The UNSECURITY Podcast – Episode 54 Show Notes
Show notes are almost on time this week! Yay us.
I started writing our show notes on Thursday night in the Salt Lake City airport, and now I’m finishing them on a plane back from LA. Ugh. The life.
This was a crazy week, but what’s new? While Brad’s been bustin’ his tail keeping up with FRSecure’s sales and operations, I’ve been traveling the country on the SecurityStudio Roadshow. My travels this week took me to Rochester (NY), Baltimore (MD – layover), Kansas City (MO), Salt Lake City (UT – layover), Sacramento (CA), and Los Angeles (CA – layover).
I’m supposed to get home late on Friday night. We’ll see. 🙂
If you’d like to follow the SecurityStudio Roadshow, I write a recap every week on my/this site. Keep up with me, and give me some BBQ tips.
I’ve met some amazing people on my travels, and one really cool cat is Kenneth Bechtel. I met Kenneth during week one of the SecurityStudio Roadshow. On week one, John Harmon and I traveled to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for BSides. I was speaking in a mid-morning session and Kenneth was the keynote speaker.
I have a lot of respect for Kenneth because he’s been at his game for a long time. He’s been doing threat hunting before threat hunting was a thing. Big props to this guy. During our time together at BSides, Kenneth shared his recent troubles finding a job. This bugs me. So, I invited him to be a guest on the podcast.
We’re honored to have him share some of his wisdom. We’ll try to get to the bottom of his job search struggle too.
Special thanks to Brandon Matis for putting together last week’s anniversary show! That couldn’t have been easy.
Pretty sure I’m supposed to lead this episode, so here goes.
My show to lead this week and these are my notes.
SHOW NOTES – Episode 54
Date: Monday, November 18th, 2019
Show Topics:
Our topics this week:
- What’s up man?
- Introducing Kenneth Bechtel
- The earlier days versus today. What’s changed and what’s the same?
- The (alleged) infosec labor crunch. Kenneth isn’t the first person who’s had trouble finding work. What gives?
- New show ideas
- News
Opening
[Evan] Hey UNSECURITY Podcast listeners! This is episode 54, and the date is November 18th, 2019. I’m Evan Francen, and it’s my show this week. Brad’s here with me too. Care to chime in Brad?
[Brad] You know he’s got something to say. Probably something good too!
[Evan] Alright, we’ve got another great show planned!
- Brad and I are going to catchup with our craziness quick.
- We’re going to get real with a true information security pioneer Kenneth Bechtel. He’s got an incredible amount of wisdom to share and we want to get to the bottom of why people like Kenneth are not getting hired when we have this alleged talent shortage.
- We’ll talk about an upcoming show idea that we have, then we’ll wrap with some newsy things.
I’m pumped about this show! So, let’s get on with it, eh?
[Brad] Brad’ll agree probably.
[Evan] So, what’s up man?! I’ve been out for the past two weeks preaching to folks everywhere and stuff. I missed you man.
Catchin’ up with Brad (quick)
[Evan] Alright, enough of that. We are excited and honored to have Kenneth Bechtel on the phone, so let’s welcome him. Hi Kenneth.
[Kenneth] He’ll confirm (unless of course we have some tech issue or something).
[Evan] Can’t tell you how grateful and pumped we are to have you on the show! We’re going to get to know each other more, and discuss things. I’d like to start off with you telling us about you, then we can talk about how the industry has evolved, then lastly, let’s discuss this whole infosec talent shortage thing.
I found an old photo of you on your Team Anti-Virus website.
About Kenneth:
“I have been actively involved in Anti-Malware defense and research since 1988 at both a corporate and international level, with close ties to the international Anti-Malware efforts and fellow researchers.
In the corporate world, I have worked as both a Virus Laboratory and Field researcher for major organizations, providing expert support for malware outbreaks.
Internationally, I was a Founding Members of AVIEN – Anti-Virus Information Exchange Network, and served as Chairman of its Disciplinary Committee and well as member of the Advisory Board to the Administrator.
I have presented at international conferences, including the Virus Bulletin Conference, at which I am a regular attendee.
My work has been published in trade magazines and specialized websites such as Security Focus.
I have written a handbook on Anti-Virus Security and was one of the co-authors of the AVIEN Malware Defense Guide.
I am regularly asked to speak at small organization and company conferences and training seminars.“
Media requests, Opportunities and general inquiries are welcome at kbechtel@teamanti-virus.org
Discussion with Kenneth Bechtel
- Introductions
- The earlier days versus today. What’s changed and what’s the same?
- The (alleged) infosec labor crunch. Kenneth isn’t the first person who’s had trouble finding work. What gives?
- Your recent post about your cowboy hat
[Evan] Alright. Let’s see what we can do here to help each other. Kenneth, I sincerely appreciate your tireless work for this industry and for being on our show!
News
[Evan] Some interesting news stories for us to discuss this week. The first one is interesting because we’ve warned about this and sadly things are going to get much worse before they get better.
- Study: Ransomware, Data Breaches at Hospitals tied to Uptick in Fatal Heart Attacks – https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/11/study-ransomware-data-breaches-at-hospitals-tied-to-uptick-in-fatal-heart-attacks/ – This news came from a listener tip, and it’s a few weeks old now, but we haven’t been together in a few weeks! The news is sad, but it’s 100% predictable. What the hell are we gonna do about this? When are we going to get real?
- GitHub launches new lab to tackle open-source security – https://sdtimes.com/security/github-launches-new-lab-to-tackle-open-source-security/
- Apple fires employee after he texts customer’s pic to his own phone – https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2019/11/15/apple-fires-employee-after-he-texts-customers-pic-to-his-own-phone/amp/
Closing
[Evan] OK, cool! Episode 54 is a wrap. Thank you again Kenneth for being on our show. I think our discussion will benefit others!
Thank you to our listeners! Keep the questions and feedback coming. We love it, well Brad does, but I don’t. 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. Kenneth, do you have a way you want people to socialize with you?
Follow SecurityStudio (@studiosecurity) and FRSecure (@FRSecure) for more goodies!
That’s it! Talk to you all again next week!
