Hashtag Realtalk with Aaron Bregg: Recent Episodes
Aaron Bregg
Welcome to my little corner of the Internet!In this channel I give 'real talk' about information security and technologies that impact both your business and personal lives. I try and focus on issues and items that can help you become more 'security curious'. The ultimate goal of help protect your personal and professional well being.
Legal Disclaimer - All of the security advice that I give is 'as is' and does not constitute real paid professional advice. As with everything security related, please seek second opinions from paid professionals.
Photo by Jonathan Farber on Unsplash
In this special episode, I finally get a chance to do a virtual fireside chat with my talented and funny CISO Scott Dresen. I actually started working with Scott while he was the Chief Technology Officer for Spectrum Health. It was in this role that Scott down the path to becoming the Chief Information Security Officer for Corewell Health. So you can say he has been here for the entire Information Security program revamp that started back in 2016.
Talking Points:
- Back in 2016 you were the CTO when the Information Security program was 'rebooted'. What were some of your biggest challenges and frustrations back then?
- In 2018 you assumed the dual role of CTO and CISO, what was the hardest thing you had to change/overcome with having that dual role?
- Let's talk to WannaCry incident, what did the high level leadership view look like and what decisions needed to happen?
- In 2019 you had to re-evaluate the state of the security program at the halfway part of the timeline. During that you had to make some hard choice about the direction we needed to go in order to compete things. How did you come up with those decisions?
- You have had the distinct 'pleasure' of being a part of both a small healthcare and large scale acquisitions, what are some valuable lessons learned from each?
- In 2020 you had to pivot from an almost entirely in-person workforce to almost 100% remote, how did you manage to accomplish this in a timely and successful manner?
- In 2023 you had a chance to speak in front of congress around healthcare security, walk me through how that came about, how you felt in the moment and what things would you do differently (in hindsight)
- What has been the hardest part of planning and implementing Artificial Intelligence security?
- Heading into 2025, what advice do you have for other healthcare security leaders as they face the challenges of tighter budgets, smarter threat actors and changing business strategies?
Episode Charities:
- Toys for Tots of Grand Rapids - Presents for less fortunate children
- North Kent Connect - A great foundation that helps families with items that may not be covered by other programs
- YMCA of Greater Grand Rapids - Great organization promoting healthy lifestyles
Episode Sponsor:
Cloud Con - Michigan's premier security and infrastructure conference!
Disclaimer While this episode deals with an incredibly important topic, there are potential dangers in doing this type of work. PLEASE do your homework and be well prepared should you go down this path, as your life can be impacted with a wrong turn.
In this episode, which is the first of a listener requested one around technical topics.
With cybercrime and threat actor activity on the rise, it is more important than ever to understand the dark web and monitor it for potential risks or signs of a breach. There are several tools and intel providers that can do this, but they’re not cheap. So why don’t we just do it ourselves?
Python can handle simple tasks surrounding dark web scanning and offers more customization for complex tasks. Using strictly free open-source libraries and any system you have available, you can set up an automated scanner and detect threats as they arise.
Scan for IP addresses, potentially compromised emails, crypto addresses, and any regex patterns that you desire. Map your findings to the most relevant onion sites and get an understanding of where your adversaries tend to operate. This is just a start. From here, you can go almost anywhere.
Episode Charity:
Proceeds from this episode's sponsorship will be going towards the Baker-Bonsai Friendship Fund. Bruce Baker was a great bonsai tree artist and along with Deal Bull, helped make the art of bonsai be something wonderful that can be shared for future generations at the Frederik Meijer Gardens.
Episode Sponsor:
Cloud Security Alliance of West Michigan
Talking Points:
- Why is it important that you at least have a basic understanding of the Dark Web is you are in the Small and Medium sized Business (SMB) space.
- Pros and Cons of Build vs Buy
- What safeguards do you want when out in the fringes?
- What are the mental health aspects of doing this type of work? How manage those pressures?
- What are Seed URLs?
- How to use Dark Web templates for scanning.
Description credit to GrrCon
In this episode I talk with Tamer Baker around the not always clear topic of Zero Trust. While the term has been around while, it definitely gets overused by security vendors. However, because of Tamer's role as the Chief Technology Officer in the Healthcare space, he is also to bring several different points of view to the conversation.
Several of these are key to solving questions such as:
- Is Zero Trust truly expensive and painful? (Radiologist user experience example)
- As more and more healthcare systems are having to worry about budgets, he challenges the concepts on doing the same with 'less'.
- A lot of security vendors are talking AI in their products, what things is your company doing that is actually using AI?
These are just a few of the tough questions that we tackle. So, set aside some time in your day to listen in to a great conversation!
Episode Charity
Since 2011, Black Girls Code has supported girls of color in tech through coding education and more. We partner with schools and organizations to offer a range of programs, both in-person and virtual, for ages 7-25.
Episode Sponsor
Zscaler is a Cloud Security company based out of San Jose California.
In this episode I talk with Matt Berzinski about the important of understanding that identity is a journey not a destination. Matt is the Senior Director of Product Management for Ping Identity and has extensive knowledge about identity.
Talking Points:
- Realtime Fraud/Risk
- Orchestration
- Organizations (The importance of offload work that you don't need to do it)
- Single Sign On
- Multi Factor
- Identity Verification (Francis talked about a local automotive company referencing mobile apps for a car)
- Robot or Vehicle Identity is a relationship not a dependency (Matt has a great Rosie the Robot from The Jetsons reference)
- Why is Obfuscation still important?
Episode Charity:
Proceeds from this episode's sponsorship will be going towards the Baker-Bonsai Friendship Fund. Bruce Baker was a great bonsai tree artist and along with Deal Bull, helped make the art of bonsai be something wonderful that can be shared for future generations at the Frederik Meijer Gardens.
Episode Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by Ping Identity. Ping is an identity solutions provider based out of the great state of Colorado in the awesome town that is Denver.
In this special end of summer episode, I sat down with Tyler Adams to talk about being in the trenches during the recent Crowdstrike incident and other interesting stories from the crazy summer. Tyler is an Information Security Analyst for Corewell Health. He works on the Security Business Engagement Team.
Talking Points:
- What was it like being in the trenches during the Crowdstrike incident
- How having a Business Continuity Plan comes in play
- What was the most surprising about the incident?
- What challenges are stemming from what the business is working on?
- Getting the business to understand the value of Multi-Factor Authentication
- Data 'Cleanliness' is becoming more important
In this episode I had a chance to have a candid conversation with Charles Henderson. Charles is a global managing partner at IBM and also happens to be the head of the X-Force team. IBM recently released the X-Force Threat Intelligence Index report for 2024.
While the report is delves into many different areas of Threat Intelligence, we concentrated on several key areas focused primarily on artificial intelligence:
- Pronounced increase in Identity attacks
- Understanding how more 'business-like' malicious actors are becoming
- Upcoming universal AI attack surface
- How much do you think this will get wors? For example, I reached out to a couple of CISOs from some prominent local companies and one of their worries was and I quote, "Longer term I think we will have to worry about attackers trying to attack and leverage AI technologies that are being utilized by organizations."
- 50% is the expected market share threshold likely to trigger attacks against AI platforms.
- Evolution of malware delivery mechanisms. AI's part in Business Email Compromise. Another area of concern when I polled my CISO contacts was AI's ability to, and I quote again, "Easier to perfect grammar and templates for phishing and other social engineering attempts.". How do you think companies like IBM can start helping people combat these types of attacks?)
- Thoughts on OpenAI's Sora and its potential impact on security
Episode Charity:
The Corewell Health's involvement in the Blue Envelope Suicide Prevention Program. The School Blue Envelope Suicide Prevention Program trains middle and high school faculty and staff so that every school employee—from teachers to coaches and bus drivers—would know how to respond to a student who may express thoughts of suicide. The “Blue Envelope” protocol for crisis management was developed internally to quickly activate patient safety responses by communicating the code words "Blue Envelope."
Every person within a physician’s office became proficient in how to respond at a moment’s notice to a patient who may have thoughts of suicide. Through previous grant and foundation dollars, this program has been able to successfully train over 8,500 middle, high, and elementary school personnel across 156 schools within 53 different school districts. This training has resulted in over 2,000 interventions for students in crisis.
Episode Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by IBM, who recently celebrated their 100th birthday! IBM is a computer solution company based out of Armonk, New York.
In this episode I had a chance to sit down in person with the always insightful and never dull cybersecurity leader, Jim Kuiphof. Jim is the Deputy Chief Information Security Officer at Corewell Health. The topic for this casual conversation is Understanding Your Personal Risk Tolerance. More specifically, it speaks to understanding the different between your own risk tolerance and the business's risk tolerance.
Jim has talked on this recently at events like Cloud Con and the Digital Services Summit. His ideas for understanding how to balance personal and business has been a HUGE thing in my professional career.
Talking Points:
- What is Risk?
- What is Tolerance?
- Understanding the difference between Personal Risk and Business Risk
- Why is it so important to understanding alignment?
- Diagnosing the Dissonance
- What do you do about it?
- What does taking ownership look like?
- Maintaining risk tolerance alignment
This talk is not only useful for people in the cybersecurity industry, but across all of information technology. It does matter what level you are at, this information can help you!
In this episode I had a chance to speak with Bryan 'Woody' Woodworth around simplifying and securing multi-cloud networking. Bryan is the Director of Solution Strategy for Aviatrix. As we are a few weeks into 2024 and the importance of understanding and utilizing multi-cloud strategies is becoming more and more apparent.
Talking Points:
- What are the current trends in the industry pertaining to multi-cloud?
- Skills Gaps - More pronounced in Multi-Clouds, FinTech and Banking industries will 'mandate' what environments you use.
- What are the areas where skill gaps can be addressed
- Secure Cloud Networking Field Report Sneak Peak
- What kind of tools can you give them and creative ideas that you can use them
- Automation is hot but do you know how to prioritize what you automate?
- The glory days of cloud are over and how do you 'save your pennies' and still move towards a solid FinOps model
- Constant state of attack that the cloud is under (How can you protect yourself going forward)
Episode Charity:
Proceeds from this episode will be going towards the children's mental health program at Corewell Health Foundation.
Episode Sponsor:
Aviatrix is a Secure Cloud Networking company based out of Santa Clara California.
In this special episode we celebrate the 4th annual holiday fundraiser podcast. It is already a blessing to raise money for great causes all while raising security awareness for small and medium sized businesses. The topic for this episode is one that is super relevant for this day and age of Digital Transformation. However, in keeping with the format of #RealTalk, we are going to explore some 'real world' use cases for using Artificial Intelligence in Security in 2024.
The have two special guests and one awesome co-host for this episode. Kassandra Murphy is a Senior Consulting Solutions Engineer for Splunk. My other guest is Sanjay Kalra who is in Product Management for ZScaler.
My co-host for this episode is none other than Jim Kuiphof, who happens to be the Deputy Chief Information Security Officer at Corewell Health!
Talking Points:
- Touched on phases of the kill chain/attack lifecycle and how AI comes into play, WHY it's expanding the attack surface within each phase (i.e., system enumeration can be done at such a larger speed and scale)
- How will AI change how companies will be adhering to the new Security and Exchange Commission's policy for reporting security breaches
- Researching AI from a defensive Point of View
- How do you keep up with the business's speed of moving forward with AI while trying to protect it
Episode Sponsors:
Splunk - Splunk is a security observability solutions provider based out of San Francisco California.
Zscaler - ZScaler is a security solution provider based out of San Jose California.
Episode Charities:
North Kent Connect - North Kent Connect is a Christian organization committed to improving the lives of all people in northern Kent County by providing access to basic needs and promoting economic independence.
Toys for Tots West Michigan - The mission of the U. S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program is to collect new, unwrapped toys during October, November and December each year, and distribute those toys as Christmas gifts to less fortunate children in the community in which the campaign is conducted.
Reference Links:
If you are interested in the SURGe blog that Kassie talked about in the episode, you can find it Here.
Have you ever wondered what it takes to get into the information security field? Have you thought how hard could it be? What about all of the big money I hear people make in this space? Well in this episode I talk with Mattalynn Darden and Esther Muchai about how hard it really is to break in.
If you are wondering how these two talented young women know, here is a little background on what they are currently doing and why it is relevant to the this episode's topic.
Mattalynn is an Information Security Intern at Lear Corporation and Esther is pursuing your Master's Degree in Cybersecurity at Grand Valley State University. Both of them share some of the struggles that they are currently having and I give some advice on how to possibly overcome them.
So, if you are thinking of entering the crazy, foggy world that is Information Security, then this episode is for you!
Talking Points:
- What made you want to get into the cybersecurity field?
- What are some of the main challenges that you are facing right now?
- Did either of you go the 'paid' learning route (e.g. college or training classes)?
- What are some free training/tools you have found useful?
Disclaimer Thoughts and opinion in this episode are solely myself or my guests and not necessarily reflective of our employers.
In this episode I had a chance to sit down with Matt Nelson and do the podcast from a very cool location. Matt is a Senior Security Architect for Guidepoint Security. The topic of our rant was centered around all of the things 'wrong' with cybersecurity sales and why it hurts everyone.
Talking Points Include:
- Ineffective Bad Behavior - You are doing you and your company a disservice
- Improper In-person Event Etiquette
- Do Social Engineering for Good!
- What you as a Customer can do to help set expectations
- The importance of building relationships
Special shout outs to Maril Vernon, Michelle Beracy and Anthony Coggins!
In this episode I talk with Lloyd 'Lucky' Guyot and Alex O'Meera about The Center for Internet Security's Critical Security Controls. Lloyd is a Security Advisor for Optiv and President of the Grand Rapids ISSA Chapter. Alex is a Security Analyst for Stack Overflow and Secretary of the Grand Rapids ISSA Chapter.
Talking Points:
- How can the CIS 18 help an SMB build your security program?
- How can the CIS 18 help mature a security program?
- Which controls should a company start with?
- And many more!
Episode Sponsor:
Grand Rapids ISSA Chapter (with special thanks to Optiv). The GR-ISSA is the local chapter of the Information Systems Security Association.
Episode Charity:
The charity for the month of November is the Corewell Health Foundation. More specifically, the money will be going to assist children with various mental health challenges.
In this episode I had a chance to speak with Chris Jordan and Al Wissigner about where a small and medium sized business (SMB) should start their security journey. This is especially important in this day and age of the ever expanding cloud infrastructure and Software as a Service (SaaS) models. Both of these fine gentlemen work for Fluency and have a TON of experience working SMBs.
Talking Points:
- The idea of bridging the gap between what they want to do and what they can afford to do?
- Why is it so important for an SMB to understand how to properly do cross-platform?
- Security companies are generally not targeting SMBs
- Why is BEC one of the most important things to do understand?
- How can a SMB use automation to help offset the lack of a large security team?
Episode Charity:
October's selected charity is called the Both Hands. Both Hands is an organization that helps local widows with chores/projects that are hard to do on their own, all while raising money for a family to adopt a child.
Episode Sponsor:
This episode was sponsored by Fluency. Fluency is a modern security operations platform that can handle today's agile environments. They are based out of Rockville, Maryland.
Despite the recent push by some old school (re: outdated) leaders to force employees to return the office, remote work is here to stay. While we all talk about the importance of making remote work secure, there isn't much talk about how the experience for the end-users. Fortunately, there are some companies out there that are understanding the need to balance security, business and end user needs.
In this episode I talk with Melinda Ann O'Neill about Digital Employee Experience (DEX). Melinda Ann is a Director of Strategic Accounts for Tanium. We covered several key areas of both business success and information security success.
Talking Points:
- Why is ensuring a remote employees' experience is critical to a company's success?
- What are some of the main challenges businesses are having when it comes to DEX?
- What are some ways that a multi-faceted solution can balance both security and business concerns?
Episode Charity:
October's selected charity is called the Both Hands. Both Hands is an organization that helps local widows with chores/projects that are hard to do on their own, all while raising money for a family to adopt a child.
Episode Sponsor:
This episode was sponsored by Tanium. Tanium is a End Point Solutions company based out of the West Coast state of Washington.
In this episode I head out to The Unicorn Tavern in Grand Haven, Michigan to talk Network Segmentation with Steve Barnes and Tyler Adams. Steve is an Enterprise Security Architect for Fortinet and Tyler is a Information Security Analyst for Corewell Health.
Talking Points:
- How has Network Segmentation changed in 2023?
- Who is responsible? Is that team being supported enough?
- How are you compartmentalizing things?
- Should you separate your IT and your OT?
- Does network segmentation make it easier to start a deception campaign?
- How can you get business buy it to make this happen?
Episode Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by Fortinet. Fortinet is a Network Security Solutions company based out of Sunnyvale California.
Episode Charity:Part of the sponsorship fees from this episode will be going to the Alex's Saints charity. Alex's Saints Foundation works to provide life-changing emotional and financial assistance to young adults who struggle with substance use disorder, while empowering long-term recovery.
A few years ago, the topic for the 3rd episode for the #RealTalk with Aaron Bregg podcast about Diversity
And Inclusion in the Cybersecurity Industry. To this date it is one of the most downloaded episodes. Since that episode was publish a LOT has changed in the world. I felt that it was time to revisit the topic but with a little bit of a twist. The need for a twist comes from the fact that DEI in cybersecurity still where it needs to be.
As luck would have it I had met Angela Hill a few years back when Matt Nelson and I were looking to have her as a keynote speaker. While due to scheduling issues it didn't work out, it did lead to this moment.
Join me as I have a #RealTalk conversation about 'Rethinking DEI' and more specifically focusing on Latinas in Cybersecurity. Angela Hill from Palo Alto Networks, Samantha Bolet. from TikTok, Vanessa Morales. from NBC Universal who are some of the co-founders of Latinas In Cyber challenge me and themselves into taking a different approach to solving this problem.
Talking Points:
- What kind of restrictions do you run into? E.g. Cultural roadblocks, etc.
- What issues do you run into when it comes to showcasing your 'real world' experience?
- The importance of having a security 'brand' - Vanessa
- How do we need to change our approach to DEI?
- The importance of DEI in academia and starting to embrace creativity - Sam
A HUGE thanks to SevCo, Cadre and NetSPI today the podcast donated $500 to support Latinas in Cyber!
In this episode I had a chance to dive into a topic that is ripped straight from my day job. Multi Cloud Compliance. My guest for this episode is Mike Roman. Mike is a Senior Security Sales Engineer for Orca Security, which happens to be the company that just won the 'Best Swag' award at Cloud Con last week!
In all seriousness though, more and more companies are having to rely on multi-cloud environments in order to keep the lights on. You may be a Amazon AWS shop but you may use Snowflake for data analytics and something else for your ERP solution.
Getting compliant across the different environments not only means business success but may keep you from avoiding fines from regulators.
Talking Points:
- What is an overly permission role in a multi-cloud environment?
- Is it really over permissive or is it really right for the job?
- What is the 'real' world example for the principle of least privilege for multi-cloud?
- Stitching the flow from misconfigs back to identity
- Taking a lot more inputs from many different spots including Behavioral Analytics information
Episode Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by Orca Security. Orca is a cloud security solution and is based out of Portland, Tel-Aviv and London.
Episode Charity:
Part of the sponsorship fees from this episode will be going to the Alex's Saints charity. Alex's Saints Foundation works to provide life-changing emotional and financial assistance to young adults who struggle with substance use disorder, while empowering long-term recovery.
In this episode I break from the norm a little bit in order to delve into the minds of security leadership. These insights come from a recent Grand Valley State University Cybersecurity Masters Graduate, Isaac Beasley.
As part Isaac's Master's project, he interviewed 10 different cybersecurity leaders in the West Michigan area about a variety of different topics. For the sake of time, I concentrated on talking to the following key data points:
Hiring, Retention, & Advancement
- 80% reported not fully cyber staffed
- 60% struggle with team burnout
- 70% see diversity as a top challenge when building out a team
- GRC, Security Architects and Cloud Security where the most in demand roles
To help me with the intricacies of this episode is a security leader that participated in the interviews but also is very familiar with them, Jim Kuiphof, Deputy Chief Information Security Officer of Corewell Health.
While PenTesting (i.e. hacking) may be the most visible part of Information Security, it is sometimes can lead to a false sense of security. In this episode I had a chance to talk with Nabil Hannan about rethinking your penetration testing strategy and moving towards Attack Surface Management. Nabil is the Field Chief Information Security Officer for NetSPI and has a ton of useful information to share about starting this journey.
Talking points include:
- What are the biggest misconceptions with PenTesting?
- The problem with buying security 'things'
- Understanding your Attack Surface using Breach and Attack Simulations
- Targeting your ransomware readiness
Episode Sponsor:
NetSPI is a penetration testing company based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Episode Charity:
This episode's charity is Latinas in Cyber. LAIC is focused on continuing to break barriers and open paths for those who chose to pursue careers in cybersecurity. Our mission is to empower through mentorship, networking, support, and representation.
Earlier this year Cloud Security Alliance covered the big debate around should you buy or build for your Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management (CAASM) solution. As luck would have it, Ken Liao recently reached out to me regarding the new company that he works for who handles this very topic.
In this episode I had a chance to talk with Sevco Security's Chief Strategy Officer, Brian Cantos, on this very topic. The timeliness is very apt, as Gartner recently named CAASM as an emerging technology that enables security teams to solve persistent asset visibility and vulnerability changes.
Talking Points:
- What is Asset Intelligence?
- How has it evolved
- Various Use Cases
- Where it’s heading (Security, IT Ops, Risk Management)
- Is 4D Intelligence is more than just marketing fluff
Episode Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by Sevco Security. Sevco Security is a CAASM security vendor based out of Austin Texas.
Episode Charity:
This episode's charity is Latinas in Cyber. LAIC is focused on continuing to break barriers and open paths for those who chose to pursue careers in cybersecurity. Our mission is to empower through mentorship, networking, support, and representation.
I know some of you are thinking, "Ugh another podcast on artificial intelligence!", to which I say, "Nope". Originally this was supposed to be a two-part series with the first episode focusing on high level AI talk. The second episode that drills down into how to actually come up with AI/ML policies and standards.
However, like all things related to the podcast, we are going to mix it up a little. In this episode I have a non-security co-host, Brian Carlson and a security guest, Tim O'Connor. Brian is one of the Lead Data Analysts for Corewell Health and Tim is Manager of Knowledge Services for Cadre Information Security.
The premise of the episode is around the talking point of 'What AI is and What it is Not'. Brian brings the insight from working with AI/ML for a major healthcare system and Tim brings some insight on some of the confusion and questions he is getting from his clients.
Episode Sponsor:
Cadre Information Security is a WBE certified network and information security solutions provider that serves large and medium sized firms. They are based out of Cincinnati Ohio.
Episode Charity:
This episode's charity is Latinas in Cyber. LAIC is focused on continuing to break barriers and open paths for those who chose to pursue careers in cybersecurity. Our mission is to empower through mentorship, networking, support, and representation.
In this episode I go outside of the topics and talk about one that I think is definitely underrated, Protecting Your Executives. I sometime forget how lucky my healthcare organization is very forward thinking when it comes to security. However, not all companies have the luxury of having a full team to protect VIPs.
I had a chance to have an in-depth conversation with Daniel Floyd around this very subject. Daniel is the Chief Information Security Officer for BLACKCLOAK. BLACKCLOAK was one of the first companies to focus on Digital Executive Protection. Daniel shares some interesting stories about the crazy things that happen when protecting VIPs.
Talking Points:
- Why is it is important to protect executives outside of the corporate wall (CISO working on a Sunday example)
- When you need someone to 'Black Ops' outside of your org?
- Why are some Execs in denial about their being 'attackable'?
- What about new types of attacks like AI generated sound clips?
Episode Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by BLACKCLOAK. BLACKCLOAK is a Digital Executive Protection for executives, high-profile, high-net-worth & ultra-high-net-worth individuals & families. They are based out of Orlando Florida.
Episode Charity:
Proceeds from this sponsorship will be going to the Mecosta-Osceola Career Center's rural outreach program to try and talk with elementary and middle school girls to consider a career in STEM.
In a recent episode Matt Nelson from Guidepoint was talking about how he is seeing a trend with medium-sized companies moving away from the idea of building out or building up a security team. There were several reasons including budget constraints and an experienced talent shortage. So I reached out to Bill Bernard about having a deeper discussion on how revisiting the topic of using a #managedsecurityoperations company.
Talking Points:
- What is Managed Detection and Response?
- Because of budget and resource constraints, more companies are starting to move away from the idea of building up their internal solution. What are you (the guests) seeing lately?
- Digital Transformation seems to be moving out from it's 1st phase since Covid and becoming more mature. Because of this more and more companies are moving to 3rd party SaaS solutions for things that were traditionally done 'In House'. Why is it so important to revisit how you handle #SIEM and #SOAR APIs when it comes to a managed #SOC?
Episode Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by Deepwatch. Deepwatch is a Managed Security Operation solution based out of Denver, Colorado. The charity topic for this episode is helping a Rural Northern Michigan career center recruit more young girls into IT/Cybersecurity.
In this episode I had a chance to talk with Todd Brockdorf and Chris Lawrence about Zero Trust. Todd is a Senior Sales Engineer and Chris is a Customer Success Engineer. Nowadays it is hard to sift through all of the security vendor marketing chaff to get #RealTalk about Zero Trust.
Talking Points:
- What is the biggest misconception around Zero Trust that is happening right now?
- What about thinking of the cloud as a segmented network?
- How are upcoming government regulations, how do company’s balance with regulations and end user experience?
- How does ChatGPT and other emerging AI/ML technologies play into a Zero Trust mindset?
Episode Sponsor:
This episode was sponsored by Zscaler. Zscaler is a security solution provider based out of San Jose California. Proceeds from this episode will be going toward supporting families of children with autism in Michigan via the Autism Alliance of Michigan.
Disclaimer While there was no physical harming of bad security vendors in this episode, there is a lot of honest #RealTalk. Opinions in this episode are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my leadership or my employer. Additionally, this episode is not sponsored and therefore is not influenced by outside sources.
In this episode I finally had some time to go over to the 'Fresh' Coast of West Michigan and sit down with Matt Nelson to talk about the current state of the cybersecurity industry. Matt is a Senior Solutions Architect for GuidePoint Security and brings a plethora of both useful and useless security knowledge to the conversation!
We kept the conversation focused on several different key areas of information security:
- How NOT to work with a business if you are a security vendor
- How are companies dealing with the rising cost of cybersecurity
- Giving some #RealTalk advice to people looking to break into the information security industry
While this episode went a little bit longer that I would like, it contains a TON of useful advice for not only employees and leaders, but security vendors as well.
In this episode I had a chance to talk with Derek Smith about the importance of securing your hybrid cloud environments. Derek is the Director of Cloud Strategic Alliances and Brand for Trace3. We took the time to break down several different issues that are happening right now across multiple industries.
Talking Points:
- How do you build a solution agnostic environment?
- How can we learn from the recent issues with Southwest to help going forward?
- How do you marry up your resiliency goals with your security goals?
- Breaking down the Broadcom takeover of VMWare and what it means to your environments
Episode Sponsor:
Trace3 is a technology solutions provider based out of Irvine California with offices in Grand Rapids Michigan and other regional locations. Proceeds from the sponsorship will be going towards helping the Mecosta-Osceola Career Center reach and attract more young girls to the IT and Security program.
In the episode I had a chance to talk to not one, not two but THREE talented gents about the future of medical and IoT device security. Nathanael Dick, Russ Ramsay and Dan Rittersdorf all work for a great, and local, embedded systems engineering company called DornerWorks.
I was fortunate enough to do the podcast prep meeting in person and was able to tour their very cool West Michigan offices. Obviously, medical device security is very important to me considering I work in healthcare. However, we touched on the following other relevant IoT security topics:
- A brief overview of what is the current state of IoT security
- What are some common misconceptions about medical IoT security (e.g. IV Pump hacking)
- What happens when an embedded device is at end-of-life (e.g. when patching isn't an option. Use PACS as an example)
- How is FDA compliance going to affect embedded control manufacturers like Dorner Works?
- What does the near future look like? (Securing Distributed AI)
At the end of the episode we were visited by a very talented co-worker, Taylor E. Taylor was gracious enough to talk to the importance of being an ally to black woman and supporting charities like Black Girls Who Code.
Episode Sponsor:
Huge thanks to DornerWorks for sponsoring this episode. DornerWorks is a Embedded Systems Engineering company based in West Michigan.
In this episode I get a chance to talk with Liav Caspi about rethinking how you do your Secure Software Development Lifecycle. Liav is one of the co-founders of Legit Security and got his start in the Israel Intelligence (Unit 800) scene many years ago. He and his other co-founders worked for a well known Static Application Security Testing (SAST) company I know very well. They then branched off a few years back to form what is now called Legit Security.
Talking Points
- Why your current Secure Software Development Lifecycle process needs to change
- What is Secure Software Development Management?
- What about Securing Infrastructure as Code?
- Application Security Management is more than just looking at Open Source libraries a development team uses (looking at your entire development ecosystem)
- What do you need to do to get to a 'Golden Pipeline'?
Additionally, I asked him his thoughts about a recent conversation that Jim Kuiphof and I had on the topic and how it needs to move into more of a Secure Software Development Management (SSDM) strategy.
Episode Sponsor:
This episode was sponsored by Legit Security. Legit Security is a Secure Software Development Lifecycle solution based out of Israel. Proceeds from this sponsorship will be going toward our last planned donation to the Autism Support of Kent County Michigan.
In this episode I not only have a great guest but have a great co-host as well. I had a chance to talk with Kassandra Murphy and Rich Worth about advancing your Security Information and Event Manager. Kassie talks to the importance of standardizing your data sets to increase your searchability (e.g. especially useful when sending data to your managed security operations partner). Rich will be talking to 'real world' use cases and the importance of alert aggregating and risk based alerts. Kassandra is a Senior Consulting Solutions Engineer at Splunk. Rich is the Lead Security Operation Center Analyst for Corewell Health.
Talking Points:
- Data hygiene is the 1st step
- Normalizing data as it applies to data security and being able to better search across your entire data set
- Technical challenges like alert fatigue
- Tech is advancing but still a view of security as a check the box or an after though
- All data is security data!
- There are easier to way to align your data flows to things like the MITRE or NIST
- 6 phase of logging maturity:
- Collecting
- Maturing
- Enriching (collation of the end point data threat landscape)
- Expanding
- Automation (what are repeatable processes that can be moved to save money and time)
- Advance Detection (via machine learning)
Episode Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by Splunk. Splunk is a security observability solutions provider based out of San Francisco California.
Proceeds from this episode will be going to different Autism charities - Autism Alliance of Michigan and Autism Support of Kent County
In this episode I get to talk with Daniel Post about data classification and data governance. Dan is a Senior Sales Engineer for Varonis. He has been in the industry for a while and has knowledge that we break down into 'bite sized' chunks to make it easier for your staff to consume.
Talking Points:
- Where does a company first start their Data Classification and Governance journey?
- What are some of the challenges that a company can expect when it comes to data classification?
- What are you seeing in the field right now that makes it hard for companies in their data governance program?
- Now that data lives in the 'Hybrid' world, how does data governance work when you have data on network drives like Isilon and cloud drives like Microsoft or Box?
- Does it integrate with a CMDB/ticketing system like Service Now or Service Desk, so your GRC team can take 'action' on it?
Podcast Sponsor:
The sponsor for this episode is Varonis. Varonis is a cybersecurity solutions company that is very mature in the Data Classification and Governance space. They are based out of good ole' New York City!
Proceeds from this sponsorship will be going to the Autism Support of Kent County Michigan. Pam and her team help parents with finding support idea/solutions for their children with Autism.
More information here - https://www.autismsupportofkentcounty.org/
In this episode I had a chance to talk to Lisa Jones-Huff about the importance of data visualization and how it can help both security AND the business. Lisa is the Senior Director of Global Security Specialists for Elastic.
Talking Points:
Some basic steps for understanding how to interpret your data:
- What is the very first thing you should do on your data visualization journey?
- What type of data do you have?
- What is the value of that data?
- What types of use cases provide the most 'Combined Value'?
- How can Graph can help tell the story in a detail that a 'regular' person can understand?
Episode Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by Elastic. Elastic is a multi-faceted business and security solutions company based out of Mountain View California. Part of the sponsor ship fee will be going to raise money for the Autism Alliance of Michigan.
In this the 3rd annual holiday fundraiser podcast episode, I talk with Kam Amir and Brenden Morgenthaler about what enterprise logging will look like in 2023. Kam is the Director of Technical Alliances for Cribl. Brenden is an Enterprise Architect for CDW.
Talking Points:
Kam has developed a formula for getting the most value from your setup using the three 'Vs':
- Variety
- Value
- Velocity
This allows for you to get more freedom to get valuable data into your platform.
Brenden talks to real life uses cases like:
- Grouping Meta Data for things like charge back,
- How do you setup threshold rules to help with crashing clusters
- Auditing Kerberos events issue
Podcast Sponsors:
This holiday event raised funds for 3 great causes:
- Toys for Tots
- STEM Greenhouse
- Grand Rapids Community College Girls STEM Scholarship
Many thanks to Cribl, CDW and Custom Business Solutions for helping us raise over $1,000 for charity!
In this episode I have a 1 on 1 conversation with the one and only Brian 'Schneebs' Schneble about Advanced Email Security. Brian is a Senior Enterprise Account Executive for Abnormal Security. Brian is not only an active member of the Michigan cybersecurity community but he has extensive knowledge of the automotive industry.
Talking Points:
In a break from the traditional talking points, for this episode we break down a real world use case where a company was hit by a very creative 'double whammy'. Both a compromised email account and a look-a-like domain were used in this attack.
Brian and I walk through what happened, how it could happen and how you can do things to avoid this in your company.
- Compromised Email Accounts
- How Malicious Actors 'Learn' Your Workflows
- Look Alike Domains
- Defensive Domains
- DMARC
This was a highly informative episode and don't mind the state of security talk about the beginning. Listen/View the whole episode, as it will definitely be worth spending your time on!
Podcast Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by Abnormal Security. Abnormal Security is an Email Security Solutions provider that is known for using Machine Learning to detect non-traditional email attacks. Parts of the proceeds from this sponsorship will be going towards a 2023 InfoSec scholarship at my alma matter Grand Rapids Community College.
In this episode I sit down with Paul McManus about all things Privacy. Paul is a Senior Information Governance Analyst for Corewell Health Corporate. I have had the distinct pleasure of working with Paul on several different privacy related engagements over the years.
Talking Points:
- What are some of the challenge you are seeing in privacy space right now?
- Integration
- Who watches the watcher?
- As more and more things are outsourced, how do you this with digital assets?
- Do people realize that data that may not be considered 'confidential' now may considered something different in a year or two?
- How are privacy laws changing?
- How is the GDPR different than the US laws?
- Are what point do we 'globalized' healthcare privacy
- Ownership vs Rights
- What are re-selling of de-identified data?
- What about privacy with wearables and driving trackers?
We even had the pleasure of having a quick appearance from a special 'In-House' guest that knows a thing or two about Research Privacy, resident System Architect, Heather Bregg.
In this special episode I had the honor of MC'ing a Security Awareness Month online panel for Cadre Information Security and the topic was Human Factors in Cybersecurity. The panelists were Phil Swaim, Mike Davenport, Tim O'Connor and Mike Peterson. We not only had great discussions on how to build your Security Awareness Program but actions steps you can take right now to create 'Security Champions' in your organization.
Talking Points:
- So how is a Security Awareness Program different from Security Awareness Training?
- Why would an organization want a Security Awareness Program?
- Do only larger organizations typically have Security Awareness Programs?
- Why should Social Media exploits be covered in your program and ultimately your training?
- What are some of the pitfalls organizations should try to avoid when implementing Security Awareness Programs and training?
In this episode I talk with Rob Walk about looking at vulnerability management differently. As recently as last week I have seen a shift is how people are thinking about the topic. Some range from the talk of how it needs to fit in with business needs all of the way to 'CVSS is Dead!'. Rob is a Senior Engineer from Tenable and shares from valuable insight on how thinking differently can be accomplished heading into 2023.
Talking Points:
- What do you fix when there are some many vulnerabilities?
- What are the downsides to prioritizing on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System?
- What is Risk Based Vulnerability Management?
- What is the term Exposure Management that I keep hearing about?
Episode Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by Tenable and proceeds will be going towards a girls S.T.E.M scholarship in 2023. Tenable is an Exposure Management company that is based out of Columbia, Maryland. Tenable can help you gain comprehensive visibility into your attack surface so you can stay one step ahead of attackers.
In this episode I talk with Rob Bowker about securing your email using DMARC. Rob is the Sales Director for EasyDMARC. Besides the high level explanation of what DMARC is, we delve deeper into the following topics.
Talking Points:
- Why is there slow global adoption of DMARC?
- Are cyber insurance companies interested in a customer is using DMARC?
- Why your marketing team should care if you use DMARC?
- What is the value of aggregating sender reports?
- What does the future look like?
I am very excited to share that parts of money raised from this episode will be going to a 2023 scholarship for a girl's STEM program recipient. #RTWAB is working closely with the fine folks at The Right Place to increase the Tech Talent here in West Michigan.
In this special Pre-Cloud Con episode we mix things up a little. Rather than joining me as a co-host, the Cloud Security Alliance of West Michigan's own Anthony Coggins, sits on the other side of the mic. He along with the ever knowledgeable Tim O'Connor, discuss the current state of cybersecurity insurance in 2022.
Anthony is the Senior Manager of the Security Operations Team at Grand Rapid's own rocket ship insurance company, Acrisure. Tim is the Manager of Knowledge Services at Cadre Information Security.
Talking Points:
- What does the industry look like today and why does it look that way?
- What do you need to know when you are filling out the forms?
- Do customers truly understand the questions being asked
- Is the form an indicator of the maturity of the insurance carrier? (Tim talks about the differences in the 20+ insurance forms he has on his desk)
- Did you know you can carry supplemental insurance like Home and Auto insurance? (Anthony talks about Ransomware Supplemental Form)
- Is it true insurance carriers lower rates if you have 'X' cybersecurity solution in your ecosystem?
Episode Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by Cadre Information Security. Cadre is a trust security partner based out of Cincinnati, Ohio and has been a long time supporter of the podcast. As always, parts of the sponsorship fee goes to Michigan charities.
In this episode I get a chance to talk to Kevin Peterson about Network Observability in a Hybrid Cloud World. Kevin is great information security evangelist who works for Arista. One of the many challenges that I face in the healthcare industry is handling devices that live On-Prem and send data to multiple cloud environments.
Kevin and I talk about some very common use cases and the challenges that come along with it. We also tag about how to handle segmentation across multiple domains. So if you can relate to having to secure data that transverses to many cloud environments, this episode is for you!
Podcast Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by Arista and proceeds will be going toward youth autism programs here in Michigan. Arista Networks is an industry leader in data-driven, client to cloud networking for large data center, campus and routing environments. Arista has recently made a big push into the information security space using their vast experience with networks. Arista is based out of Santa Clara California.
In this special episode I speak with Peter HJ van Eijk about the CCSK and CCAK cloud security certifications from the Cloud Security Alliance. Peter is the owner of Club Cloud Computing and an authorized CCSK and CCAK trainer.
I have personally taken his training course and thought it was one of the best ones out there. He also offers free refresher courses and online focus sessions. If you want to learn more about CSA certifications, then definitely listen in!
In this episode I had the pleasure of talking with Jonathan Jesse about medical device security. Jonathan is a Senior Systems Engineer for Forescout. In fact, he has been working for the same information security company for over 6 years! That is pretty unheard of nowadays in the security vendor space.
What prompted this interesting discussion you say? Well Forescout recently acquired CyberMDX. They are company that specializes in medical device security protection. Since I have to work protecting medical devices sometimes as part of my 'real job'. I have several different business use cases to discuss. Including one around a urinalysis device. Intrigued yet?
Talking Points:
- Brief overview of why Forescout acquired CyberMDX
- What is Device Centric Risk Management?
- How to 'fingerprint' different medical devices that may be from the same manufacturer?
- Compliance and Governance - Are medical manufacturers still using FDA regulations as an excuse not to patch
- What are some good preventative measures?
Episode Sponsor:
I want to thank Forescout for sponsoring this episode. They are a network security solutions vendor based out of San Jose California. Part of the proceeds from this sponsorship will be going towards Youth Mental Health programs here in Michigan!
In this episode I talk with Richard Melick about mobile security. Richard is the Director of Threat Reporting for Zimperium, so he knows a thing or two about what is happening out in the mobile world right now.
We definitely took a deeper look at the current state of mobile security and the talking points cover a bunch of key areas.
Talking Points:
- What is more important and more secure to have, your wallet or your phone?
- Mobile threats can happen when you least expect it or in the last place you may suspect, subways anyone?
- There is no more 'consumer' grade mobile security
- A closer look at the global mobile threat report
Zimperium's Global Mobile Threat Report:
https://www.zimperium.com/global-mobile-threat-report/
In this episode I had a chance to talk with Rebecca Harvey about Cloud Identity. Rebecca does regional sales for SailPoint and she is also a co-founder of the Women's Security Alliance (WomSA).
Her and I talked about why companies are still getting Cloud Identity wrong. We also did a deeper dive into cutting edge items like Robot Identity and Robotic Process Automation.
Episode Sponsor:
This episode was sponsored by SailPoint. SailPoint is an Identity Security Solutions Provider that is based out of great city of Austin, Texas. Proceeds from this sponsorship will be going to Spectrum Health Foundation's Youth Mental Health program.
Reference Links:
NIST Guidelines: https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-3
IDSA: https://www.idsalliance.org/identity-defined-security-framework/best-practices/ Forum link to discussion around MFA for RPA: https://forum.uipath.com/t/robot-guidance-for-handling-multi-factor-authentication/345476
In this episode I had a chance to talk with Brian Philips about 5G security. Brian is the Chief Solutions Architect for NetScout. We had a chance to dive into various parts of 5G and what does it mean for the future of the 'Mobile Office'. We also talked about future use cases that are not as far as away as you think.
- How is 5G going to impact security?
- 5G Internet to home isn't 'private' yet
- Cellular security is wider than it needs to be right now
- How companies like Amazon could utilize 5G for both a private network and a 'near me' cloud service
Episode Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by NetScout. NetScout is a Security and Communication Service Provider based out of Westford, Massachusetts. Proceeds from this sponsorship will be going towards a youth mental health progream here in West Michigan.
In this episode I had a chance to talk with Brian Schneble, Claudio Catti and Chuck Chessor about mobile security and rethinking 'trust' in the new Digital Transformation age. This was a more detailed discussion from the holiday fundraiser episode and has some great real world examples.
Talking Points:
- As WFH becomes permanent, do we need to rethink 'trust' in the digital transformation age?
- How many companies are well verse in SASE philosophy?
- General Motors CEO asked her employees to turn off their VPN. What are the ramifications of that precedence?
- The rise of SaaS apps being delivering malware is Google Apps.
- Do we need to stop saying 'zero trust'?
In this first episode of 2022 I am reaching into my distance security past and invited a former colleague, Mike Ahrendt, to join Natasha Young and myself to take a close look at digital forensics.
Mike has worn many security hats, including recent leadership roles, but his heart lies in the SOC. Mike shares some insightful stories and answers from tough questions from Natasha!
Talking Points:
- What is the difference between Public Sector vs Private Sector?
- How come some companies don't prioritize digital forensics investigations?
- Why can't forensics data be subjective (hint: legal reasons and hack journalism)?
- Why can more incidents be public (hint: brand damage)?
- Should there be more government regulations in this area?
- What is the problem with the current Threat Intel pipeline?
Reference Links:
To learn more about the FBI's Infragard initiative visit their website here.
Episode Disclaimer:
The views and opinions in this episode are my own and not a reflection of my employer or my awesome leaders. If you want the official stance of my employer on the incident from 2016 then use DuckDuckGo and research the issue from 2016. Stay safe and stay informed!!
In this brief end of the year episode I talk about a recent phishing attack on a 3rd party vendor that was compromised via email in a very unique way. I reveal how it happened and why defense in depth in so important.
Talking Points:
- What is a lookalike domain?
- The importance of having a defensive domain strategy
- How bad guys used an operating system and email applications default behavior against the user
In this episode I had a chance to talk with Israel Barak about a listener submitting topic, 'How do I prepare for a ransomware attack?'. Israel is the CISO for Cybereason and has intricate knowledge of ransomware and cybersecurity dating back to his days in the Israeli Defense Force.
Using his extensive knowledge we talked through his concept of having different security 'pillars' to help navigate the lifecycle of ransomware:
- Security Hygiene - Checklists are in security hygiene - you don't build a program around ransomware
- People - Executive Leadership (how to educate exec leadership), Awareness (do you know what to do when you have already clicked), Security People (surgery example)
- Recovery - How do you plan for a recovery process
- Insurance - Do you really need it, do you trust it with your CFO
Episode Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by Cybereason. Cybereason is an eXtended Detection and Response solution company with Global Headquarters based out of Boston Massachusetts. Proceeds from the sponsorship fee will be going towards a local Youth Mental Health program that is happening in 2022.
In this special holiday fundraising episode I have not one but two special guests joining a small panel to discuss the current state of mobile security and the pitfalls of social engineering. Mike Jones is a former Anonymous hacker and founder of the Haunted Hacker security podcast and magazine. Jonathan Scott is a Mobile Security Researcher and the author of the Pegasus ID software.
I was also joined by Jim Kuiphof, Director of Information Security for Spectrum Health, Richard Melick from Zimperium, Brian Schneble and Mitch Milligan from Sentinel One, Claudio Cattai and Chuck Chessor from Netskope.
Talking Points:
- Can you really be hacked with just a mobile text message?
- Is your data 'really' gone after you wiped your phone?
- Did you know that your smart watch is listening when you wash your hands?
- Is Pegasus the only Nation State malware out there?
- How will this affect TeleHealth on mobile devices?
- What can we do to start reigning this issue?
- How do we protect ourselves from different social mobile attacks?
Episode Sponsors:
We are very to have 3 great sponsors for this fundraiser episode. Many thanks to Sentinel One for being a second year sponsor, and to Netskope and Zimperium for helping raise funds for 3 great charities! North Kent Connect, Toys for Tots and Hand for Help. Thank you very much!
In this episode I sit down with Lloyd Guyot, Mike Peterson and Steve Barnes to discuss the state of cybersecurity in 2021. Lloyd is a Client Solutions Advisor for Optiv, Mike is a Cybersecurity Consultant for Cadre and Steve is a Systems Engineer for Fortinet.
Talking Points:
- How do we secure the new hybrid workforce?
- Is SASE where is needs to be going into 2022?
- Do you think there is ransomware fatigue?
- How is Social Engineering just security marketing hype?
We cover a veritable cornucopia of security topics for your listening pleasure!
Episode Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by Fortinet. Fortinet is a leader in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Network Firewalls and moving towards a Zero Trust Access future. Fortinet is based out of Sunnyvale, California.
In this episode I have a special guest joining me to talk about a 'Passwordless Future'. Jorel VanOs is the Chief Information Security Officer for the insurance company that is taking off like a rocket ship, Acrisure. This is continuing a great conversation that was discussed in the Security Leadership panel at this year's C3 Tech Advisors IT Summit.
Talking Points:
- What are companies not understanding about Multi Factor Authentication (MFA)?
- Why do banks use Email/SMS in this age of basic data already being out there?
- If security keys are the answer then why aren't companies not using them more?
- What is this upcoming MFA apocalypse/reckoning I keep hearing about?
- What are somethings that a SMB can do right now when it comes to better use of MFA?
- Google Voice/Fi?
- Apple/Google need to convert their phones into an open standard
- Why can't your mobile phone provider use their verification as an MFA
Podcast Charity:
On behalf of Jorel's work in creating the Work + Shelter charity to support women in India, #RealTalkwithAaronBregg is donating $100 each to the following local charities for helping shelter women:
- Safe Haven Ministries
- Degage Ministries
Episode Sponsor:
This episode was sponsored by Yubico. Yubico is a global authentication leader based of out Sweden(!) with a US office in Palo Alto.
Episode Giveway:
We are giving away (5) new Yubico BioKeys! All you have to do is be a new subscriber to the #RTWAB YouTube Channel and then message me on LinkedIn with your name, email address and company that you work for. A fair trade of a little bit of information for a great new security product!
In this episode we are going to do things a little different. I am very to have Rebecca Harvey take over the hosting duties. She will be interviewing myself and my awesome mentee, Natasha Young, about the last 6 months of our participation in WomSA mentorship program.
If you are interested in becoming either a mentor or a mentee, I highly encourage you to set aside sometime to listen to this episodes. Kudos to Rebecca for being a great guest host and to Natasha for being a great mentee!
In this episode I talked with Dave Golding about Security Posture Management as a Service. What the heck is it? Are misconfigurations just FUD from vendor marketing teams? Dave is a Sales Executive for AppOmni.
Talking Points:
- What the heck is Security Posture Management anyways?
- What is your CASB not doing (not in a bad way)?
- What is the biggest problem with default configuration that you are seeing with customers?
- What is one of the biggest surprises that you are seeing in the industry?
- What about best practice policies?
Episode Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by AppOmni. AppOmni is a SaaS Security Management Software. They are based out of San Francisco California. As always, part of the sponsorship fees goes towards charities in West Michigan!
In this episode I sit down with Corwin Tobias, to take a deeper dive into maturing a Security Awareness program. Corwin is the Information Security Awareness Ambassador for Blue Yonder. I had the pleasure of working with Corwin when he was working on the Information Security Training Team for Spectrum Health.
Talking Points:
- How to quip your staff to identify key risks
- Does an employee know what to do when they make a mistake?
- A Human Firewall sounds good but doesn't always work in real life because cyber criminals adapt
- What are some things that people get wrong about Security Awareness? (Information Security Compliance fallacies)
- What departments does information security frustrate the most? Why is it important to identify them?
- Metrics are more granular than you think? It's not all about volume
In this episode I talk with Tim O'Connor about what companies don't understand about Security Awareness programs. Tim is the Manager of Knowledge Services for Cadre Information Security.
Talking Points:
- Security Awareness is more than just Phishing awareness training
- What doesn't the business get about Security Education?
- Risk Assessments and Vulnerability Assessments are two different things
- The importance of Table Top exercises
- Brand Name Protection
- IT is NOT where the cybersecurity buck stops
Episode Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by Cadre Information Security. Cadre is a trust security partner based out of Cincinnati Ohio. As always, parts of the sponsorship fee goes to Michigan charities. In 2021 #RTWAB has raised over $3,000!
In this episode I have a special co-host, Alex O'Meera to help me interview my guest, Jim Jakary about Security Operation Center (SOC) as a Service. Alex is a newly minted Senior Security Engineer for Spectrum Health (congrats!) and Jim is an Account Executive for Expel. This was the first remote broadcast in a long time and definitely contained lots of #RealTalk!
Talking Points:
- We already have a security program, what can SOCaaS do to further help?
- Should be looking at metrics to help guide you?
- Can SOCaaS help your program with alert fatigue?
- Can a mature VM program help setup your SOC as a Success?
- Do you have the tools in place to help setup your SOC as a Success?
Podcast Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by Expel, Expel is a Security Operations Center as a Service company that is based out of Herdon Virginia. As always proceeds from the sponsorship will go to charities in West Michigan.
In this special milestone episode I talked with Ryan Dengate and Tim Vandermel about setting up a SIEM and SOC program before you try and tackle implementing SOAR. Ryan is a Technical Engineer Lead and Tim is a Global Account Executive. They both work for a great West Michigan company called C3 Tech Advisors.
Talking Points:
- What are they seeing/hearing from customers right now
- Do SMBs understand the importance of cyber liability insurance how SIEM/SOC programs can help?
- Where do you start your program?
- What are things you can do to 'get ready' to implement them?
- What are some of the biggest challenges?
- Can SOAR help with resource issues?
Episode Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by C3 Tech Advisors. C3 is based out of beautiful West Michigan and offers both security solutions and Telecomm voice and data solutions as well. As always have of the sponsorship fee goes to charities throughout Michigan!
In this episode I have a special co-host Natasha Young. Natasha is my WomSA security mentee. Here and I had a chance to speak with Stephanie Aceves about endpoint solutions as a security AND business tool. Stephanie is an Threat Response Subject Matter Expert Leads for Tanium.
Talking Points:
- What’s the difference between EDR and what Tanium does? Specifically, how can end-point management systems close the gap between traditional detection systems and automation while still being able to manage time sensitivity?
- What are some of the lessons learned from recent cyber attacks, such as SolarWinds, Microsoft Exchange, and the Colonial Pipeline where a tool like Tanium (end-point management) could have prevented or mitigated the damage?
- President Biden signed an executive order recently, this past May to improve cybersecurity in America. In the executive order talked about Improving Detection of Cybersecurity Incidents on Federal Government Networks. “The Federal government should lead in cybersecurity, and strong, Government-wide Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) deployment coupled with robust intra-governmental information sharing are essential.” Where can Tanium be used with some of the statements made around EDR?
- What does this executive order mean for Tanium and has the company adopted this as an opportunity to help other companies?
Podcast Sponsor:
This episode was sponsored by Tanium. Tanium is an endpoint security solution and they are based out of Kirkland, Washington. As always proceeds from the sponsorship will go towards charities in Michigan.
In this episode I had a chance to speak with Rob Bowker about using DMARC and other secure email tools to prevent domain spoofing. Rob is the Director of Sales North America for EasyDMARC.
Talking Points:
- How to use DMARC reports to move from 'quarantine' to 'reject'
- What is process of applying a percentage when moving to quarantine
- How to get around DNS limitations for SPF records
- What is BIMI?
- What are the pre-requirements for implementing it?
- How to use domain scanners and reputation checks
Episode Sponsor:
The sponsor for this episode is EasyDMARC. EasyDMARC is a phishing protection solution company based out of Middleton, Delaware. As always part of the sponsorship fee goes towards helping charities in the West Michigan area!
In this episode I get a chance to talk with Jonathan Jesse about Network Access Control. Jonathan is a Senior Systems Engineer with Forescout.
Talking Points:
- What are the biggest challenges that you are seeing with NAC during the pandemic?
- What are your employees going to bring back in?
- What has been on your home network that is now coming into your company network?
- Has the asset been patched?
- Do you plan on putting home devices into a quarantine segment before it gets on?
- Do you do compliance checks while there on or before they get on?
- Do we limit it to just Office 365 while you are having your coffee and then when the posture check is complete they can have full access?
- Who's watching the Watcher?
- Is Network Access Control a compliance issue?
Episode Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by Forescout. They are a security solution that specializes in network access control, network segmentation and asset inventory. They are based out of San Jose California.
Topic:
What is Security Orchestration Automation and Response?
Guest:
Jeff Gardner of Rapid7
Co-Host:
Anthony Coggins from Acrisure
Episode Description:
In this episode Anthony and I get a chance to talk with Jeff Gardner about Security Orchestration Automation and Response. Jeff is a Practice Advisor for Rapid 7.
Podcast Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by Rapid7. They are multi-faceted security vendor based out of Boston, MA (Let's get some Chowdah!)
In this episode I sit down with two Spectrum Health colleagues, Robb Wesche and Jon Bult, to talk about our secure email journey. Robb is a Email Messaging Engineer and Jon is a Security Engineer with Spectrum Health.
Talking points:
- Life before a good secure email gateway
- A near miss with business email compromise story
- What is DKIM?
- What is SPF?
- How does DMARC tie things that together
- What is IP warming?
- The importance of defensive domains
- Separating the 'Wheat from Chaff' with email security AI
In this episode I talk with Kevin Foisy and Justin Taylor about Identity Automation. Traditional Identity Governance Administration is not adapting as the same business processes are in this digital transformation era. So how do you evolve the identity systems/solutions that you have put a considerable amount of money into? Let's take a deep dive.
Talking Points:
- The 'Lifecycle' of Identity
- How do you do Identity Automation when you don't know where all of your data points are?
- Is it easier to clean up 'On-Prem' identity or 'Cloud' identity?
- What about Multi-Tenant Governance?
- Can automation help you take action when certain identity criteria is met?
Podcast Sponsor:
ReadiBots is a Identity Solutions company based out of our northern neighbor Canada is the wonderful town of Kanata.
In this episode I talk with Jim Kuiphof and Aaron Silver from Spectrum Health Information Security. We take a look at the last 5 years of the security program to glean some lessons learned about Security Metrics.
Talking Points:
There are three key principles in any security metrics program:
- It’s a Journey - You are going to have to be OK with taking a faceplant at first before you can mature and get quality metrics. Think of metrics are a ‘lifecycle’
- The ‘Why’ - What is the problem are you trying to solve e.g. How to effect change from your metrics. (Not getting numbers to just getting numbers)
- Build Partnerships - It’s a team effort. Invite help. Don’t do this in a vacuum. The first time a director sees a metric shouldn’t be in an all director meeting. Shaming isn’t going to help your cause.
In this episode I get a chance to speak with Dave Stycos who is a Senior Security Engineer for Spectrum Health. Dave was part of the Security Operation Center that helped thwart a Wannacry attack on a major healthcare system in West Michigan. We talk about what a day in the SOC looks like and what is going through the SOC analyst's mind during an active incident.
Talking Points:
- What does a typical day look like? Is it like it is in Hollywood movies?
- What are some of the tools that you use everyday?
- What is the hardest part of your job?
- What is the coolest experience?
- Is there a fundamental difference between incident like 'Red October' and the HVAC incident that Jim talked about at Cloud Con last year?
In this episode I had the pleasure of doing a state of security in 2021 panel with guests from several different security backgrounds. My guests were Steve Barnes from Fortinet, Doug Copley from Data Protection Partners and Mike Peterson from Cadre Information Security.
Talking Points in a Round Robin Format:
- Endpoint Security for Remote Workers
- Thoughts on Solar Winds Fallout
- F5 and Other Security Vendor Patching Issues
- DevSecOps and Automation
Podcast Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by Optiv. Optiv is a security solutions integrator based out of Denver Colorado. Proceeds from this sponsorship will be supporting bring a Minecraft server to the Spectrum Health Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids Michigan.
In the episode I am very grateful to have my first female co-host, Maril Vernon. Maril and I got a chance to talk with two talented colleagues of mine who are both on the board of the Women's Security Alliance (WOMSA), Rebecca Harvey and Diana Volere. The topic that we delve into this security mentoring and the state of DEI in 2021.
Talking Points:
- Is there a shortage of quality mentors?
- What does a good mentoring experience look like?
- Push your comfort zone when looking for a mentor
- What has change since you both started your careers in cybersecurity?
- The value of diversity in security
- Diversity fatigue?
- Resistance to diversity?
Podcast Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by SailPoint. Sailpoint is a cloud identity solution based out of Austin, Texas. Most of the proceeds from this sponsorship will be going to the Helen DeVos Children's Hospital Foundation.
In this episode I had to chance talk with Michael Leland about XDR. Michael is the Chief Technology Strategist for McAfee. We spoke both at a high level and a lower level about Extended Detection and Response. The goal of the episode is to help your SMB better understand if it is a good fit for your company.
Talking Points:
- What is XDR and is it more than just marketing fluff?
- What are all of the 'data points' XDR uses?
- Can it help with managing Cloud data security?
- Could it help with things like last week's Microsoft Exchange issues?
- Does it behave different on different devices like workstations and servers?
- How can it help with improving your response times?
In this episode I talk with former hacktivist Mike Jones. Mike was a former cryptologist for the US Army and also a former member of the hacktivism group Anonymous. Have you ever wonder why someone would get into hacking? Ever wonder what it's like to be 'talk to' by the FBI? Well now is your chance to hear about it.
Talking Points:
- What is Hacktivism? What drew you to it?
- What is the most misguided conception of Anonymous/Hacktivism?
- While the movie ‘The Net’ with Sandra Bullock was fictional in the 90’s, you kind of had to live it for a while. What was that like?
- Meetings with the FBI and Secret Service
- No Fly List
- No Banking
- Man with a country?
- Government experiments on hacker behavior
- FBI 'recruiting' tactics
- What are you doing with your time now?
For More Information on Haunted Hacker:
https://linktr.ee/H4UNT3Dh
In this episode I talk with Clinton Herget about secure coding, container security and the importance of having a DevSecOps mindset. Clinton is the Principal Federal Solutions Engineer for Snyk.
Talking Points (including SSDLC diagram):
- Software Vulnerabilities can happen even before your first line of custom code (Open Source Libraries)
- Review an example of a Secure Software Development Lifecycle Diagram (SSDLC)
- Pros and cons of using a Static Application Scanning Tool (SAST)
- Pros and cons of using a Dynamic Application Scanning Tool (DAST)
- Container Security:
- Image scanning guidance
- Pros and cons of containers
Podcast Sponsor Info:
Snyk is a developer security company based out of Boston (Home of Great Chowdah) Massachusetts. Part of the sponsorship fees goes towards helping At Risk students in West Michigan.
In this episode I talk with Greg Franseth about the Solar Winds incident and how your business can learn from their mistakes. Greg is the Senior Director of Professional Services and Internal Operations for Cadre Information Security
3 Segments:
- High Level Overview of What Happened
- Recent News of Chinese Involvement
- What Can You Do To Prevent It?
Talking Points:
- It's time to take Nation State actors more serious
- How did this happen and go undetected for so long?
- Do nation state actors 'truly' care about SMBs that are not attached to the government?
- Should the Solar Winds issue worry you more as an SMB?
- The bad guys are automating? Are you?
Ken Dickey's Blog About The Attack:
https://blog.cadre.net/exploring-the-ramifications-of-the-latest-supply-chain-attack
Episode Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by Cadre Information Security. Cadre is a security solutions provider that focuses on network data security designs for businesses. The company is based out of Cincinnati, Ohio. As always part of the fee from sponsored episode go towards 'At Risk' students in West Michigan.
In this episode I talk with Allison Prout about security policies and a company's risk profile. Allison is an up and coming Cyber Security and Policies counsel for Beckage Law Firm. She specializes in IT Contracting for PCI-DSS, data ownership, cyber insurance and data protection and response.
Talking Points:
- What is your risk profile? Do you know how to change it?
- Best Practices for Working with Third Party Risks [Both Proactive and Reactive]
- Robust Vendor Management Program
- Third Party Risk Assessment
- Strong Contracting Protocols
- Incident Response Plan
In this episode I have a co-host, Anthony Coggins, join me to talk with Steve Tobias about the first steps to take in building a Risk Management program. Anthony is the Security Architect for Acrisure and Steve is one of the Lead Risk Analysts for Spectrum Health.
Talking Points:
Looking at Risk Management through the eyes of a brand new startup company we discuss:
- What is the first thing you should do?
- Awareness of understanding your risk posture
- Do it internal or hire a partner company?
- What documents do you need to start off with?
- What are your security 'requirements' you need to discover?
Risk Management Resource Links:
Why CISOs must be students of the business | CSO Online
5 rules for a healthy CIO-CISO relationship | The Enterprisers Project
Small Business Cybersecurity Corner | NIST - great resource to get started – free
Planning Guides | NIST
Stay safe from cybersecurity threats (sba.gov) – great resource to get started – free
DHS SMB Road Map 07-27-18 (cisa.gov)
Tips | CISA
In this episode I speak with Josh Geno about what it's like to be in a ransomware attack. Josh is one of the Lead Security Engineers for Spectrum Health. Josh has had the distinction of being in a ransomware attack as well as having to 'clean up' after one. Josh has created a Ransomware Playbook that is open for use by anyone and is geared to sharing knowledge/lessons learned.
Talking Points:
- Walk Through The Incident
- Prepare
- Detect
- Triage/Prioritize
- Analyze
- Contain/Eradicate/Recover
- Post-Incident
- How would you use these documents in your organization?
- Can be used as Net New or Augmenting (GAP Analysis)
- A scenario were Company A was already affected and didn't know it
- Read the instructions first
- Flowchart will make 1000% more sense if you read the instructions
Dropbox File Links:
Ransomware Playbook Instructions Link
Ransomware Playbook Link
In this episode we are going to take a look at cloud visibility and not the kind of visibility you think. Not is the sense of something like a Cloud Access Security Broker. Rather visibility into your entire cloud infrastructure. My guests are Matt Hallahan and Nilesh Deo from CloudBolt.
Talking Points Include:
- How can you get the 'Cloud View' of your different environments?
- How can you hold 'shadow IT' to a governance model?
- How quotas and automation can help
- How visualization can help
- What things can you do to 'enable' self-service IT?
- How can an SMB start successfully 'looking' for resources that haven't been reported?
Podcast Sponsor:
This episode is sponsored by CloudBolt. CloudBolt is a Cloud Management Solutions company that is based out of Rockville, Maryland. As always a majority of the proceed from the sponsorship go to 'At Risk' students here in Michigan.
In this episode I have a special co-host, Alex Ronquillo, and we spoke with Allan Liska about Threat Intelligence and how SMBs can use it. Alex is a Internet Threat Hunter from rec. Allan is a Threat Intelligence Analyst from Recorded Future.
Talking Points:
- Why as a SMB should you care about threat intel?
- What are the must have capabilities / resources that a company should have before investing in a threat intelligence platform?
- Are some SMBs starting to understand protecting their 'brand'
- What is everyone getting wrong their 3rd party suppliers?
- What are the biggest changes, if any, they've seen in 2020 regarding threat actors?
- Why Threat Intel needs to expand outside of your SOC in 2021
- Will AI mature in 2021?
In this episode I talk with Andy Winiarski and Craig Widmaier about Multi Factor Authentication and how a password(less) future is closer and simpler than you think. Andy is a Senior Solution Engineer and Midwest Sales Director for Yubico.
Talking Points:
- What is Multi Factor Authentication and why should an SMB use it?
- What is the difference between a Yubikey and a different form of MFA (SMS, RSA Key, etc.)
- Why isn't MFA used more?
- What does 'password(less)' mean?
This episode was sponsored by Yubico. Yubico is a global authentication leader based of out Sweden(!) with a US office in Palo Alto. As always a majority of the proceeds from the sponsorship go to 'At Risk' students here in Michigan!
In this special holiday episode I have both a special guest and a special co-host. My co-host is Jim Kuiphof and we got a chance to talk with Tim Francis about Cyber Insurance and Liabilities pertaining to ransomware attacks. Jim in a Director of Information Security for Spectrum Health and Tim is a Enterprise Lead for Cyber Insurance at Travelers.
These are just some of the questions and topics that we covered:
- What is cyber liabilities insurance and why do some think they don't need it?
- While ransomware attacks are increasing in the public eye, some websites are reporting that ransomware attacks aren't being reported and that is a problem.
- What trends are you seeing in the insurance industry right now?
- Are attacks truly going up or it is just that there is more 'visibility' in to this area of cybersecurity?
- Why are some incidents just not being talked about?
A HUGE thanks to the following sponsors, as we raised over $1,500 for three charities!
- Sentinel One
- Recorded Future
- Travelers Insurance
Also a shout out to Brock from Okta, Ryan from Optiv and Allan from Recorded Future for supplying some great prizes!
In this episode Matt Nelson and myself talk with Adam Rosen about Data Privacy and Data Governance. Adam is the VP of Product Strategy for Stealthbits.
For this conversation we used the Gartner Data Security Governance Framework as our guide to talk about:
- Where does a SMB start when it comes to data governance and privacy?
- What are some of the biggest challenges that SMBs currently face?
- How automation can help when IT/Security resources may be limited
- What are some 'Gothcas' when it comes to data privacy?
Gartner Reference Link:
How to Use the Data Security Governance Framework (gartner.com)
This episode was sponsored by Stealthbits. Stealthbits is a data and credentials security company based out of Hawthorne, New Jersey. As always a majority of the proceeds of the podcast go towards 'At Risk' students in the West Michigan area.
In this special Veteran's Day episode I talk with LinkedIn Top Voices of 2020 honoree, AJ Yawn, about Amazon Web Services security. AJ is a US Army veteran and also the Co-Founder and CEO of a brand new company called ByteChek.
AJ walks us through his five quick tips for AWS security for small businesses.
- Protect Your Root Account
- Identity Access Management (IAM) Report
- Download Trusted Advisor Report
- Enable AWS Cloud Trail Across All Regions
- Automate Something Using Cloud Trail
We also had a chance to talk about the ever elusive thing called the Shared Responsibility Model.
Finally stick around until the end were we took a few minutes and touched based on the state of Diversity, Equality and Inclusion at the end of 2020.
As an added bonus here is a link to AJ's article that we talked about in the podcast.
How To Effectively Setup AWS CloudTrail in 5 Steps
In this episode I talk about the concept of 'Zero Trust' with Patrick Tyler. Patrick is a Senior Solutions Engineer for Okta.
Talking Points:
- What is Zero Trust and why should you care?
- What did organizations have to do right away when it comes to Zero Trust?
- Why Zero Trust is important for 'non-traditional' cloud industries like manufacturing to do it?
- While VPN is a powerful tool, it isn't the 'End All Be All' for security.
- What did organizations have to do right away?
This episode is sponsored by Okta. Okta is a Workforce and Customer identity company that is based out of California. Proceeds from this sponsorship will be going towards prizes for the holiday fundraiser event.
In this episode I talked with Steve Barnes about physical network security. Steve is an Enterprise Systems Engineer for Fortinet.
Talking Points:
- Why does physical network security still matter in the age of SASE?
- What is the biggest difference between 'Next Gen' and 'Stateful' firewalls?
- Does content awareness (SSL inspection) really help with visibility and protection?
- Even SASE needs something to connect to
- Why is SD-WAN important in the age of Digital Transformation?
- Ransomware Protection with Default Deny
This episode is sponsored by Fortinet. Fortinet is On-Prem and Cloud Security company based out of Sunnyvale, California.
I am happy to share very special event, Tales From The Cyber War Trenches from Jim Kuiphof's Cloud Con GR 2020 Keynote. In this episode Jim talks about real life experiences with vulnerability management lessons learned, how do you deal with 'interesting' government warnings, a ransomware near miss and disruptive security controls.
Cybersecurity Scenarios:
- Tick Tock, Tick Tock - Time is Running Out (A Vulnerability Management Faceplant)
- The Russians are Coming! … to waste your SOC's time
- Ransomware: How Do You Find An Infected Printer At Midnight?
- Disruptive Security Controls - Implementing Perimeter "Default Deny"
Many, many thanks to Jim and the entire security leadership team at Spectrum Health for sharing this valuable information!
In this episode I talk with Zane Lackey about Web Application Security. Zane is the Co-Founder and Chief Security Officer for Signal Sciences.
Talking Points and Listener Submitted Questions:
- What kinds of 'Real World' attacks are people dealing with against web applications?
- How do you detect an attack against a web application?
- How do you measure the effectiveness of your technical web app security controls (WAF, API, Authentication, Business Logic, etc.)?
- How do can you ensure that your companies web application API's cannot be abused to access data that the user is unauthorized to access?
- Do bug bounty programs work?
- Should all SMBs have a web application vulnerability disclosure program?
This episode is sponsored by Signal Sciences. Signal Sciences is a web application security company based out of Culver City, California.
In this episode I speak with Nick d'Amato about SASE (Secure Access Service Edge). Nick is the Director of Solution Engineering for Americas North with Bitglass.
- What is SASE and why should SMBs learn more about it?
- How does it secure SaaS apps?
- What are biggest threats that you are seeing with small and medium businesses?
- Can it help with identifying shadow IT?
- How can you change the culture when it comes to SASE and its policy and controls?
- What are the security controls that you need today and what does that look like in 12 months?
- What does network security look like when everyone it remote?
- Is SASE right for everybody?
- How do agents impacted SASE?
This episode is sponsored by Bitglass. Bitglass is a Total Cloud Security company based out of Campbell, California. As always proceeds from this sponsor goes to 'At Risk' students in West Michigan.
In this special live stream podcast recording event I spoke with Tim O'Connor. Tim is the manager of Knowledge Services for Cadre Information Security. The topic of this podcast is 'How to Build a Successful Security Awareness (SA) Program.
Talking points include:
- What is the first step in building a successful program?
- The concept of a security champion when you don't have a dedicated SA team
- What are some common misconceptions about SA programs?
- Diagramming out a social engineering attack
This episode is sponsored by Cadre Information Security. Cadre is a security solutions provider that focuses on network data security designs for businesses. The company is based out of Cincinnati, Ohio.
In this episode I speak with Jared Phipps on the timely topic of ransomware. Jared is the Vice President of Worldwide Sales Engineering for SentinelOne and had some great insights on what is happening with these types of attacks.
Some of the talking points included:
- Why the sudden surge of ransomware attacks?
- What is really happening behind the scenes?
- What is the impact to cyber liability insurance companies?
- How can you reduce your chances of getting hit?
- What does the future hold for cyber insurance?
The sponsor for this episode is SentinelOne. SentinelOne is a autonomous AI endpoint security solution based out of Mountain View California. As always, a majority of the sponsorship goes towards helping At Risk students here in West Michigan.
In this episode I talk with Kevin Dillaway, who is a Cloud Security Architect for Optiv. Optiv is security solutions integrator based out of Denver Colorado.
The topic for this episode is bad security horror stories. Have you ever wondered what the worst security thing a cloud architect has seen?
Well wait until you hear some of the crazy things that he come across!
This episode is sponsored by Optiv and part of the proceeds will be going to help 'At Risk' students in West Michigan.
In this episode I speak with Martin Cannard about Privilege Access Management for Small and Medium Business. Martin is the Vice President of Product Strategy for STEALTHbits Technologies.
Here are some of the questions that we tackled in this session:
What is Privileged Access Management and why do you need it?
- Why is PAM so 'scary'?
- What the biggest problems that you are seeing in the PAM space?
- What is wrong with a typical PAM boilerplate?
This episode is sponsored by STEALTHbits and, as always, proceeds from this sponsorship will go toward At Risk students in West Michigan.
In this episode I talk with Lenny Levy about talking Third Party Risk Management with Executive Leadership. Lenny is a healthcare Chief Information Security Officer and has extensive experience with Risk Management and currently works at Security Cubed Consulting.
Questions and Talking Points:
- Why is third party risk management a challenge for organizations?
- How should organizations determine how much third party risk to take on?
- Why are some companies being too risk adverse?
- How do you handle leadership that doesn't take third party risk seriously?
Summary:
In this episode I talk with Diana Volere of SailPoint about Digital Identity. As more people work remote and IoT and mobile devices proliferate, the need to understand digital identity is critical.
Talking Points:
- Federation or Governance - Which Should You Do First?
- Digital Transformation and Security Fatigue - Real or Myth?
- What is the Biggest Challenge You are Seeing in Digital Identity Right Now?
- Because of the Pandemic Will More Businesses Get on the SSO Train?
Podcast Sponsor:
Many thanks to SailPoint for sponsoring this podcast. Parts of the proceeds will be going to lower income students in West Michigan.
For more information on SailPoint, please visit their website: https://www.sailpoint.com
In this episode I talk with Sean Deuby about Microsoft Active Directory and why AD security still matters.
Topics included:
- The Circle of 'AD' Life
- AD in the Age of Ransomware (e.g. tools at script kiddie's disposal)
- Ransomware - Risk and Recover
- Krazy Mimikatz Stories
This podcast was sponsored by Semperis. Semperis offers great Microsoft Active Directory services including Directory Service Protector and Active Directory Forest Recovery.
Part of the proceeds from the sponsorship will go towards helping 'At Risk' students in West Michigan.
In this episode, myself and my CSA sidekick Matt Nelson, talk with Ken Liao from Abnormal Security about email security and how social engineering is wreaking havoc on businesses.
Topics include:
- The Recent Twitter Hack
- Iran Advancing Their Social Engineering Skills
- The Importance of Good Email Hygiene
- What Does The Future of Email Security Look Like?
A big thanks to Abnormal Security for sponsoring this podcast! A majority of the proceeds will be going to low income students in West Michigan!
In this episode I got a chance to talk with Joseph 'Augie' D'Agostino. Augie is the Deputy Chief Information Security Officer for Spectrum Health. The topic is around security careers and what the different ways to get into the Information Security world.
Some area we talked about were:
- Biggest Security Leadership Challenges
- Why Aren't Security Jobs Being Filled?
- Your Personal Security Brand
- How Can A Specific Security Degree Won't Hurt Your Chances
- Biggest Security Concerns
- Most Hopeful with Security's Up and Coming 'Generation'
In this episode I talk with Ken Dickey of Cadre to talk about the current state of the security for the Internet of Things.
Talking points will be:
- Visibility
- Ease of Use and Deployment
- Baselining Network Access
- Network Segmentation Guidance
- Future of IoT Threat Intelligence
Cadre Security will be sponsoring this episode with the majority of funds going to purchase mobile hotspots for low income families in the Grandville/Standale area.
In this episode I got to speak with several different industries and leaders.
The topic will be 'Security in the Age of Virtual Healthcare'
Guests:
- Chris Roberts - Renowned Hillbilly Hacker
- Dan Baziun - Healthcare Innovation Leader
- Sumit Sehgal - Chief Technology Strategist
Funds from this event will be going to purchasing technology and Internet access for low income families in West Michigan!!
Many thanks to McAfee and Comcast so sponsoring this event!
In this episode I sit down with Jim Kuiphof. Jim is a Director of Information Security for a major healthcare organization in West Michigan. The topics include what security leaders shouldn't do right now, remote work advice and we finish off with an great 'Stories from the Cyberwarfare Trenches' about a ransomware attack.
Topics were:
- What can't you do right now as a security leader?
- How do you lead a team and maintain vigilance in a time of radical change?
- What advice do you have for leaders that are trying to prioritize what they should be working on?
- Which part comes first? (MFA, Egress Filtering, Email, Inventory)
- What are some security challenges that we are going to see with more remote medical devices that are needed to accelerate virtual healthcare?
- What are your thoughts on data as an 'identity' (use of metadata for example) using the example of simple vs simplistic
- Can you give us a sneak peek on your Cloud Con Grand Rapids presentation?
He has great advice for not only healthcare security leadership but any remote work leadership as well. Finally, he shares a great story of real life ransomware attack. How it came in (not a traditional way) and how their team handled it (with a funny twist). It is a great way to spend a little bit of your holiday weekend, learning and laughing.
In this episode of #realtalk with Aaron Bregg, I catch up with Gabriel Friedlander of Wizer. Wizer is a great security awareness training solution.
Discussion Topics:
- How did you get started? (personal background, company background, etc.)
- How are the topics selected? (hot topics or just ‘common sense’ approach?
- What is your process to creating videos?
- What are the biggest challenges in Security Awareness training right now?
- What do you wish big companies would do better at?
- What are your favorite video feedback story?
- What do you think the future of Security Awareness looks like?
Links:
Wizer website
In this part 2 of the podcast when continue the conversation with Jordan Fischer from XPAN Law Group. We covered an array of topics:
- Risk Processes
- Cyber Liability Insurance
- Nth Party Risk
- State Privacy Laws
- Biometric Privacy Laws
- GDPR
- Offshore Data Regulations
- Research Regulations
- The Future of Cyberlaw
Jordan is co-founder and managing partner of the XPAN Law Group. XPAN is a women-owned boutique law firm. Jordan specializes in international data privacy, cybersecurity and cross-border data management.
Follow Jordan on these social media platforms:
For more information on XPAN Law Group go here: https://xpanlawgroup.com
In this episode I spoke with Jordan Fischer from the XPAN Law Group.
Jordan is co-founder and managing partner of the XPAN Law Group. XPAN is a women-owned boutique law firm. Jordan specializes in international data privacy, cybersecurity and cross-border data management.
In part one of the interview we focus on the following questions:
- What are the biggest challenges right now in the pandemic?
- What advice does she have for small and medium sized businesses that do not have a Remote Work policy?
- What is the latest information related to Work From Home Threat Modeling
Follow Jordan on these social media platforms:
For more information on XPAN Law Group go here: https://xpanlawgroup.com
In this episode I dispense from practical security advice that was given by a local business security director. I also review a recent security webinar around cybersecurity, risk and privacy security laws.
For more information on the SecureWorld webinar here is the link to the recorded session:
https://www.secureworldexpo.com/resources/remote-work-protecting-cyber-privacy-legal-pitfalls
A link to the Kid's Food Basket donation page:
https://covid-19-emergency-response.everydayhero.com/us/csa-varonis-kidsfoodbasketchallenge
In this episode we talk about the first listener suggested topic, security for the insecure. I sit down with Heather Bregg an Research Analyst for Spectrum Health.
The topics that we discuss include current frustrations with information security, the unique world of healthcare research and how a non-secure person can protect themselves and their company.
Heather's LinkedIn profile:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-bregg-a6371356/
Links on how the privacy rule relates to Research:
- https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/special-topics/research/index.html
- https://privacyruleandresearch.nih.gov/pr_06.asp
- https://cynergistek.com/blog/when-is-data-collected-for-research-phi-covered-by-hipaa-and-when-is-it-not/
Links on PHI vs Limited Data Set vs De-Identified
- https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/special-topics/de-identification/index.html#protected
- http://www.healthinfolaw.org/lb/download-document/4477/field_article_file
- https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/institutional_review_board/hipaa_research/de_identified_data.html
- https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/institutional_review_board/hipaa_research/limited_data_set.html
Security tools
- https://check-host.net/ to identify server IP address and location
- https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/ to check a websites security grade and various standard measures they should have in place
- https://www.browserling.com/ to visit a website using a virtual web browser
In this episode I had a chance to speak with fellow Cloud Security Alliance board members, Lloyd Guyot and Matt Nelson. We talked about the current state of security vendors, security leadership, how to 'sell' security to the business.
Lloyd is a Senior Information Security Analyst at Spectrum Health.
LinkedIn Profile
Matt is a Solutions Architect for Optiv
LinkedIn Profile
In this episode I discuss the current state of diversity and inclusion in the cybersecurity industry with my special guests Kim Courteau and Joanna Udo.
Kim works for a major software company and has over 20 years of IT experience.
She recommends the following additional information on the topic:
https://cybersecurityventures.com/cybersecurity-is-people-cybersecurity-is-diversity/
https://cybersecurityventures.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Women_Know_Cyber.pdf
Joanna is a consultant, entrepreneur, speaker, STEM and Women in Tech advocate. More can be found out about her way of thinking here:
https://bridgesintech.com/
In this episode I talk with Meghan Schrotenboer, who is a security analyst for a major healthcare provider in West Michigan. Meghan has over 8 years experience in regulatory compliance ranges from highly regulated start ups, to contract manufacturing, to healthcare, and spans from ISO 9001 quality system management, and security strategy for smaller organizations.
Our topic is around business analysts becoming a hidden security champion in an organization. The idea around this is using the concept of 'security by design'. Which is the idea of implementing security throughout a project's lifecycle.
In the inaugural episode to the series we take a look back at the state of cybersecurity in 2019. I also talk about different things that these companies could have done differently to avoid issues like this in the future.