Happy Friday from the road (again)!
Sitting in a Buffalo, NY Starbucks writing these notes. I guess it beats Brighton Beach (SC) or Hackensack (NJ).
Some of these notes are Brad’s and some are mine. Brad took a 5:45am flight out of Rochester this morning, and I have a later flight. He started these notes on his flight, sent them to me, and I’m finishing them up while I wait for my flight at 5:45pm. Wait! Crap. Just got word that my flight is now delayed to 6:30pm. Hope it doesn’t get worse. The joys of business travel, eh?
As you know, Brad and I recorded episode 21 from my hotel room in Rochester, New York. He and I were working on a couple of projects together with the same client in Rochester. Arrived last Sunday, and here I am now (Friday) in Buffalo. In between was a whole bunch of really good security work and good memories.
If you didn’t catch episode 21, check it out here.
In episode 21 we had a candid talk about dealing with bully customers. Sometimes our customers are internal to our organization, and sometimes they’re external. Bullies are bullies and they suck, but there are ways to deal with them. As you know, security people don’t always have positive news. One way to bring the bully out of someone, assuming it’s there in some people, is to tell them something they don’t like.
We also talked about third-party security risk management. Might not be the most exciting topic in the world, but it is critical to any successful security program.
Had a great week! Hope you did too.
Episode 21
Date: Monday, April 1st, 2019
These are the notes we use to guide the discussion. These notes were written by both me (Evan) and Brad (see above).
Today’s Topic(s): Toxic Coworkers
[Brad]: Welcome to episode 22 of the Unsecurity podcast, I’m Brad Nigh, your host for this weeks show, and with me as (almost) always is Evan Francen. Here we are Evan, it’s April 8th, and we are back home!
[Evan] Yes! Man, I’m feeling a little traveled-out. Good to be home!
[Brad] We spent the last week in New York working on some projects together. That was a great experience, doing a lot of security stuff and a lot of BBQ. What, we had BBQ all five nights, from four different places, didn’t we?
[Evan] Oh yeah.
[Brad] OK, the work though. We did work too, remember? One thing that really stood out to me is how passionate the client was about improving their information security program, and how proud they were to show their progress. We did work for them a few years ago, gave them a bunch of recommendations, and they really knocked it out of the park! It was inspiring to see an organization doing things right. They get buy in from the top, take recommendations seriously, and the result was big improvements. That isn’t to say they don’t have more work to do and don’t still have gaps though. Just impressed with their progress.
[Evan] I’ll say something here. Seems I’m not usually at a loss for words.
More discussion about the week. Seriously good stuff this week!
[Brad] One more thing before we get started, the CISSP Mentor Program starts tonight! We got word from our Marketing Team on Thursday that we hit a new record for students! We have more than 400 registered. That’s incredible, and we’re within range for maxing out our current solution for the live broadcast.
[Evan] Yeah man! This is one of the most valuable and rewarding things I’ve been a part of in my career. To think that we started with just six students in 2010. Love it!
[Brad] Last week we talked about bully customers, we got some great feedback from listeners. One recommendation stood out, “You talked about bully customers, which is a good topic on it’s own. An interesting lead on could be dealing with a toxic coworker, someone you cannot escape so easily.” It’s my week to lead the show, so I figured why not talk about dealing with toxic coworkers?
[Evan] Yeah, that’s a good topic. I think we’ve all dealt with a toxic coworker at some point in our career.
Open Discussion, dealing toxic coworkers.
Brad says, “Evan says Evan things and we discuss how to deal with toxic coworkers.”
NOTE: Quick question for Brad, what are “Evan things”?!
Pretty sure that we both have lots of experience and examples around this.
News
[Brad] Good discussion, but enough of our idle chit chat. Time for some news now.
[Evan] Yeah.
[Brad] Evan was featured in an article on CSO Online by Roger Grimes. Evan isn’t comfortable self promoting, luckily I don’t have any issues bragging about the cool stuff he does.
[Evan] Thanks Brad. I have the utmost respect for Roger Grimes. Knowing that the article came from him means that much more to me.
[Brad] In other news…
- Drugmaker Bayer blames Chinese government-backed group for cyberattack – https://siliconangle.com/2019/04/04/drugmaker-bayer-blames-chinese-government-backed-group-cyberattack/
- New malware can modify CT and MRI scan results – https://www.hackread.com/new-malware-can-modify-ct-mri-scan-results’
- 90 percent of critical infrastructure hit by cyberattacks – https://betanews.com/2019/04/05/critical-infrastructure-cyberattacks/
[Brad] Some much news, so many threats, so little time. Remember, you can’t do it all. Be careful, and do your best to keep your head above water.
[Evan] Good advice.
Closing
[Brad] Any parting words of wisdom Evan?
[Evan] I read somewhere, “If you think there is good in everybody, you haven’t met everybody.” Not sure who said this first, but it’s wise.
OK, well that just about wraps things up. It’s good to be home.
Don’t forget, you can follow me or Brad on Twitter; @evanfrancen and @BradNigh.
Email us on the show at unsecurity@protonmail.com.
Thank you and see you next week!
