The UNSECURITY Podcast – Episode 73 Show Notes – COVID-19 IR
Hope you and your loved ones are well! We can’t understate the importance of physical, mental, and spiritual health, especially in times like these.
If you missed last week’s show notes or episode 72 of the UNSECURITY Podcast, there’s some pretty good stuff there.
Episode 73 Topics
Topics for episode 73 of the UNSECURITY Podcast include:
- Opening
- Catching Up
- The first full week with a closed office.
- Staying sane and healthy at home.
- COVID-19 Affects on Information Security (some of them)
- Introducing our special guest, FRSecure’s Director of Technical Solutions and Services
- Incident Response During COVID-19
- Current Events/Incidents
- FRSecure’s IR Risk Registration (what is it and why would I consider it?)
- COVID-19 Scams and Attacks
- What have we seen?
- What are we planning for?
- Physical Security Considerations
- The Daily inSANITY Check-in
- FRSecure CISSP Mentor Program Update
- Wrapping Up – Shout outs
You can find the full show notes near the bottom of this post. Before getting there, I need to get some thoughts out.
Thoughts
It’s been 13 days since FRSecure and SecurityStudio closed their offices. All of us are still around and working, but it’s crazy how much life has changed. Personally, I’m still struggling to make sense of things and I’m mulling over COVID-19 data almost obsessively. The COVID-19 scoreboards plastered everywhere don’t help. On one hand, I like being informed. On the other, I’m tired of tracking the number of infections and deaths.
As I write this, there are 140,164 infections in the United States and 2,476 deaths. What does this mean in the context of everything else? How do I make sense of these numbers? Here’s one attempt:
- Today, Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, claimed the United States could eventually see 100,000 or more deaths, maybe even as many as 200,000.
- The first death from COVID-19 in the United States was on February 29th, 30 days ago.
What does a “normal” 30 days look like in the U.S. for deaths/mortality? According to the CDC, there were nearly 3,000,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2018 (the latest data available). Using this data, here are the number of people who died within an average 30 day window:
- 53,867 from heart disease (the top killer in the U.S. with 655,381 deaths)
- 49,255 from cancer (#2 – 599,274 deaths)
- 13,736 from accidents/unintentional injuries (#3 – 167,127 deaths)
- 10,029 from Alzheimer’s Disease (#6 – 122,019 deaths)
- 3,973 from suicide (#10 – 48,344 deaths)
Compare these numbers to where we’re at now with COVID-19. I’m NOT at all minimizing the impact of COVID-19. I’m trying to make sense. I know the number of infected people and deaths will rise significantly over the coming weeks/months, and sadly, we’re in for more terrible news. I’m trying to understand what the numbers mean in the context of other things that aren’t as foreign to me.
A single sick person and/or a single death is sad enough, let alone thousands.
OK. Got that off my chest. Lots and lots of great things going on at FRSecure and SecurityStudio. The best place to keep up with them right now is probably on social media:
Let’s get to the show notes now!
SHOW NOTES – Episode 73
Date: Monday, March 30th, 2020
Show Topics:
- Opening
- Catching Up
- The first full week with a closed office.
- Staying sane and healthy at home.
- COVID-19 Affects on Information Security (some of them)
- Introducing our special guest, FRSecure’s Director of Technical Solutions and Services
- Incident Response During COVID-19
- Current Events/Incidents
- FRSecure’s IR Risk Registration (what is it and why would I consider it?)
- COVID-19 Scams and Attacks
- What have we seen?
- What are we planning for?
- Physical Security Considerations
- The Daily inSANITY Check-in
- FRSecure CISSP Mentor Program Update
- Wrapping Up – Shout outs
Opening
NOTE: The show notes were written by me (Evan), but Brad’s leading this episode.
[Brad] Hello listeners, this is another episode of the UNSECURITY Podcast. My name is Brad Nigh, this is episode 73, and the date is March 30th, 2020. Joining me is my co-host Evan Francen. Good morning Evan.
[Evan] Good morning Brad!
[Brad] Also joining us for the show is our special guest and FRSecure’s Director of Technical Solutions and Services, Oscar Minks. Good morning Oscar!
[Oscar] Says good morning or something with his cool southern accent.
[Brad] We’ve got lots to talk about! As is our custom, let’s get started by catching up quick.
Catching Up
Topics here include how we’re coping with COVID-19, the first full week with a closed office, and staying sane (and healthy) at home. Brad found a really good video online; Covid-19 Protecting Your Family, Dr. Dave Price
[Brad] Here’s a can of worms (maybe). Let’s talk about some of the effects that COVID-19 has on what we do. Some of the effects on information security, starting with incident response and physical security. We already mentioned that we’ve got our special guest Oscar Minks here. He’s got some good insights to share, and this should be a good discussion.
Discussion – COVID-19 Affects on Information Security (some of them)
- Introducing our special guest (again), FRSecure’s Director of Technical Solutions and Services
- Incident Response During COVID-19
- Current Events/Incidents
- FRSecure’s IR Risk Registration (what is it and why would I consider it?)
- COVID-19 Scams and Attacks
- What have we seen?
- What are we planning for?
- Physical Security Considerations
[Brad] Sadly, the frequency of scams and attacks only increases during times of distress. It’s important that we keep our eye on the ball and not compound our problems with an information security lapse.
OK, switching gears now. Some people are struggling right now. Struggling with making sense of things, struggling with employment, struggling with anxiety, or struggling with any number of things. We started this thing called the Daily inSANITY Check-in last week. Evan, tell the listeners about this thing.
Daily inSANITY Check-in Discussion
The purpose of the Daily inSANITY Check-in is to provide a safe place for people to discuss current events, information security things, challenges we’re facing, or whatever else comes to mind. The check-ins are short (30- to- 60-minute) daily meetings with discussion. People are always free to come and go as they please.
- The link for the Daily inSANITY Check-in.
- Twitter feed for the Daily inSANITY Check-in (@InsanityIn).
[Brad] The Daily inSANITY Check-in is just one place to get support out of many within our community. The point is to find help when you need it and to help people where you can. It’s cool to see so many people rally and help.
FRSecure CISSP Mentor Program Update
[Brad] Real quick, we made an announcement last week about the FRSecure CISSP Mentor Program. We’re happy to say that we are still going through with this year’s class! The only change is that we have cancelled the in-person portion of the program. As of last Monday, the 23rd, we have 1,007 registered students! That’s crazy! Oh, and I should mention, if you haven’t registered yet, registration is still open.
Wrapping Up
[Brad] No news this week because we had so many other things to talk about. Two last things to mention:
- Our pal Ryan Cloutier, aka “Cola” just wrapped up the second episode of his K12 Cybersecurity Podcast. It’s a great podcast and you should give it a listen!
- A shout out to one of our regular listeners, Olga Hoogendoorn – Startseva. Evan promised to give her a shout out because she’s pretty awesome!
Well, that’s it for this week. Plenty going on and lots to do.
Thank you for listening. We’re a couple of guys who really care about you. We’re hoping you all stay healthy and sane! We love hearing from you, so if you’ve got something to say, email us at unsecurity@protonmail.com. If you would rather do the whole social thing, we tweet like that. I’m @BradNigh, and this other guy is @evanfrancen. Also, don’t forget to check out @studiosecurity and @FRSecure. They post some good things! Let us know how we can help you!
That’s it. Talk to you all again next week!
