we get too heated and deep into the ransomware discussion again, let’s talk a little about the money. The money in terms of how much attackers steal from us and in terms of how much money we steal from each other. We call the latter the “money grab”.

[Brad] Let’s do it! (and other stuff probably.)

[Evan] I was revisiting some of the research about our industry this week, and I wanted to talk about two things.

1. The transfer of wealth – the money the attackers steal from us.
2. The money grab – the money we steal from each other, or maybe “spend” is more politically correct.

We won’t have enough time to discuss these two topics with any depth in one show, so we we’ll need to split this up across multiple shows. Whatever, let’s discuss what we can now.

[Brad] Sounds good (hopefully).

[Evan] According to a study/predictions conducted/made by Cybersecurity Ventures, “Cybercriminal activity is one of the biggest challenges that humanity will face in the next two decades.” You’ve seen this study, right?

[Brad] Oh yes, of course!

[Evan] We know the source of the study, so we need to take it with a grain of salt, but listen to some of the claims:

• “Cybercrime is the greatest threat to every company in the world, and one of the biggest problems with mankind. The impact on society is reflected in the numbers.“
• “In August of 2016, Cybersecurity Ventures predicted that cybercrime will cost the world $6 trillion annually by 2021, up from $3 trillion in 2015. This represents the greatest transfer of economic wealth in history, risks the incentives for innovation and investment, and will be more profitable than the global trade of all major illegal drugs combined.“
• “Cyberattacks are the fastest growing crime in the U.S., and they are increasing in size, sophistication and cost.“

Let that sink in a little. Are these numbers and claims accurate in your opinion. Do these numbers and claims just feed our scare tactics? Let’s discuss.

Open Discussion – Money – Transfer of Wealth

[Evan] Good talk Brad! We certainly have our share of opinions on this. Let’s hold off on the “money grab” discussion until next week, then we’ll contrast these issues. Sound good?

[Brad] He’ll agree because he’s a very agreeable man.

[Evan] Just two newsy things this week. We’ll cover them quick.

News

Just two quick stories today.

• Derp! DDoS attacker who brought down EA, Sony, and Steam jailed for 27 months – https://hotforsecurity.bitdefender.com/blog/derp-ddos-attacker-who-brought-down-ea-sony-and-steam-jailed-for-27-months-21384.html
• IoT vendor Orvibo gives away treasure trove of user and device data – https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2019/07/03/iot-vendor-orvibo-gives-away-treasure-trove-of-user-and-device-data/

Closing

[Evan] That’s how it is. Thanks again to our listeners and thank you Brad! Have a great week friends. Don’t forget, you can follow me or Brad on Twitter; @evanfrancen is me, and Brad’s at @BradNigh. Email us on the show at unsecurity@protonmail.com if you want to be one of the cool kids.