CISO Series Podcast

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/tell-me-were-secure-so-i-can-go-back-to-ignoring-security/) I don't know anything about our state of security. I don't want to know either. But I do want to know you know about security and there's nothing I have to worry about. You can do that, right? This episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest this week is Dan Walsh, CISO, Rally Health. Thanks to our sponsor, Capsule8. Capsule8 is defining modern enterprise protection by providing detection and response for Linux infrastructure in any environment. Capsule8 provides host-based detection and investigatory data for incident response with on-going support. Unlike anyone else, Capsule8 mitigates the financial, scalability and reliability limitations of protecting your Linux infrastructure. On this week's episode Why is everybody talking about this now How do you respond to "Are we secure?" It's a loaded question that we've addressed previously. Daniel Hooper, CISO, Varo Money brought up this topic again that caused a flurry of discussion on LinkedIn. In the past Mike has mentioned that he talks about the state of his security program and where it's heading. The core of this question is anxiety about something a non-security person doesn't understand. How does a security leader break down this question into small parts, and what question should a CEO be asking if not "Are we secure?" There's got to be a better way to handle this The engineering team at Rally Health is around 800 and our guest Dan has a security team of 30+ of which only 5 of them are application security people. Those five are definitely going to need some help if they're going to have an impact on how secure the applications are. I ask Dan Walsh what he's doing with the engineers that's turning them into application security force multipliers. What's Worse?! How damaging is a bad reputation? What do you think of this vendor marketing tactic? CISOs have ways to retalilate against aggressive sales tactics. George Finney, CISO at Southern Methodist University told a story on LinkedIn about an unsolicited sales invite that was sent to 65 people at his school. He blocked the email. He asked the community if that was too harsh. Similarly Steve Zalewski, deputy CISO of Levi's said if he sees aggressive tactics by a company, the security team has the ability to block the whole domain from their servers. Are these tactics too harsh? Have Mike and our guest taken similar tactics, and/or is there something else they do in response to extremely aggressive sales tactics? If you haven't made this mistake, you're not in security How prepared do you need to handle your next cyber job? A question was asked on reddit from someone who wasn't sure they should take a job because they didn't have all the skills to do the job. Most people just said, "Do it." How would Mike and our guest answer this question as an employee and a manager. What level of unpreparedness for a job is acceptable and possibly even exciting? Could too much result in imposter syndrome?

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/request-a-demo-of-our-inability-to-post-a-demo/) It's really easy to include "Request a Demo" button on our site. But potential buyers would actually like to just watch a demo on our site. Should we actually expend just a little more effort to record a demo and upload it to our site? This episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest this week is Ross Young, CISO, Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation. Thanks to our sponsor, Kenna Security. With Kenna Security, companies efficiently manage the right level of risk for their business. Our Modern Vulnerability Management model eliminates the friction between Security and IT teams about what to patch, providing clear prioritization based on real-time threat intelligence and guidance applied to each customer's unique environment across infrastructure, applications and IoT. On this week's episode Why is everybody talking about this now? Our guest posted about the 10+ daily product pitches he receives and he suggested that vendors place a product demo on their site. It just so happens, I also posted about this on LinkedIn. I am astonished that not every vendor spends their first marketing dollars on creating a product demo and posting that video. If a security practitioner is interested in a company, how do they begin their research? What do they look for? Do they watch product demo videos? Do they click the "request a demo" button? First 90 Days of a CISO Our guest shared a study from PWC that points out what management thinks are the most important roles for a CISO. Eighty four percent considered the ability to educate and collaborate across the business was critical making it the top most skill they look for in a CISO. At the same time, it appears investing in a talent management program for leadership was the least important with only 22 percent responding. What I read from this is management wants you to lead, and get the whole company on board, but do it alone. Plus, they expect you to be a perfect cybersecurity leader out of the box. Is that feasible? Is this why we're having so much burnout of CISOs? It's not just the pressure of protecting, but taking on all leadership responsibilities with no ongoing support? What's Worse?! How are you advertising for new hires? There's got to be a better way to handle this Turns out half of employees are cutting corners on security when working from home. This includes using home computers for corporate work, emailing sensitive documents from personal accounts. It's not malicious, but the distractions of work from home life and demands to deliver quickly are forcing employees to take the less secure route. Also, being away from the watchful IT and security gives them the breathing room to be less careful. Tip of the hat to Gina Yacone of Agio for posting this article from ZDnet about Tessian's work from home study. How can security leaders stay in contact with employees so they don't stray? How CISOs are digesting the latest security news What makes a security podcast valuable? What elements does a cybersecurity podcast need to have for you to say to yourself, "I'm glad I spent the time listening to that"?

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/the-do-what-we-tell-you-technique-isnt-working/) We've yelled, we've screamed, we've complained, and we've whined. Those darn users simply don't do what they tell them to do. I guess we're going to have to give empathy a try. This episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest this week is Michelle Valdez (@scauzim), CISO, OneMain Financial. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, PlexTrac. PlexTrac is a revolutionary, yet simple, cybersecurity platform that centralizes all security assessments, penetration test reports, audit findings, and vulnerabilities into a single location. PlexTrac vastly improves the risk management lifecycle, allowing security professionals to generate better reports faster, aggregate and visualize important analytics, and collaborate on remediation in real-time. On this week's episode Why is everybody talking about this now Why hasn't COVID spurned more disaster recovery and business continuity planning roles? This is what Stuart Mitchell, a recruiter at Stott and May, noticed. Obviously, he's not getting that much demand. The community says it's assumed already into many roles. I have to think BCP and DR are everyone's responsibility. If that's the case, has BCP and DR planning increased during this time? Why or why not? How to become CISO Are two CISOs better than one? Our guest mentioned that her company has split the CISO role. One, the head of tech, reports to the CTO and the other, our guest's role, CISO and head of cyber risk reports to the chief risk officer. How exactly does this work? And what does our guest believe are the pros and cons of splitting the CISO role this way? What's Worse?! This time, no matter what the answer, everyone's going to get in trouble. And now for a little security philosophy Chad Loder, Habitu8, said, "Us InfoSec experts spend too much time asking 'How do we get users to care more about security?' and not enough time asking 'How do we get security to care more about users?'" So I asked my host and guest that question, and more importantly, how has that learning about users improved their security team and overall security? First 90 days of a CISO William Birchett, CIO of Required Team Gear, asked, "When you start, how much do you know of what security posture you've inherited?" We've talked about this before, but I want you to answer in reflection. What were the biggest surprises (positive or negative) between what you knew starting out and what you discovered after 90 days on the job?

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/set-it-forget-it-reset-it-repeat/) As long as you reset it and repeat, everything in cybersecurity is "set it and forget it". This episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest this week is Brett Conlon (@DecideSecurity), CISO, Edelman Financial Engines. Check out Tricia Howard's dramatic readings of cold emails. Our Keyavi breaks new ground by making data itself intelligent and self-aware, so that it stays under its owner's control and protects itself immediately, no matter where it is or who is attempting access. Keyavi is led by a team of renowned data security, encryption, and cyber forensics experts. See for yourself at keyavidata.com. On this week's episode Why is everybody talking about this now On LinkedIn and on Twitter, I asked "Is there anything in cybersecurity that's 'set it and forget it'?" There were plenty of funny answers like "Passwords" and the "Off" switch. But there were some interesting answers like whitelists from Brian Haugli of Sidechannel security and ethics from Stephen Gill of Russel Holdings. So many treat security as "set it and forget it" but we know that's a path to insecurity. Regardless, is there ANYTHING in security we can set and forget? Question for the board Our guest claims he's got an awesome board. I don't think we've ever heard that on our show. In most cases there's either fear of the board or the CISO doesn't even get direct conversation with the board. I asked our guest what is it about his board that's so awesome and what tips could he give to CISOs to move their board into that territory? What's Worse?! Who is going to handle physical assets the worst? If you haven't made this mistake, you're not in security Alexander Rabke, Splunk, asked, "How should sales people handle situations when, in fact, you are a security company with a security vulnerability (he also talked about a product not working) - what do you tell customers. How do you like to see this handled by the vendor?" I know a first response is to be honest, but they want to hold onto your business. What's a way salespeople could go about doing that? What do you think of this pitch? We're not talking vendor pitches in this segment. We're talking candidate pitches. Gary Hayslip, CISO, Softbank Investment Advisers and former guest on this show has an article on Peerlyst, a platform which is unfortunately going away, about finding your first job in security. Hayslip's first tip asks, "What information do you have?" Researching yourself is good advice, but I want to extend that to a question that I think puts you ahead of the pack and ask, "What's your unfair advantage?" It's a question that I heard investor Chris Sacca ask startups and I think it can also apply to individuals applying for jobs. Agree? If so, what are some good unfair advantages from candidates that have put them over the top?

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/i-need-resources-to-free-up-my-resources) Automation sounds wonderful and I'd love to have some free time, but geez, who do I need to hire to make that happen? This episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our sponsored guest this week is Aaron Ansari (@theanswar), VP, Cloud One, Trend Micro. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor Trend Micro. Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, helps to make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Our innovative solutions for consumers, businesses, and governments provide layered security for data centers, cloud environments, networks, and endpoints. For more information, visit www.trendmicro.com. On this week's episode There's got to be a better way to handle this How well has the cybersecurity automation gambit played itself out? Last year, Ericka Chickowski wrote a piece on Dark Reading about the cybersecurity automation paradox. She said that "security teams find that a lack of automation expertise keeps them from getting the most out of cybersecurity automation." According to a Ponemon study, that accounts for 56% of organizations. That's the number one obstacle. It's more than legacy IT challenges, lack of budget, and interoperability issues. 40% of respondents say they'll need to hire more people to support security automation. Everyone speaks of wanting automation, but is it more of an aspiration and a marketing pitch? Has it specifically alleviated any pain over the past year. And if so, what? What annoys a CISO? For my co-host MIke Johnson, the annoyance is the "single panes of glass" that so many security vendors offer. Our guest, Aaron Ansari is ready to challenge Mike on his grand distaste for "the single pane of glass" as the window to your security status/infrastructure/whatever you like it to be. "What's Worse?!" What's worse, failure but honesty, or success and deception? Please, Enough. No, More. Topic is "cloud configuration." What have we heard enough about with cloud configuration, and what would we like to hear a lot more? Ummm. Maybe you shouldn't have done that We're talking about vendor lock-in. It makes recurring sales for vendors super easy. But it makes exit strategies very difficult. On Quora, the question was asked, "How do huge companies like Netflix avoid vendor lock-in with a cloud computing provider?" So I ask the question to both of you, what safeguards can you setup to prevent vendor lock-in or at least make an exit from a cloud provider as painless as possible? Creative Commons photo attribution to Alden Jewell (CC BY 2.0)

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/were-not-fooled-by-your-diversity-theater/) We're casting for our diversity theater program on the latest episode of CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast. This episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest this week is Matt Conner, CISO, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, PlexTrac PlexTrac is a revolutionary, yet simple, cybersecurity platform that centralizes all security assessments, penetration test reports, audit findings, and vulnerabilities into a single location. PlexTrac vastly improves the risk management lifecycle, allowing security professionals to generate better reports faster, aggregate and visualize important analytics, and collaborate on remediation in real-time. How CISOs are digesting the latest security news If you thought tech firms were abysmal with diversity hiring, it appears venture capital firms are even worse. In a Washington Post article by Nitasha Tiku, just 1 percent of VC dollars went to black start-up founders in 2018, and that same year and percentage reflects the number of black decision-makers at VC firms as well. With the scrutiny turned up, small minority-focused funds have spurned, and there has been some cosmetic title inflation of minority employees at VC firms, but black tech entrepreneurs are brushing it off as diversity theater. What opportunities and money are VC firms leaving on the table by not taking diversity seriously? What should VC firms do to prove that their efforts are not diversity theater? We don't have much time. What's your decision? Interesting question on reddit by throwawaycostam who asks, "How do you create easy to memorize, yet relatively strong passwords?" A password manager is first and foremost recommended, but there are cases where you do have to remember a few passwords, like the one to get into your password manager and desktop screen lock. If you have to memorize five really good complex passwords, what technique do you recommend to create those passwords? What's Worse?! Is clueless better than not being engaged? It's time for "Ask a CISO" On a previous episode, CISO, Dennis Leber, now with University of Tennessee Health Science Center, but previously with a state government agency said there's no perfect pitch a vendor could make to him that would facilitate a sale. Heck, he couldn't even write the perfect pitch to himself that would work. We know the government is a different beast when it comes to procurement. What are the stumbling blocks vendors need to concern themselves when pitching a government agency? We've got listeners and they've got questions Jesse Rosenbaum of Varonis brought a job posting to my attention that showed requests for extremely specific experiences with different applications. Jesse asks, does the listing the name of products or protocols you're using expose the company to additional security risks? Isn't this the reason so many customers of security vendors are not willing to give testimonials? But if they're putting these products and protocols in job descriptions, isn't this the same darn thing?

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/how-to-tell-if-your-ciso-sucks-at-their-job/) If your CISO wants to be a 'visionary' but they can't seem to pull off basic security functions, they probably suck at their job. This episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest this week is Lee Parrish (@leeparrish), CISO, Hertz. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, Keyavi Data. Our Keyavi breaks new ground by making data itself intelligent and self-aware, so that it stays under its owner's control and protects itself immediately, no matter where it is or who is attempting access. Keyavi is led by a team of renowned data security, encryption, and cyber forensics experts. See for yourself at keyavidata.com. On this week's episode Is this the best use of our Money On CSO Online, Terena Bell has a piece on how to cut your budget without hurting security. The suggestions are well known: Identify overlaps in technology, renogiate contracts, and use tech to lower the need for manhours. Her last tip was a warning about layoffs. Are you always looking to reduce costs or is it something you do when it's mandated? And how are you supported by the business if and when you proactively reduce costs? Or does that not ever happen because the demand is ever growing. Is this where I should put my marketing dollars? I'm not sure, but it's possible that our guest is our first CISO that has an MBA. In his role as CISO he's mentioned he uses common marketing techniques to advance your organization's cybersecurity program. He said, "Security is just an inside sales job and that marketing creates the demand that sales fulfills." Lee tells us about what he learned in his MBA training that was so critical for your growth as a CISO. What's Worse?! We have a split decision on third party risk management. How a security vendor helped me this week We haven't done this segment in a long time and we got a request from a listener to bring it back. So I ask Mike and our guest, recently, how has a security vendor helped you. And were any of those security vendors who helped not customers? We've got listeners and they've got questions A listener, who wishes to remain anonymous asks this question: "How do you convince a CISO to focus on the basics?" The listener goes on and says, "I'm not a CISO but have seen and talked to many that want to be seen as 'visionaries' so they focus on 'new hotness' things like 'zero trust' instead of the basics things that are missing like patching, asset management, etc." The listener understand this, and he's obviously talking about his own CISO, hence the anonymity, but how do you approach your CISO and get him or her to balance their own time with basics or as Yaron Levi, CISO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City says, "fundamentals" while also having a forward looking vision of security?

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/how-will-the-candidate-respond-to-whats-worse/) A potential candidate's response to a "What's Worse?!" question will show how they can handle risk decisions. This episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our sponsored guest this week is Elliot Lewis (@elliotdlewis), CEO, Keyavi Data. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, Keyavi Data (formerly Encryptics) Now you can share data without ever losing control of it. Our advanced architecture makes data self-protecting, intelligent and self-aware – wherever it goes, no matter who has it. Our .SAFE patented multi-key technology enables data to evaluate its own safety conditions, including geo-sensing, recipient authentication, and policy changes from its owner. Contact Keyavi Data today and see for yourself. On this week's episode Why is everybody talking about this now If we could change one thing about the cybersecurity industry, what would it be? Rilhouse on reddit brought this post by Naomi Buckwalter of Energage to my attention. What you can change are processes and behavior currently in the industry. Is this the best solution? Both Mike and Elliot hire cybersecurity talent. Here's a question from bubblehack3r on reddit who asked during our AMA. "What are your different methods and tools you use to verify and test the professionally of a new hire in the cyber security domain?" "What's Worse?!" The shortest ever "What's Worse?!" question. Please, Enough. No, More. Encryption. We've had it around for decades, but people and companies still don't use it. What have you heard enough about regarding encryption and what would you like to hear a lot more? It's time for "Ask a CISO" What have Mike and Elliot learned from a product deployment that they didn't realize until after they deployed it.

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/i-love-cold-calls-said-the-ciso-on-opposite-day/) While CISOs are not excited to receive your unexpected phone call, they are excited to listen to this week's episode of CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast. This episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest this week is Helen Patton, CISO, The Ohio State University. GitGuardian empowers organizations to secure their secrets - such as API keys and other credentials - from being exposed in compromised places or leaked publicly. GitGuardian offers a threat intelligence solution focused on detecting secrets leaked on public GitHub and an automated secrets detection solution which tightly integrates with your DevOps pipeline. On this week's episode Why is everybody talking about this now Are we making ourselves safer by calling end users "dumb"? On LinkedIn, Shaun Marion, CISO, Republic Services called out those security professionals who chose to put down the end user. As a result, security professionals in aggregate are getting a bad wrap. What do you do to change this long held belief of security professionals as putting down the end user? Rich Mason of Critical Infrastructure said, "offer something beyond training to mitigate the damage potential of that click. You can bash those who don't heed your advice on running with scissors or you can design better processes and safer scissors." How do you go about building systems and behavior of the security team with the end user in mind? Are we having communication issues? There is ENDLESS debate on cold calling. I know most CISOs despise it, but as evidenced by Ross Gustavson of Reciprocity, he met 120% of his sales quota solely on cold calling. He posted all his stats so you simply can't argue with that success rate. And Jay Jensen of Sales Evolution said the conversation of cold calling should be about how to do it effectively, and not whether it should be eradicated. And Allan Alford said he wants the conversation to be about partnering with sales staff. What is the communication you're open to having with a security vendor to which you don't currently have a relationship? What's Worse?! Those miserable team building exercises. Is there a worse way to do them? If you haven't made this mistake, you're not in security Eli Migdal of Boardish ran a poll on LinkedIn asking how many cyber professionals suffer from impostor syndrome. Sixty two percent believed most did, and Allan Alford, who admitted having it himself, said he was on a call with 25 other security professionals and all of them admitted to suffering at one time from impostor syndrome. Why does this come about and is it healthy or detrimental? RESOURCE: Do You Suffer From Impostor Syndrome? You Are Not Alone Is this where I should put my marketing dollars? On LinkedIn, I published an article entitled, "Formula for Creating a Successful Security Podcast." In it I just talked about my experience publishing successful and not successful shows. I'm a proponent of security vendors using their marketing dollars to produce podcasts because it's a means to create a one-to-many and many-to-many relationship with the audience. Focusing on other security and technology podcasts, what makes us excited to listen to a show and actually engage with the show or other listeners. And have we for any reason stopped listening to a show and why? NOTE: CISO Series and its parent company Spark Media Solutions is now offering consulting and production services for others, including vendors, who want to launch and maintain their own successful podcast. Please contact me, David Spark, for more information.

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/nytimes-critic-called-our-security-theater-unconvincing/) We tried to pull off the Hamilton of security theater and we fell short. This episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest this week is Shawn Bowen (@smbowen), CISO, Restaurant Brands International which handles restaurants such as Burger King, Popeye's, Tim Hortons, and Louisiana Kitchen. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor GitGuardian. GitGuardian empowers organizations to secure their secrets - such as API keys and other credentials - from being exposed in compromised places or leaked publicly. GitGuardian offers a threat intelligence solution focused on detecting secrets leaked on public GitHub and an automated secrets detection solution which tightly integrates with your DevOps pipeline. On this week's episode How CISOs are digesting the latest security news We recorded this episode on June 24th, just a five days after Trump's first rally in Oklahoma where purportedly TikTok fans en masse were able to register for Trump's rally and fool his entire staff into believing that 1 million people had registered and were planning to attend his rally. In the end, the arena was less than half full. We are all well aware that some cyber protests can cause serious damage, but does this one? Is this the kind of peaceful cyber protests that we should encourage or not encourage? Dan Lohrmann at Security Mentor posted this discussion and said no matter what political affiliation you're on this is a call for more cybersecurity because this will happen again. But is this the fault of Trump's cyber team or his social media team for not keeping an eye on TikTok? Why is everybody talking about this now? On AskNetSec on reddit, NoInterestingGuy, a college student starting his first internship at a security firm, posted he likes to participate in "extracurricular activities". He then asked, "If I were to get caught with a crime related to cyber security, would that impact my chances significantly of getting hired in the future for a security company?" The community almost resoundingly said, "Stop," but has Mike and our guest ever hired someone with a cybercrime past or caught an employee engaging in cybercrime? How did they handled it. Is there an "it depends" meter? We all do stupid stuff in college. What's Worse?! Is the unknowing always the worst? It's security awareness training time On CSO Online, J.M. Porup wrote a piece about five examples of security theater and how to spot them. Security theater refers to the practice having a show of implementing security where its effectiveness is in question. Some examples are purposefully complex passwords, checkbox compliance, and bad security awareness training. How do we spot security theater? Is there any value to security theater? What's the antidote? If it's in place, how do we eradicate it? What Is It and Why Do I Care? We played this game before and like the "What's Worse?!" game, the title pretty much explains it. I have three pitches from three different vendors who are all in the same category, Security Awareness Training. I have asked the reps to first, in 25 words or less, just explain their category. That's the "What Is It?" and then for the "Why Do I Care?" I asked them to explain what differentiates their product or makes them unique also in 25 words or less. It is up to Mike and Shawn pick their favorite of each and explain why. I only reveal the winning contestants and their companies.

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/why-am-i-working-harder-during-this-pandemic/) Is it the increased work or the pandemic itself that's causing us all to work more than we've ever worked before? This episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest this week is Christopher Zell, vp, head of information security, The Wendy's Company. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor GitGuardian. GitGuardian empowers organizations to secure their secrets - such as API keys and other credentials - from being exposed in compromised places or leaked publicly. GitGuardian offers a threat intelligence solution focused on detecting secrets leaked on public GitHub and an automated secrets detection solution which tightly integrates with your DevOps pipeline. On this week's episode Why is everybody talking about this now? On TechRepublic, Scott Matteson wrote an article about cybersecurity pros working harder than ever during the pandemic. Stuart Mitchell of Stott and May posted the article to LinkedIn and asked if anyone has taken a day off since COVID-19 started, and the general consensus is no. I see a multitude of factors affecting this: increased surface area to protect, compliance is more difficult, I also have to deal with my family, and where the heck is anyone going to go for vacation? I guess I'll just work. Close your eyes and visualize the perfect engagement On LinkedIn, our guest Chris Zell asked others to be more welcoming when you see someone post "aspiring cybersecurity professional." We discussed the approach and what the community could teach us. What's Worse?! Three options of how to talk to the board. There's got to be a better way to handle this On CSO Online, Mary Pratt has a guide for CISOs on securely laying people off. What are critical technical considerations during layoff time, and as a manager how do you manage security for those people who are still there. Have either of you made a massive security mistake during a layoff that was a great learning experience for you? What Is It and Why Do I Care? We played this game before and like the "What's Worse?!" game, the title pretty much explains it. I have three pitches from three different vendors who are all in the same category of governance, risk and compliance or GRC. I have asked the reps to first, in 25 words or less, just explain their category. That's the "What Is It?" and then for the "Why Do I Care?" I asked them to explain what differentiates their product or makes them unique also in 25 words or less. It is up to Mike and Chris to pick their favorite of each and explain why. I only reveal the winning contestants and their companies. Ready to play?

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/i-have-the-perfect-job-for-you-but-probably-not/) You put those qualifications on your resume, and I queried. So don't blame me for getting your hopes up. This episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest this week Brandon Greenwood, vp, security, Overstock.com. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor Trend Micro. Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, helps to make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Our innovative solutions for consumers, businesses, and governments provide layered security for data centers, cloud environments, networks, and endpoints. For more information, visit www.trendmicro.com. On this week's episode How CISOs are digesting the latest security news Paul Martini of iboss asks, "What network weaknesses has the current pandemic revealed?" Close your eyes and visualize the perfect engagement As evidenced by a previous episode, security recruiters have a hard time getting some respect. Let's discuss this issue from the viewpoint of the candidate. On Peerlyst, David Froud of Concept Security felt that the recruiter approach of saying I have a perfect job for you was misguided. Mike and our guest talk about their early security careers and how welcome they were to approaches from security recruiters. What's Worse?! Crappy tools or crappy team? What's worse? I tell ya, CISOs get no respect On CSO Online, Neal Weinberg has a story about hard truths security professionals have to deal with. One item was the outright lack of respect, being misunderstood and underappreciated, from the board and your coworkers. I know the generic response is communications and listen, but I want to know what are ways to command leadership so those do pay attention to you and you do get that respect. We discuss specific turning points in security leadership careers that allowed Mike and our guest to do this. Vendors have questions. Our CISOs have answers Dennis Underwood of Cyber Crucible asks if you can you be a threat hunter if you have to sign NDAs. Are NDAs the cover up so companies don't have to reveal information about their failed defenses? And are NDAs a common occurrence in bug bounties?

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/we-compensate-our-low-paying-ciso-jobs-with-high-stress/) On this week's episode we're seeking candidates for unrealistically low-paying CISO positions. This episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest this week is Nir Rothenberg, CISO, Rapyd. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor Trend Micro. Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, helps to make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Our innovative solutions for consumers, businesses, and governments provide layered security for data centers, cloud environments, networks, and endpoints. For more information, visit www.trendmicro.com. On this week's episode Why is everyone talking about this now? On LinkedIn, Farhan Khan, a recruiter at CyberApt Recruitment, told a tale of getting a call asking if he could help his company recruit a seasoned CISO for their 300+ person company. He was excited until he found out the salary they were offering the CISO was in the range of $90-$105K. We've talked before about unrealistic CISO salaries before, but this is actually below the rate of entry level cyber positions in the Bay Area. How do CISOs or heck any cybersecurity professional handle someone's unrealistic expectations? Do you say something or just say, "No thank you"? Also, Davi Ottenheimer of Inrupt, brought this story to my attention and argued that high CISO salaries are just attracting fraudsters. Does our panel agree, and if so, what would a company have to be wary of? Mike's Confused. Let's help him out On previous shows Mike has admitted he would not want to (not confused although that may be part of it) run the IT department. Nir mentioned that he feels that getting out of one's comfort zone is critical, no matter what department you're in. What are the pros and cons of other departments not just being security aware, but taking on cybersecurity responsibilities? And vice versa, cybersecurity taking on other department responsibilities? How far can/should it go? What's Worse?! Too much flexibility or too many restrictions? We've got listeners and they've got questions Anya Shpilman of Swiss Gulf Partners sent recorded this question: "I'm a recruiter and I specialize in cybersecurity recruitment. At the end of the show everyone says they're hiring. But I have a hard time getting traction from CISOs. So what would you like to see/hear in those initial emails or LinkedIn messages." Go here to record a question to be played on one of our shows. Umm, Is this good idea? I recently published an article on CISO Series entitled "25 API Security Tips You're Probably Not Considering". The very first tip, from Gary Hayslip, CISO, Softbank Investment Advisers, is K.I.S.S. or Keep It Simple Stupid. I then went on to provide 24 more tips from experts which if you were to deploy them all would in no way be simple. KISS sounds great in theory, but how the heck do you pull it off in practice. Can you point to an example of how you took something that was complicated and simplified it?

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/keep-pouring-ill-tell-you-when-ive-had-enough-security/) When do we hit the diminishing returns of too much cybersecurity? How will we know? Will a bell go off? Will our cup runneth over? This week's episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest is Tony Sager, svp, chief evangelist, Center for Internet Security. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, AppOmni. AppOmni is the leading provider of SaaS security and management platform for the enterprise. AppOmni provides unprecedented data access visibility, management and security of SaaS, enabling organizations to secure mission-critical and sensitive data. With AppOmni, organizations can automatically and continuously enforce rules for data access, data sharing and third-party applications. On this week's episode Looking down the security roadmap Dean Webb of ForeScout asked this great question on Peerlyst. "What are the things that are the hardest to fix that leave organizations the most vulnerable?" These are not the quick security fixes or low hanging fruit, but rather the big projects that nobody wants that often never get finished. What are they and is there any way to make them not so painful? It's time for "Ask a CISO" sitdownson on reddit's AskNetSec asked, "How and when did you decide to specialize?" Sultan_of_Ping answered, "For most people it's not a decision, the specialization comes to them." Do you get a taste of everything and then determine which one you're passionate about? Do you read market demands (e.g. cloud security) and go in that route? What have you seen your colleagues do? What's Worse?! A "What's Worse?!" first - FOUR scenarios. Which one is worst? Here's some surprising research We're revisiting the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report. Tony's organization, Center for Internet Security had a hand in the report and specifically at the end where you map the CIS top 20 to the breach findings. In particular, the report notes that there are 171 safeguards that are grouped based on the resources and risks the organizations are facing. Has anything shifted significantly in this most recent report? What's the return on investment? Tip of the hat to Norman Hunt, Deputy CISO, GEICO, who sent this article from HelpNet Security about a study on CEOs and CISOs approaches to "When is security enough security?" There seems to be a disparity with CEOs being more confident with the security that CISOs. I have to assume that mature understanding of risk is the biggest contributor, and the nature of the job of a CISO who sees more threats than the CEO, but only in a cyber context. A CEO sees all the other risks. What causes such swings in opinions?

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/facebook-personality-quiz-asks-whats-your-favorite-password/) What's your favorite combination of letters, numbers, and symbols you like to use to log onto your favorite app or financial institution? Let us know and we'll see if it matches any of your friends! This week's episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest this week is Lakshmi Hanspal (@lakshmihanspal), CISO, Box. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, CyberArk. At CyberArk, we believe that sharing insights and guidance across the CISO community will help strengthen security strategies and lead to better-protected organizations. CyberArk is committed to the continued exploration of topics that matter most to CISOs related to improving and integrating privileged access controls. On this week's episode Why is everybody talking about this now? On AskNetSec on reddit, user u/L7nx asks, "How do you handle alert fatigue?" Many vendors out there listening want to scream, "We've got a single pane of glass solution!" On reddit, Kamwind commented that it's not so much managing the output, but rather the input and false positives. "What are you doing to tune those rules and IOCs (indicators of compromise) to reflect your network vs accepting them from whatever vendor you're getting them from." Is alert fatigue a real thing and what can be done to manage input and output? It's security awareness training time There's a meme resurfacing that pokes fun at Facebook personality quizzes that ask seemingly innocuous questions such as "What's Your Favorite Band?" and "What's Your Favorite Teacher's Name?" In the meme, the answers to each question are just one word of the sentence, "Stop giving people your personal info to guess your passwords and security questions." We've talked about training programs that rely on fear. Humor seems rather effective here, but heck, I don't know. Does humor in security training work? Does fear? What tone have you seen actually foster behavioral change? What's Worse?! Do you likeable or useful vendors? Sometimes they're not both. Here's some surprising research The Verizon DBIR is out. Mike's favorite. There's a ton to unpack as there always is, but for this segment I just want to visit one item in this report and that's configuration errors. From a quote by Larry Dignan on ZDNet: "Errors definitely win the award for best supporting action this year. They are now equally as common as social breaches and more common than malware... hacking remains higher, and that is due to credential theft and use." I get the sense that second to black hat hackers, we're our own worst enemy. One argument for the increase in cloud breaches is because security researchers and others are discovering exposed storage in the cloud. Could it be just poor training of cloud security? Or poorly maintained cloud providers? Vendors have questions. Our CISOs have answers Landon Winkelvoss of Nisos asks, "What do your good vendors do on an ongoing basis (quarterly, monthly, weekly, etc) that make renewals easier around budget season? How often should they do it? What metrics and impacts to the business should they document and present that make this relatable to people outside of security such as the CFO?"

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/great-security-program-too-bad-we-cant-implement-it/) Security theory only goes so far. If you want your security program to work, everyone has to do their part. This week's episode of CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast features me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series, and co-host Mike Johnson. Our sponsored guest is Scott McCormick, CISO, Reciprocity. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, Reciprocity. ZenGRC by Reciprocity is a cloud-based GRC software that automates and simplifies compliance and risk management, solving critical problems at scale while customizing to your business needs. Adhering to the majority of regulations is a snap with pre-built templates and a unified system of record. Learn more at reciprocitylabs.com. On this week's episode How CISOs are digesting the latest security news The Wall Street Journal has a story about cybersecurity budgets during the COVID-19 crisis. Many companies are dealing with budget cuts across the board. One issue mentioned was that the first items to go from the cybersecurity budget would probably be big projects that require a lot of integration. So as to avoid getting left on the cutting room floor, what would be your advice to vendors on how better to situate themselves, prepare, and prove to potential buyers that they can help with the ease of that integration? Also, for those security leaders, how do they best show compassion to the rest of the business and don't just fight for their slice of the budget pie? It's time for "Ask a CISO" On reddit, countvonruckus states and then asks, "It's great to see CISOs giving back through mentorship. As a younger professional looking to become a CISO someday, it can be difficult to get a minute of a senior leader's time even for critical work decisions. How should someone looking to find a mentor or to benefit from the mentorship of a particular leader go about asking in a respectful but effective way? Is there anything a mentee can do to provide value in exchange that will make it more worthwhile for mentors?" It's time to play, "What's Worse?!" Two "What's Worse?!" scenarios nobody likes but many have faced especially now. Please, Enough. No, More. Operationalizing GRC. What have you heard enough about operationalizing GRC, and what would you like to hear a lot more? Looking down the security roadmap On Quora, the question was asked, "Do cloud providers implement governance, risk management and compliance (GRC) well?" I didn't know how one would define "well" and what we should expect from cloud providers to help with GRC efforts. This harkens back to our last segment, because we would hope that cloud providers could actually help us operationalize GRC. What are cloud providers doing to help in GRC efforts?

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/we-promoted-the-competition-and-still-won/) If you're having a problem getting people to discover your space, then maybe you have to do a better job promoting the space even when it involves the competition. This week's episode of CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast features me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series, and co-host Mike Johnson. Our guest is Zohar Rozenberg, former head of cyber department in the Israel Defense Force, and current CSO of Elron Electronic Industries. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, Reciprocity. ZenGRC by Reciprocity is a cloud-based GRC software that automates and simplifies compliance and risk management, solving critical problems at scale while customizing to your business needs. Adhering to the majority of regulations is a snap with pre-built templates and a unified system of record. Learn more at reciprocitylabs.com. On this week's episode Why is everybody talking about this now? On this podcast we have sponsored guest episodes in which we dedicate a segment of the show for the sponsor to talk about their category. I was just given the heads up by a listener that a competitor of one of our sponsored guests, actually promoted that episode via an email marketing campaign. I asked the community why they thought that happened. Did the company know they were promoting a direct competitor's solution, or were they of the philosophy of let's promote the space. The more people who know about this problem that benefits the entire industry and in turn that helps our competitor and us. Most people on LinkedIn agreed with the latter and actually thought it was a savvy marketing move possibly demonstrating that the competitor was confident with their product. It's time for "Ask a CISO" Tip of the hat to Sounil Yu, CISO in residence at YL Ventures for bringing up Mike's comment in a Slack channel of your frustration with cybersecurity startups who end up having an "us too" attitude towards creating the next cybersecurity solution. It seemed their only credentials was a successful exit, but not presenting a unique solution to an actual problem. You claimed a criteria that you would only meet with a founder who had a committed idea to a product. But how do you differentiate between an "also ran" and a unique solution? What's Worse?! One of our most challenging debates ever Close your eyes. Breathe in. It's time for a little security philosophy On our CISO Series Video Chat, Bob Henderson of Intelligence Services Group asked, "Has measuring risk itself become a risk? Since risk is primarily arbitrary depending on who defines the risk wouldn't the solutions be arbitrary and thus add complexity and uncertainty. Which are contributors to risk." Let's dig a little deeper What are the intrinsic training elements of Israel's elite 8200 that results in so many of the graduates going on to become cybersecurity entrepreneurs? What if anything can other organizations, military units or schools learn from this?

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/three-years-experience-required-for-sub-entry-level-positions/) Our motto for hiring: We never give up on our unreasonable expectations. This week's episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our sponsored guest is Brandon Traffanstedt, global director of systems engineering, CyberArk. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, CyberArk. At CyberArk, we believe that sharing insights and guidance across the CISO community will help strengthen security strategies and lead to better-protected organizations. CyberArk is committed to the continued exploration of topics that matter most to CISOs related to improving and integrating privileged access controls. Are we making the situation better or worse? On LinkedIn, Gabriel Friedlander of Wizer asked, "Should we be doing home risk assessments?" Could we create bigger problems if we do that? Gabriel's post generated a debate on what actions can significantly reduce risk. Is there value in a home risk assessment and if so, what's it going to reveal? It's time for "Ask a CISO" On reddit, crossfire14 asks, "Why are helpdesk roles requiring 2-3 years experience? I thought they were entry level friendly? Im trying to start at lower positions to work my way into infosec yet I cant seem to qualify for any helpdesk roles because of exp?" I looked and actually these entry level positions are often asking for 3-5 years experience. Is this required? If not, what IS required for an entry level help desk role and what's the best way to show that? "What's Worse?!" Two horrible company debilitating options that have happened in real life. How would you survive either one? Please, Enough. No, More Our topic is Privileged Access Management, or PAM. What have Mike and Brandon heard enough about with PAM, and what would they like to hear a lot more? The great CISO challenge Outsider attacks, insider attacks, your assets, networks, people, and controls - what DOESN'T always change in security? If we assume that consistency is synonymous with simplicity, is it always an uphill battle to try to keep security simple especially if we're expanding into new services and cloud environments? Could this be why the foundations are still a struggle for everyone?

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/look-freshmen-cisos-get-ready-to-pounce/) What could possibly be a better way to welcome newly hired CISOs to the security community than with a shiny new sales pitch? This week's episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest is Wayne Reynolds, CISO, Toyota Financial Savings Bank. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, AppOmni. AppOmni is the leading provider of SaaS security and management platform for the enterprise. AppOmni provides unprecedented data access visibility, management and security of SaaS, enabling organizations to secure mission-critical and sensitive data. With AppOmni, organizations can automatically and continuously enforce rules for data access, data sharing and third-party applications. On this week's episode Why is everyone talking about this now? Our guest, Wayne Reynolds posted the good news about his new CISO role. While he got the expected kudos, he also got lots of sales emails. In the short conversation we had in preparation for this episode, six pitches came in. He counted 731 vendor pitches in just five days. Given the situation, we have all seen an uptick in pitches, across all industries, not just cybersecurity. Vendors want to make some type of connection. If they weren't pitching, what would be a more acceptable outreach? It's time for "Ask a CISO" What can security startups do to prepare for and prove to prospects that their solution won't slow down operations? Thanks to John Prokap, CISO, HarperCollins for pointing me to this great article on CIO.com by Yoav Leitersdorf of YL Ventures on mistakes security startups make. One concern was on the issue of startups losing this specific focus. From the article, Peter Bodine, AllegisCyber Capital said, "I cannot stress how much of a difference productivity makes to the CISOs we consult with. So, as an investor, our attention is immediately piqued when we learn that a POC took fewer resources than a regular POC, because it often means that they developed their process early enough with a customer satisfaction person. We really don't see that very often, but when we have, we've written a check almost right on the spot, just because they take so much sand out of the gears and make it so much easier for a yes decision to occur." "What's Worse?!" Do you want to be the one to reveal the cybersecurity incident or do you want somebody else to reveal it? What's a CISO to do? In the world of DevOps I'm constantly seeing the desire for developers to be security aware. But the point of DevOps is to be aggressively competitive. That's something I often don't see security people understanding or literally being aware of. Nicolas Valcarcel of NextRoll gave me heads up on a post by Mike Sherma of Square about having dev champions on the security team to advocate for the software engineering experience and design principles. Is this a good idea, and if so how would it be rolled out and what would be the benefits? How to become a CISO Prior to the unfortunate COVID-19 crisis we at the CISO Series were planning on hosting our very own one-day event to train security leaders. That event will happen eventually, but right now it's on hold. The whole idea is we were going to have a group of CISOs training a group of wannabe CISOs to be CISOs. Wayne is a strident mentor for wannabe CISO. At any time he's got 4 or 5 security professionals you're mentoring. We discuss the core skills security professionals are lacking to become CISOs, and what mentorship does to help you get those skills.

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/cleaning-those-tough-to-reach-digital-identity-stains/) We're trying to erase our past and it's becoming harder and harder to clean that history. This week's episode of CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast features me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series, and co-host Mike Johnson. Our guest is Davi Ottenheimer (@daviottenheimer), vp of trust and digital ethics, Inrupt. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, Reciprocity. ZenGRC by Reciprocity is a cloud-based GRC software that automates and simplifies compliance and risk management, solving critical problems at scale while customizing to your business needs. Adhering to the majority of regulations is a snap with pre-built templates and a unified system of record. Learn more at reciprocitylabs.com. On this week's episode Why is everybody talking about this now? On Quora, the question was asked, "What are some ways to protect identities on the Internet?" Mike and Davi offer their advice. It's time for "Ask a CISO" The Three As: Authentication, Authorization, and Auditing or Accounting. How do they interrelate? What's the order? And have we been doing it wrong? It's time to play, "What's Worse?!" How are you going to handle having a very well known exploit? Close your eyes, breathe in. It's time for a little security philosophy. On Quora, the question was asked, "What should I do to completely erase my digital identity for good?" It seems impossible, and probably is, but how what steps would one need to get rid of our online identities? It's time to play, "What Is It and Why Do I Care?" We're introducing a brand new game today called "What Is It and Why Do I Care?" Here's how the game is played. I have three pitches from three different vendors who are all in the same category, application security. I have asked the reps to first, in 25 words or less, just explain their category. So give me a simple explanation of application security. That's the "What Is It?" and then for the "Why Do I Care?" I asked them to explain what differentiates them or makes them unique also in 25 words or less. It is up to Mike and Davi to pick your favorite of each and explain why. I only reveal the winning contestants and their companies. If you would like to be a contestant for "What Is It and Why Do I Care?" just go here and fill out the simple SurveyMonkey form.

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/lets-just-dump-on-zooms-security-and-offer-no-solutions/) Sure, we're all in this together, but isn't it fun just to trash a popular product's really bad security? This week's episode of CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast features me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series, and co-host Mike Johnson. Our sponsored guest is Brian Johnson, CEO and co-founder, DivvyCloud. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, DivvyCloud. DivvyCloud provides continuous security and compliance across all CSPs and containers, including AWS, GCP, Azure, Ailibaba, and Kubernetes, providing a comprehensive view of what's in your cloud, along with the tools and automation you need to manage it today, tomorrow, and into the future as your business grows and changes. On this week's episode Why is everybody talking about this now? Yaron Levi, CISO, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City a frequent and recent guest of the podcasts, had an incendiary post on LinkedIn where he challenged the long held belief in cybersecurity that "we're all in this together." Well that theory was put to the test with the outcries of Zoom's security and privacy flaws. Levi believes the security industry failed. Instead of trashing Zoom we should be offering suggestions of how they could fix a now universally used application. His challenge exploded online with over 200 comments. How could we/can we handle this situation better? Look at this, another company breached Oh Marriott. You blew it again. Two massive data breaches in two years. This one just gave too much access to too many customers from a branch office. Years ago this would be a front page story we'd be talking about for weeks if not months. Now they're just another breach and it doesn't seem that the affected users seem to care. How much damage are these breaches doing to companies if the customers have breach fatigue and can't see the damage immediately or even directly? And what percentage of these breaches do you believe are the result of poorly architected or implemented security programs? It's time to play "What's Worse?!" We get a chance to talk about Mike's favorite topic, toxic team members. Please, Enough. No, More. Today's topic is Identity Access Management or IAM. We discuss what we've heard enough about with IAM and what would we'd like to hear a lot more. It's time for "Ask a CISO" We have a question from a listener, a college student. Here's her question: "I'm a college student interested in majoring in cybersecurity. However I'm more of a people person and I'm afraid cybersecurity is just dealing with computers and having no people interaction. I'm just wondering what I should expect if I continue to pursue a cybersecurity major."

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/weve-got-a-dozen-features-only-two-work/) If you don't focus too much on quality you'll really be impressed with the quantity of features our product has. This week's episode of CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast features me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series, and co-host Mike Johnson. Our guest is Yaron Levi (@0xL3v1), CISO, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, DivvyCloud. DivvyCloud provides continuous security and compliance across all CSPs and containers, including AWS, GCP, Azure, Ailibaba, and Kubernetes, providing a comprehensive view of what's in your cloud, along with the tools and automation you need to manage it today, tomorrow, and into the future as your business grows and changes. On this week's episode Hey, you're a CISO. What's your take on this? What's the value of a vendor-derived security meter? I sat down for a vendor presentation that was chock full of dashboards with meters. Some made sense and others appeared they were derived through some mysterious black box. When do you trust a vendor-derived meter? Can you? If not you, who are they for? Is it possible to ignore the absolute numbers in a vendor-derived formula and value only the changes over time? If you don't trust a vendor-derived meter, what meters do you create for yourself that you do trust? How do you go about discovering new security solutions? Tip of the hat to John Prokap, CISO, HarperCollins for forwarding me this excellent CIO.com article by Yoav Leitersdorf of YL Ventures. How feature rich should a startup product be? In the article, Richard Rushing, CISO, Motorola Mobility talks about the need to trust a startup and the quality of each feature. "It's not enough to just focus on three out of five. All five have to be spot on because I can't miss, which means you can't miss." How does a vendor avoid the classic case of trying to be everything to everybody and really you're serving no one? What's Worse? What's better for the business, compromised security occasionally, or unnecessary overhead that grows over time? Close your eyes and visualize the perfect engagement There's a well-known paradox in the healthcare industry when it comes to working with third party vendors. Because of HIPAA regulations there's a desire to keep information private, but at the same time, what about all these wonderful third party tools. Let them have access to our data. What's the advice for vendors eager to work with a healthcare organization? How should they demonstrate their awareness of this paradox (e.g., scope of responsibilities, efficacy of controls, attestation, accountability)? Why is everyone talking about this now? We recorded this episode on March 30th as we talk about this next topic and that is should companies challenge their employees with a COVID-19 phishing test? Tip of the hat to Louisa Vogelenzang of Kroll who pointed me to this active discussion started by Grant McKechnie, Telstra, who asked this very question. There was a lot of debate. We debate both sides and offer an ultimate recommendation.

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/lets-ask-cisos-if-theyre-concerned-about-data-security/) I'm just learning about cybersecurity and I just realized that data security is really important. I don't know if everybody knows this. Do CISOs know? I should email all of them and ask. This week's episode of CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast features me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series, and co-host Mike Johnson. Our guest is Steve Zalewski, deputy CISO, Levi Strauss & Co. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, DivvyCloud. DivvyCloud provides continuous security and compliance across all CSPs and containers, including AWS, GCP, Azure, Ailibaba, and Kubernetes, providing a comprehensive view of what's in your cloud, along with the tools and automation you need to manage it today, tomorrow, and into the future as your business grows and changes. On this week's episode Why is everyone talking about this now? On Quora, the question was asked, "What is the most common unaddressed cybersecurity risk at companies?" Looking through the list, we've talked about all of these issues: people (malicious and negligence), program maturity, data privacy, and just basic network. They're all important, but we discuss which one we believe is least addressed. There's got to be a better way to handle this What happens when a cloud provider breaks a service level agreement or SLA? On a recent episode of Defense in Depth, Taylor Lehmann, CISO, athenahealth said that putting ultimatums in SLAs just doesn't work in reality. No one really pulls the plug just because a cloud provider fell short on providing a certain level of uptime. We walk through the steps of the SLA. What's needed? What's too much? What do you do when something is violated? How do you right the ship and maintain the relationship? What's Worse? What happens when there's a political motivation to select a vendor? What do you think of this pitch? and Why is this a bad pitch? We put a good one and a bad one back to back so you can hear the range of what comes in a CISO's inbox. Um… maybe you shouldn't have done that As a security vendor, how do you catch yourself if you're cybersplaining? Brian Haugli of Sidechannel Security offered the following definition: "When a salesperson or company representative explains in detail how a basic attack, ransomware, BEC, or other threat works to a CISO or current cybersecurity expert in order to push a sale." From what I see, it appears that cybersplaining is the norm mostly for those who are very green in cybersecurity. I'll also say I've seen the complete opposite where someone at a much higher level assumes you're already in their head and agree to the same assumptions they have about cybersecurity as well. This plays out that they'll state an issue in cybersecurity and conclude with "right?" not waiting for an answer but just assuming you're on the same page so that they can go on with their rant. What are ways to check yourself on both sides of the spectrum and what's the happy medium?

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/i-dont-need-anymore-advice-on-how-to-work-remotely/) It appears everyone has tips on how to work remotely. And after the deluge the past two weeks, most people have hit their wall. We don't care. We're pushing through with even more advice, just for security professionals. This week's episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our sponsored guest is Brendan O'Connor, CEO, AppOmni. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, AppOmni. AppOmni is the leading provider of SaaS security and management platform for the enterprise. AppOmni provides unprecedented data access visibility, management and security of SaaS, enabling organizations to secure mission-critical and sensitive data. With AppOmni, organizations can automatically and continuously enforce rules for data access, data sharing and third-party applications. On this week's episode Why is everyone talking about this now? Adapting a line from Wendy Nather of Duo Security, what's the security poverty line for remote work? Gabriel Friedlander of Wizer started a thread of best advice for employees working at home. And then he compiled a list of the best tips. We talk about our favorite tips and add a few of our own. There's got to be a better way to handle this Mike and our sponsored guest, Brendan, are both security leaders who have been thrust into managing their entire team virtually for an extended period of time. On top of that, their teams are going to have new pressures on them (e.g., kids at home) that are going to conflict with their ability to be efficient employees. We talk about what they're doing to adapt and their greatest concerns. What's Worse?! How are you dealing with patch management when you've got an all-remote workforce? Please, Enough. No, More. Our topic security cloud or specifically SaaS apps. What have we heard enough about on this topic and what would we like to hear a lot more? A serious confounding feature of public activities like elections and climate change discussions is the proliferation of actual fake news – stories created by bad actors and distributed by bots and which include deepfaked video and propaganda that lead audiences into a state of not knowing who to believe anymore. Security experts including the International Security Forum categorize this as a cyberthreat called Distortion, the loss of trust in the integrity of information. As threat actors continue to hammer away at the cyber defenses however they can, it is extremely likely that Distortion attacks will be yet one more way of bringing organizations to a point of extreme vulnerability, just like ransomware and siegeware. Though the Distortion content may be generated externally, it has the potential to be implanted in a company's environment through phishing, MFA fraud and hacking, leading to media crises, drops in market valuation, destruction of public credibility and of internal stability. More from our sponsor, ExtraHop. Um… maybe you shouldn't have done that Some really well-intentioned people are responsible for some really bad data practices. When I was in Tel Aviv I ran into a number of companies offering discovery solutions to show you where your data is, identify the sensitive data, the PII, and who has access. We learn a lot about sensitive data after it's breached, but there are also plenty of bad data practices happening internally which lend themselves to misuse or greater damage when there is a breach.

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/the-department-of-no-thank-you/) Just go to the front desk, sign in, and then the receptionist will say "no" in the most polite way possible. This week's episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest is Nina Wyatt, CISO, Sunflower Bank. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, CyberArk. At CyberArk, we believe that sharing insights and guidance across the CISO community will help strengthen security strategies and lead to better-protected organizations. CyberArk is committed to the continued exploration of topics that matter most to CISOs related to improving and integrating privileged access controls. On this week's episode There's got to be a better way to handle this The hot new cybersecurity threat is the Coronavirus. Not the virus itself or the possible fake phishing emails connected to it, but our overall fear and its impact on work. According to data from Boardish, there is a 42% increase over baseline in fear of immobility, or staff not being able to operate effectively remotely. To put that number in perspective, phishing and ransomware have each seen an 8% threat increase. I read immobility's huge number to mean companies are simply not prepared for how their staff may need to operate. What we've got here is failure to communicate What's the best way to say 'no' to a vendor? This was a question that was asked of me by Eric Gauthier, CISO at Scout Exchange. He wants to say no because his cloud business has no need for certain services, and he doesn't want to be rude, but just saying no doesn't seem to work. What are the most successful techniques of saying no to a security vendor? And what different kinds of "no" are there? "What's Worse?!" A tough decision on a company built on acquisitions. Walk a mile in this CISO's shoes For many CISOs, there is a "What's Next?" as they don't necessarily expect "CISO" to be their final resting place professionally. Gary Hayslip, a CISO for Softbank Investment Advisers and frequent guest, wrote on both LinkedIn and Peerlyst about next steps for CISOs who want to move out of the role. The recommendations were other C-level positions, going independent, and starting a new company. On January 2 of this year, parking meters in New York City stopped accepting credit and parking cards. At fault? Security software that had expired on the first day of 2020. Reminiscent of Y2K, this draws attention to the next two time-related bugs predicted for 2036 and 2038. The 2038 problem affects 32-bit systems that rely on timecodes that max out on January 19 of that year. A similar rollover is expected in 2036 for Network Time Protocol systems. In all likelihood, affected systems either have been or will be replaced over the next 18 years, but the dangers still exist, in situations where vulnerable devices remain buried in a legacy system or in cases where advanced calculation of expiry dates are needed, or like New York City, where the upgrade was apparently overlooked. It serves as a reminder that data security must look to its past while it plans for the future. More from our sponsor ExtraHop. Hey, you're a CISO. What's your take on this? What's the impact of Europe's Right to Be Forgotten (RTFB)? It's been five years and Google has received ~3.2 million requests to delist URLs, from ~502,000 requesters. Forty five percent of those URLs met the criteria for delisting, according to Elie Bursztein, leader of Google's anti-abuse research team. Search engines and media sites hold the greatest responsibility, but what responsibility are companies forced to deal with and do they have the capacity to meet these requests?

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/we-pick-the-best-security-awareness-programs-for-your-staff-to-ignore/) It doesn't matter which security awareness training program you purchase. Your staff is going to do whatever they can to either tune out or get out of this annual compulsory exercise. This week's episode of CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast was recording in front of a live audience at athenahealth in Watertown, Massachusetts. The recording features me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series, my guest co-host, Taylor Lehmann (@BostonCyberGuy), CISO, athenahealth, and guest Marnie Wilking, global head of security & technology risk management, Wayfair. David Spark, producer of CISO Series, Taylor Lehmann, CISO, athenahealth, Marnie Wilking, global head of security & technology risk management, Wayfair Check out all the photos from our recording. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsors, Check Point and Skybox Security. It's no secret that today's cyber attacks are targeted and sophisticated. Leaving even one point of entry vulnerable to a cyber attack endangers your entire organization. Check Point created the Secure Your Everything Resource Center to help you develop a comprehensive approach to prevent cyber attacks. At Skybox, we remove complexities from cybersecurity management. By integrating data, delivering new insights and unifying processes, we help you control security without restricting business agility. Our comprehensive solution unites security perspectives into the big picture, minimizes risk and empowers security programs to move to the next level. On this week's episode Pay attention, it's security awareness training time Jinan Budge of Forester finished a report on security awareness training programs. She found a trend that supported both the need for compliance and the need to actually train employees to be more security aware. We discuss what actually works to get people to be more aware of cybersecurity. What do you think of this vendor marketing tactic? At RSA, I talked to a vendor who told me about their new solution. It was so unique that Gartner was creating a new category for their product with yet another acronym. UGGH, another category for which you have to educate the market? And now you have to convince buyers to create a new line item for this category? And now what is that going to do to your marketing budget? It didn't take much convincing for me to point out that their product was just third-party risk management. Admittedly, cybersecurity professionals love the new and shiny, but where do we draw the line about learning something new in cybersecurity and adding confusion to the marketplace? It's time to play, "What's Worse?!" Two rounds, lots of debate. Where does a CISO begin? When we hear about digital transformation, it is being done for purposes of speed, accuracy, and business competitiveness. Scott McCool, former CIO at Polycom was on our show Defense in Depth, disputed the common notion that security serves the business. Instead, he believes that security IS the business. And if you deem that to be true, then security can no longer can take a consultative role. It must take the role of brand and value building. This is more than just a discussion of "shifting left." What are actions that security must take to make it clear that they are part of making the business fast, innovative, and competitive? Um... maybe you shouldn't have done that We tell talks of the worst proof of concept (POC) efforts. Audience question speed round We close out the show with a series of quick answers to audience questions.

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/buy-our-product-we-have-no-idea-what-were-selling/) What do you think of our confusing non-descriptive ad copy? We think it's brilliant. We're patting ourselves on the back on the latest episode of CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast. This episode was recorded in front of a live audience in NYC at the coworking space, Rise NYC. It's hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and JJ Agha, vp, head of information security at WeWork. Our guest is Mike Wilkes (@eclectiqus), CISO, ASCAP. David Spark, producer, CISO Series, JJ Agha, vp, head of information security, WeWork, and Mike Wilkes, CISO, ASCAP Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, Check Point It's no secret that today's cyber attacks are targeted and sophisticated. Leaving even one point of entry vulnerable to a cyber attack endangers your entire organization. Check Point created the Secure Your Everything Resource Center to help you develop a comprehensive approach to prevent cyber attacks. On this week's episode There's got to be a better way to handle this How well are you configuring your controls today and tomorrow? At RSA, I chatted with Adam Glick, CISO, Rocket Software. He said what he'd like is a tool to test the maturity of his deployed controls. How are his controls optimized over time? What does it looks like today vs. a year from now? How are we currently trying to solve that problem and what could be done to improve it? Hey, you're a CISO, what's your take on this? "Which cybersecurity certification should I get?" It's a question I see repeated often, especially on Quora and Peerlyst. Your best bet would probably be the one that most employers are looking for. And according to job board searches, conducted by Business News Daily, CISSP is the overwhelming favorite. Do our CISOs prefer certain certifications over others? Is it a requirement for hiring? And what does a security professional with certifications vs. experience tell us about that person? What's Worse?! Split decisions on both and the audience plays along as well. Is this the best use of my money? "One of the common complaints I repeatedly hear is that cybersecurity vendors are not solving real problems. They're just looking to make money. I think that's a rather unfair blanket statement, but regardless, I hear it a lot. I think why I hear that so often is that we're all in the cybersecurity fight together and we need to help each other. Helping each other is often done by participating in the open source community. Why is it critical to contribute to the open source community? Um... What do they do? I read copy that appeared on various booths at RSA 2020. Most are confusing and non-descriptive and don't appear to assume a pre-existing understanding of cybersecurity. The expo hall at RSA is filled with security professionals who are already security minded. I honestly don't know exactly the reaction they're looking to get or what type of information these vendors are trying to convey. Audience question speed round We close out the show with a series of quick answers to audience questions.

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/were-market-leaders-in-customer-confusion/) We could offer a simpler explanation of our technology, but if we confuse you we can charge a lot more. This episode was recorded in front of a live audience at BsidesSF 2020 in San Francisco. It's hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest is Olivia Rose, former CISO, Mailchimp. Look at that screen! We were in a movie theater. Those small people in the lower right are David Spark, producer, CISO Series, Mike Johnson, co-host, CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast, and Olivia Rose, former CISO, Mailchimp. Photo credit to @ash1warya. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsors, Vulcan Cyber and CyberArk. Vulcan is a vulnerability management platform built for remediation. By orchestrating the entire remediation process, Vulcan ensures that vulnerabilities aren't just found, they're fixed. Pioneering a remediation orchestration approach, the platform enables security, operational and business teams to effectively remediate cyber risks at scale. At CyberArk, we believe that sharing insights and guidance across the CISO community will help strengthen security strategies and lead to better-protected organizations. CyberArk is committed to the continued exploration of topics that matter most to CISOs related to improving and integrating privileged access controls. On this week's episode How to become a CISO What is some actionable "let's start today" advice. What could an individual do right now to develop the skills to be a cyber leader and make it clear to management, that's what they're gunning for? What we've got here is failure to communicate If all vendors stopped sending cold emails, which is what we constantly hear CISOs say they should do, how should they spend their time and money instead to greatly improve their success? If a CISO played the role of a vendor, which happens often, what should you do, to get to you? What's Worse?! We play TWO rounds. What do you think of this vendor marketing tactic? According to a recent study by Valimail, CISOs are very suspect of security vendors' claims. In general, the numbers are horrible for vendor credibility. Close to half of security professionals claim the following: Vendors' tech and explanation are confusing Practitioners have a hard time seeing and measuring value Practitioners don't know how a vendor's product will stay valid on their security roadmap. What could cybersecurity vendors do to make their claims more believable? Close your eyes and visualize the perfect engagement Rafal Los, Armor Cloud Security asked, "If you could implement one thing in your organization that would receive universal adoption without push-back, what would it be?" The question, which seems reasonable, but in the security world often feels impossible, generated a ton of responses on both LinkedIn and Twitter. Many wanted company-wide adoption of one solution, such as MFA or vulnerability management. Others wanted widespread and ongoing security education. Our CISOs debate the one pushback-free solution that would yield the greatest results.

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/last-chance-to-vote-for-most-stressed-out-ciso/) Think you or your CISO has what it take to shoulder all the tension, risk, and security issues of your organization? You may be a perfect candidate for "Most Stressed Out CISO". This episode was recorded in person at Zenefits' offices in San Francisco. It's hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest is Keith McCartney (@kmflgator), CISO, Zenefits. Keith McCartney, CISO, Zenefits and Mike Johnson, co-host, CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, CyberArk At CyberArk, we believe that sharing insights and guidance across the CISO community will help strengthen security strategies and lead to better-protected organizations. CyberArk is committed to the continued exploration of topics that matter most to CISOs related to improving and integrating privileged access controls. On this week's episode There's got to be a better way to handle this CISO Stress. We've talked about it before on the show, and now Nominet just released a new study that claims stress levels are increasing. 8% of CISOs said work stress has had a detrimental impact on their mental health, almost twice as high as last year (27%). 31% of CISOs said that stress had affected their ability to do their job. Almost all surveyed CISOs (90%) said they'd take a pay cut if it improved their work-life balance. How could a CISO negotiate better work/life balance upfront and have either of our CISOs done it? Hey, you're a CISO. What's your take on this? Gary Hayslip shared this Peerlyst article by Ian Barwise of Morgan Computer Services about the incredible array of OSINT tools. What OSINT tools do our CISOs find most valuable and for what purposes. What's Worse?! A little too much agreement on this week's "What's Worse?!" Here's some surprising research Why are cloud security positions so much harder to fill? Robert Herjavec of the Herjavec Group posted a number of disturbing hiring statistics. Most notably was one from Cyber Seek that stated jobs requesting public cloud security skills remain open 79 days on average — longer than almost any other IT skills. Why isn't supply meeting demand? Why is it such a difficult security skill to find? And how easy and quickly can you train for it? EKANS is the backward spelling of SNAKE. It is also the name of new ransomware code that targets the industrial control systems in oil refineries and power grids. Not only does it extort a ransom, it also has the ability to destroy software components that do things like monitor the status of a pipeline, or similar critical functions in a power grid or utility. A recently documented attack on Bahrain's national oil company reveals the architecture and deployment of EKANS not to be the work of a hostile nation-state, but of cybercriminals. The chilling message behind that, of course, is that penetrating and sabotaging critical components of a country's infrastructure is no longer exclusive to sophisticated national intelligence agencies. Lower level criminal agencies may have motives that are far less predictable and trackable, and when combined with the complexities of an industrial control system, these may have cascading effects beyond the wildest dreams of the instigators themselves. More from our sponsor ExtraHop. What do you think of this pitch? We get a pitch with some suggestions on how best to improve the pitch. We want more pitches!

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/lets-blow-our-entire-marketing-budget-at-rsa/) Security professionals only think about security one week out of the year, right? So let's drop every single dollar we have budgeted for marketing on the last week of February. Whaddya say? This episode was recorded in person at Intel's offices in Santa Clara, California. This episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our sponsored guest is Tom Garrison (@tommgarrison), vp and gm of client security strategy at Intel (@IntelNews). David Spark, CISO Series, Tom Garrison, Intel, and Mike Johnson, CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, Intel. The globalization of technology has created an environment of complicated supply chains with limited transparency. Intel's Compute Lifecycle Assurance (CLA) initiative solves this through a range and tools and solutions that deliver assurances of integrity throughout the entire lifetime of a platform --from build to retire. On this week's episode There's got to be a better way to handle this Next week is RSA and by podcast law we're required to talk about it. We offer up tips on maximizing the following: education, engagement, and follow up. What's the return on investment? On Peerlyst, John Mueller, a security architect with the US Navy, suggested ways to use incident response metrics to help determine whether your cybersecurity program is improving. But as Mueller points out, it's not easy as you could fool yourself into believing you're doing well if you don't valuable discovery tools. We discuss methods to measure improvements in security programs. What's Worse?! A really tough one that delivers a split decision. Please, enough. No, more. Our topic is trust and hardware manufactures. We discuss what we've heard enough about with trusting hardware manufacturers of tech products, and then we discuss what we'd like to hear a lot more. The fable of Walt Disney having been cryogenically frozen to be revived in an age where the science to do so existed is just that – a fable. But there is still something to be taken from that when it comes to documents archived on the cloud or consigned to data landfills. Just because encrypted data cannot be easily decrypted by hackers using today's tools, that doesn't mean tomorrow's tools can't do the job and revive the information stored inside. When threat actors take it upon themselves to steal data, through hacking, ransomware, or AI, they might, of course be searching for material that is immediately exploitable, such personal data, or data that has immediate value in being returned or unlocked as in the case of ransomware. But other players are in it for the long game, counting on the fact that the inexorable momentum of progress will lead to a decryption solution in time for stolen archived data to still be of use for future crimes, frauds and deep fakery. More from our sponsor ExtraHop. Close your eyes. Breathe in. It's time for a little security philosophy. I got back from Tel Aviv where cybersecurity professionals find themselves innovating out of necessity. They're often short on resources. We discuss the kinds of exercises we've tried to help ourselves and our team to think creatively about cybersecurity. One suggestion is the interrogation technique of "Five Whys" to get at the root reason of why we make our choices.

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/empowered-working-together-to-pile-on-the-cyber-guilt/) We can all be more secure if we work together as a team to shame those who don't agree with how we approach security. This week's episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest is Chris Hatter, CISO, Nielsen. On this week's episode Mike's confused. Let's help him out. Mike inspired this brand new segment with his question to the LinkedIn community, asking what's the big deal with 5G security? The story I heard about 5G is just sheer volume over unsecured networks. But Mike said, we've been dealing with unsecured networks since 2G and 3G and we dealt with them using Transport Layer Security or TLS, and implementing other services such as multi-factor authentication or MFA. Mike called out to the community to clue him in as to why we should be more concerned with 5G. Does shaming improve security? Thanks to Mark Eggleston, CISO, Health Partners Plans for alerting me to Chris Castaldo, CISO of Dataminr, and his post about Rob Chahin's "Single Sign-On or SSO Wall of Shame". Chahin, who is the head of security at Eero, purports that SSO should be a standard feature in applications and websites that allow for secure sign on through third party identity services, such as Google and Okta. Single sign-on is a significant boon for security and management simplicity and Chahin argues that many companies force users to pay dearly to enable SSO. What's Worse?! A grand financial decision in this scenario. Is this the best solution? According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, there is an ever slight trend of CISOs moving away from reporting to the CIO, opting instead to report directly to the CEO. Why is this trend happening? What are the benefits and disadvantages? With hacks and breaches becoming all too commonplace and even encrypted data still vulnerable to hackers who can read and copy it, focus is now being placed on Quantum Communication as a potential next option. This is a technique that encodes data into photons of light, each of which can carry multiple copies of ones and zeroes simultaneously, but which collapses into a single one-and-zero if tampered with. Basically, the scrambling of data to an unusable format. Although Quantum communication has been development for a few years, researchers in China have apparently already outfitted a fleet of drones that will soon be able to communicate upwards to its already launched Quantum satellites and downwards to ground stations while remaining stable in flight. This paves the way for the field of quantum teleportation, a glamorous term whose uses and actual development are no longer just the realm of science fiction. For data at least. More from our sponsor ExtraHop. Close your eyes. Breathe in. It's time for a little security philosophy. Simon Goldsmith, adidas, said, "I've been having some success in replacing risk with uncertainty. By which I mean not having a threat, vulnerability or impact made tangible creates uncertainty which is next to impossible to factor into any modern decision making process. If I make it tangible, it becomes a risk and I can help you make a better decision. Puts value on turning uncertainty to risk and fights FUD."

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/youre-mistaken-im-not-annoying-its-chutzpah/) We're pushing just to the edge of irritation on the latest episode of CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast. This episode was recorded in front of a live audience in Tel Aviv on the eve of the 2020 Cybertech conference. Special thanks to Glilot Capital for hosting this event. This episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and my special guest co-host, Bobby Ford, global CISO for Unilever. Our guest is John Meakin, veteran financial CISO, and currently CISO for Equiniti. David Spark, producer, CISO Series, Bobby Ford, CISO, Unilver, and John Meakin, CISO, Equiniti. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsors, Polyrize and Intsights. As newly adopted SaaS and IaaS services add an additional layer of risk for security teams, Polyrize provides a cloud-centric approach to simplifying the task of protecting user identities and their access across the public cloud by right-sizing their privileges and continuously protecting them through a unified authorization model. IntSights is revolutionizing cybersecurity operations with the industry's only all-in-one external threat protection platform designed to neutralize cyberattacks outside the wire. Our unique cyber reconnaissance capabilities enable continuous monitoring of an enterprise's external digital profile across the clear, deep, and dark web to identify emerging threats and orchestrate proactive response. To learn more, visit intsights.com. On this week's episode How do you go about discovering new security solutions? In an article on LinkedIn entitled, "Why do CISOs take a vendor meeting?" Dutch Schwartz, of AWS said that they take meetings per a recommendation of their staff, their peers, or they have an explicit problem that they've already researched, or they have known unknowns. Are those the reasons to take a meeting with a security vendor? We discuss what meetings CISOs take, and which ones are the most attractive. It's time for "Ask a CISO" Israel is known for a thriving startup community. But what I always see is cross pollination between Israel and Silicon Valley when it comes to startups. We discuss what Israeli startups can learn from Silicon Valley and vice versa. What's Worse?! We've got two rounds. One agreement and one split vote. It's time to measure the risk Five years ago I wrote an article for CIO.com about the greatest myths of cloud security, The first myth was the cloud is inherently insecure. And the other 19 are ones I'm still hearing today. My conclusion for the whole article was if you can overcome these myths about cloud security, you can reduce risk. In this segment we dispel cloud security myths and explain how the cloud helps reduce risk possibly in ways many of us are not aware. Close your eyes. Breathe in. It's time for a little security philosophy. On this podcast we talk a lot about CISOs needing to understand the business. In a thought-provoking post on Peerlyst, Eh-den Biber, a student of information security at Royal Holloway, University of London, noted that the job of cybsecurity is more than that. It's about understanding the flow of business and being present in the individuals' lives and their stories. We discuss the importance of being present in your users' lives. It's time for the audience question speed round The audience has questions and our CISOs have answers. We get through a lot really quickly.

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/revisiting-a-whole-career-of-cyber-screw-ups/) This episode was recorded in front of a live audience at Malwarebytes' offices in Santa Clara, California for the Silicon Valley ISSA chapter meeting. This episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest is Peter Liebert, former CISO, state of California. Peter is now an independent consultant and commander of cyber operations for California State Guard. (left to right) David Spark, producer, CISO Series, Mike Johnson, co-host, CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast, and Peter Liebert, commander, cyber operations, California State Guard Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, Malwarebytes. Malwarebytes secures endpoints, making workplaces resilient. Our adaptive cyber protection predicts and detects attacks with multi-layer detection across the kill chain. We enable active threat response with machine learning that is actionable and automated, allowing for full recovery when a compromise occurs. We empower enterprise endpoint orchestration across siloed IT and Security organizations, simplifying security management and making responses effective. Malwarebytes makes endpoints resilient so workplaces can protect and remediate, and employees can regain control of their digital lives. On this week's episode Why is everybody talking about this now? Chris Roberts of Attivo Networks posted about his video game addiction as he admitted one certain game ate up 475 hours of his life. He really struck a chord with the community as he got hundreds of comments of people admitting to the same but also recognizing that video games are great stress relievers and that the problem solving in games actually helps keep your mind sharp. There is the obvious need for a break, but is there a correlation between how gaming in any form can help someone with their job in cybersecurity? Hey, you're a CISO, what's your take on this?' Are we doing a good job defining the available jobs in cybersecurity? The brand that we see out there is the image of the hacker and the hoodie. In a post on Peerlyst, Nathan Chung lists off eleven other cybersecurity jobs that don't fall under that well known cybersecurity trope. Jobs such as data privacy lawyers, data scientists developing AI and machine learning algorithms, law enforcement, auditors who work on compliance, and even project managers. We discuss some of the concrete ways to explain the other lesser known opportunities in cybersecurity. What's Worse?! We play two rounds with the CISOs. Um… maybe you shouldn't have done that In an article on Peerlyst, cybersecurity writer Kim Crawley, asked her followers on Twitter, "What mistakes have you made over the course of your career that you would recommend newbies avoid?" There was some great advice in here. We discuss our favorite pieces of advice from the list and our CISO admit what is the mistake they've made in their cybersecurity career that they specifically recommend newbies avoid. We've got listeners, and they've got questions Chris Hill of Check Point Software, asked, "How can non-technical people working their way up in the security industry improve their knowledge and abilities from a CISO perspective." Chris is a newbie and he wants advice on being a "trusted advisor" and he's trying to figure out the best/most efficient way to get there. It's time for the audience question speed round We go through a ton of questions the audience has for our CISOs

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/debunking-the-misused-chased-by-bear-cybersecurity-metaphor/) We don't want anyone to be caught by the bear on the latest episode of CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast. This episode was recorded in person in San Francisco. It is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our sponsored guest this week is Elliot Lewis (@ElliotDLewis), CEO, Encryptics. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, Encryptics. Now you can share data without ever losing control of it. Our advanced architecture makes data self-protecting, intelligent and self-aware – wherever it goes, no matter who has it. Our .SAFE patented multi-key technology enables data to evaluate its own safety conditions, including geo-sensing, recipient authentication, and policy changes from its owner. Contact Encryptics today and see for yourself. On this week's episode Is this the best solution? On LinkedIn, Rich Malewicz of Wizer opened up a discussion of security is really just about making the lives difficult for attackers, or more difficult than another target. Rui Santos summed Rich's theory succinctly, "you don't have to be Fort Knox, just make it not worth the effort of hacking your organization." Let's dive into the specifics of this. Provide some examples of how you architect a security program that makes it too difficult or too costly for an attacker. Obviously, this would change given the asset you're trying to protect. The great CISO challenge Brad Green, Palo Alto Networks, asks, "What are the most important functions of the SOC (security operations center), and what are the most important activities that support them? What's Worse?! As always, both options stink, but one is worse. Please, Enough. No, More. Today's topic is data security. What have you heard enough about with data security, and what would you like to hear a lot more? Mike? Communicating cyberthreats to the general public has always been a challenge for cybersecurity specialists, especially when it comes to eliciting cooperation in areas like cyberhygiene. Sometimes it helps to give people an awareness that the need for proactive security doesn't exist only on screens, but everywhere. One fascinating example of this can be seen in the research of Dina Katabi of MIT, who has shown how WiFi signals can be monitored – not for their content, but as a form of radar that can see through walls, and which can accurately observe people physically moving around, or even detecting heartbeats and sleep patterns. Remote espionage opens up all kinds of opportunities for bad actors to build ergonomic profiles of anyone and then deploy AI and ML enabled analysis to influence and impersonate them. Showing people just how many different dimensions can be used in cybercrime may one day shift public perception of cybersecurity into the center spotlight where it belongs. More from our sponsor ExtraHop. There's got to be a better way to handle this For years security professionals have talked about trying to secure the exponentially expanding surface area. One way to simplify, that we've all heard before, is driving security to the data level. Could we let networks run wild, within reason, and just have a data-security first approach? How is that different from zero trust, if at all? To what extent does this work/not work? We've all been having conversations about encryption for decades. It's not a new story. But it's still not universally used. There are billions of user accounts available in open text. After decades, why has the encryption story still not been getting through? What's holding back universal usage?

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/we-put-the-fun-in-infunsec/) We're cranking up the entertainment value on the latest episode of CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast. This episode was recorded in person in San Francisco. It is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest this week is Adrian Ludwig, CISO, Atlassian. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, Encryptics. Now you can share data without ever losing control of it. Our advanced architecture makes data self-protecting, intelligent and self-aware – wherever it goes, no matter who has it. Our .SAFE patented multi-key technology enables data to evaluate its own safety conditions, including geo-sensing, recipient authentication, and policy changes from its owner. Contact Encryptics today and see for yourself. On this week's episode Close your eyes and visualize the perfect engagement What should a CISO's relationship with the board be and how much should a CISO be involved in business decisions? According to a Kaspersky survey, 58% of CISOs say they're adequately involved in business decision making. 34% say they're summoned by the board for data/security related manners. 74% of CISOs are not part of the board and of that group, Of that group, 25% think they should be. What are the pros and cons of a CISO being heavily involved in the business? The great CISO challenge On Dark Reading, Joan Goodchild asked CISOs what were their New Year's resolution. Most said obvious stuff about visibility, being a business enabler, work on human element, and privacy. But I was most intrigued by Jason Haward Grau, CISO of PAS Global, who said he wanted to make security a little more fun. Keeping it fun and interesting is my obsession with this show. If you want to attract, and more importantly retain, security talent, a little bit of fun is critical. So what is currently fun about cybersecurity and what can CISOs do to make it more fun? What's Worse?! First time Mike Johnson admits to being wrong! Looking down the security roadmap On LinkedIn, Mike recommended that security professionals line up tools with their comparable threat models, and then compare that list with their company's actual threat models. Mike admittedly offered the advice but never actually had done itself until he wrote the post and then he started. We delve into what actually happened and how one could actually do it. The Cyber Defense Matrix is a handy, yet easy to use grid plan that helps IT and cybersecurity professionals formulate a plan of proactive defense and effective response. Devised by security specialist Sounil Yu and discussed in detail on the October 17, 2019 episode of Defense in Depth, the matrix continues to gain ground as a vital tool for not only understanding the required spread of technologies, people and process, but also in performing gap analysis and crisis planning. The matrix creates a logical construct across two axes, creating a five by five fill-in grid. Although some experts debate whether it is sufficiently broad in scope, cybersecurity organizations such as OWASP tend to agree that its role in organizing a jumble of concepts products and terminologies into a coherent inventory helps cybersecurity specialists measure their security coverage, discover gaps in their IT strategy, and create a better project plan. More from our sponsor ExtraHop. And now, a listener drops some serious knowledge "Sandor Slijderink (SLY-DUR-INK), CISO at undisclosed company, offered a quick tip on a new phishing scam. Type in some text that looks like a foreign language, then create a hyperlink that reads: ""See translation"" We discuss some attack vectors that we think others may not be fully aware of but need to pay attention.

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/we-lower-the-security-and-pass-the-savings-on-to-you/) We're racing to the bottom in terms of price and security on the latest episode of CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast. This episode was recorded in person in San Francisco. It is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest this week is Seth Rosenblatt (@sethr), editor-in-chief, The Parallax. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, Encryptics. Now you can share data without ever losing control of it. Our advanced architecture makes data self-protecting, intelligent and self-aware – wherever it goes, no matter who has it. Our .SAFE patented multi-key technology enables data to evaluate its own safety conditions, including geo-sensing, recipient authentication, and policy changes from its owner. Contact Encryptics today and see for yourself. On this week's episode Are we making the situation better or worse? Are big Internet giants' privacy violations thwarting startup innovation? That's been presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren's argument, and it's why she wants to break up companies like Facebook and Google for what she sees as anti-competitive practices. According to Seth Roseblatt's article, it appears all of a sudden Facebook and Google are very concerned about privacy. Nine years ago, I remember seeing Eric Schmidt, then CEO of Google, proudly admit that they tracked people's movements so thoroughly that they can accurately predict where you're going to go next. Nobody blinked about the privacy implications. But today, users are upset but they don't seem to be leaving these services at all. Is it all talk on both sides? Have you seen any movement to improve privacy by these companies and would regulation be the only answer? And heck, what would be regulated? Here's some surprising research Over the past 15 years, home WiFi routers have been manufactured to be less secure. Seth reported on this study by the Cyber Independent Testing Lab, which we also discussed on an episode of Defense in Depth. The most notorious weakening is the use of default passwords, but there's a host of other firmware features that don't get updated. Is there any rationale to why this happens? And has this study done anything to turn things around? Is this a cybersecurity disinformation campaign? Fighting "fake news" like it's malware. In Seth's story, he noted there are structural and distribution similarities. I envision there are some similarities between fake news and adware which isn't necessarily designed for negative intent. Fake news appears to be an abuse of our constitutional acceptance of free speech. How are security tactics being used to thwart fake news and how successful is it? When you set up your new home assistant, try not to position it close to a window, because someone across the street might be preparing to send voice commands, such as "open the garage door" by way of a laser beam. Researchers from the University of Michigan and The University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo have successfully used laser light to inject malicious commands into smart speakers, tablets, and phones across large distances and through glass windows. They use standard wake commands modulated from audio signals and pair them with brute forcing of PINS where necessary. They have also been successful in eavesdropping, and in unlocking and starting cars. Their research shows how easy it is and will be to use lasers to not only penetrate connected devices but to deploy acoustic injection attacks that overwhelm motion detectors and other sensors. More information including access to the white paper is available at lightcommands.com. More from our sponsor ExtraHop. Look at this, another company got breached Tip of the hat to Malcolm Harkins at Cymatic for posting this story on Forbes by Tony Bradley of Alert Logic who offers a rather pessimistic view of the cybersecurity industry. It's broken, argues Bradley. We spend fortunes on tools and yet still get hacked year over year using the same tools. The article quotes Matt Moynahan, CEO, Forcepoint, who said we wrongly think of security as an "us" vs. "them" theory or "keeping people out" when in actuality most hacks are because someone got access to legitimate user credentials, or a user within our organization did something unintentional or potentially malicious. Are we wrongheaded about how we envision cybersecurity, and if so, is there a new overarching philosophy we should be embracing?

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/ah-heres-the-problem-youve-got-a-leaky-ceo/) We're waking up the C-suite to the realization that they're the prime target for cyberattacks. This episode was recorded in front of a live audience at Evanta's CISO Executive Summit in Los Angeles. It is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest this week is Gary Hayslip (@ghayslip), CISO, Softbank Investment Advisers. CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast live at Evanta CISO Executive Summit in Los Angeles 12/11/19 PLUS, joining us live was Jewels Nation, the voice of the CISO Series. You hear her voice on all the bumpers on our podcasts. Jewels Nation, the voice of the CISO Series podcasts, and David Spark, producer of CISO Series Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor Evanta. Evanta, a Gartner Company, creates exclusive communities of C-level executives from the world's leading organizations. These invaluable networks are built by and for C-level executives to share innovative ideas, validate strategies and solve critical leadership challenges through peer-to-peer collaboration. Evanta's trusted communities serve CISOs and their C-suite peers around the world. On this week's episode Where does a CISO begin? Gary recently brought up an excellent discussion pointing out that executives are the backdoor into your organization. Do they understand that they're critical cogs? Do they and are they willing to take on responsibility? What is the patching process? Walk a mile in this CISO's shoes Gary, talked a lot about the importance of work/life balance with cyber professionals. Robert Carey of RSA Security said your actions do most of the talking, "As a CISO, you're a model of work life balance. If you stay 14 hours a day, that's what is expected of employees. If you leave at 5pm they'll realize that's ok for them to do." How do our CISOs handle presenting to their staff what is and isn't OK, when they're in the office or when their employees are remote? What's Worse?! You've got a new hire. Which one do you choose? Is this the best solution? Does the email pitch still serve a function? On a recent CISO Series video chat, we talked about how CISOs get 50-80% of their information about products from other CISOs and that yeah maybe sometimes they read an email pitch. Is there still room for the email pitch or should it just die? And if it should die, what should it be replaced with? Security Squares: Where CISOs Put Vendors in Their Place A brand new game that asks CISOs how well do they know the vendor landscape? This one was a nail biter. It's time for the audience question speed round Our audience has questions, and our CISOs will have answers.

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/trust-me-were-using-advanced-ai/) We're looking for a good reason to trust your AI on the latest CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast. This episode was recorded in front of a live audience at Evanta's CISO Executive Summit in San Francisco. It is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest this week, is Jimmy Sanders (@jfireluv), head of information security, Netflix DVD. Mike Johnson, Jimmy Sanders, head of information security, Netflix DVD, and David Spark Thanks to this week's podcast sponsors: Trend Micro, SentinelOne, and FireMon. FireMon provides persistent network security for hybrid environments through a powerful fusion of real-time asset visibility, continuous compliance and automation. Since creating the first-ever network security policy management solution, FireMon has delivered command and control over complex network security infrastructures for more than 1,700 customers. Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, helps to make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Our innovative solutions for consumers, businesses, and governments provide layered security for data centers, cloud environments, networks, and endpoints. For more information, visit www.trendmicro.com. Are you looking to leave legacy antivirus? Proactively protect every device in realtime with AI. Deploy SentinelOne for EPP, EDR, IoT, and container security today. Autonomous technology is the future. We deliver it now across your endpoints, servers, cloud workloads, and IoT devices. What we've got here is failure to communicate Is the privacy message getting out to the right people? I argue we need to go to the source and we're not. I was at Dreamforce, the Salesforce conference, and I got the sense I was the only person of the 100K people there that didn't want to be scanned. This crowd is obsessed with the collection of personal data given this conference is mostly about how do I create greater understanding from personal data. Are we as security people in a bubble in this privacy conversation? We need to go to the source of the people who are actually collecting the data and I'm getting the sense we're not getting through. Are we making the situation better or worse? We've talked a lot about AI on this show, and many vendors are selling intelligent solutions, but the factor that seems to hang up usage is trust. Cyber professionals don't think twice about trusting their AI-powered spam filter, but so many other tools are met with skepticism. What's missing from the vendor side and what trust barriers are practitioners putting up? What should the barometers be for trusting AI? What's Worse?! Two bad types of people wanting to do you harm. Which one is worse? Is this the best solution? Should you hire staff from companies that have fallen victim to cybercrime? According to a study by Symantec and Goldsmiths, University of London, as reported by ZDNet, more than half of respondents said they don't discuss breaches or attacks with peers. And more than a third said they fear that sharing breach information on their organization would negatively impact their future career prospects. I would think that asking a prospect, "Have you lived through a breach and how did you handle it?" would be very revealing. Mike? Security Squares: Where CISOs Put Vendors in Their Place A brand new game that asks CISOs how well do they know the vendor landscape? It's time for the audience question speed round Our audience has questions, and our CISOs will have answers.

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/isnt-that-adorable-our-little-ciso-has-an-opinion/) We're spoon-feeding "respect" to the CISO on this week's CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast. This episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our sponsored guest this week, thanks to Trend Micro, is Jim Shilts, founder, North American DevOps Group. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor Trend Micro. Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, helps to make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Our innovative solutions for consumers, businesses, and governments provide layered security for data centers, cloud environments, networks, and endpoints. For more information, visit www.trendmicro.com. On this week's episode Why is everyone talking about this now? Gary Hayslip, CISO, Softbank Investment Advisers and regular guest, posted an article about a growing trend of CISO frustration and why they don't last at an organization. This article addresses many issues around burnout, but I want to focus on this one stat from an ISC(2) study which states, "Sixty three percent of respondents said they wanted to work at an organization where their opinions on the existing security posture were taken seriously." Hard to keep any security staff in place if they're not respected. We talk a lot about being able to talk to the board, but the communications has to be two way. How clear are executives in understanding that respect and listening to their cyberstaff is in their best interest? What annoys a security professional Deidre Diamond of CyberSN, asks this very pointed question, "We are short 500k cyber professionals in the US and 89% of our current cyber professionals are open to new opportunities; why are jobs taking on average 4-9 months to fill?" That last stat is CyberSN's data estimates. She's arguing there is plenty of supply. Why is this taking so darn long? Nobody's happy. What's Worse?! We've got a question tailored for our DevOps guest this week. Please, enough. No, more. DevOps and security. This is a topic that has grown over time, evolved in branding, and Mike has spoken out about how much he don't like the term DevSecOps. As we regularly do in this segment, what have you heard enough of on the DevOps and security debate and what would you like to hear a lot more? Two factor authentication is a smart step towards more secure password management but what happens the moment after you have convinced the employees of your company to adopt 2FA, when you then say, "Oh yes, don't forget your SIM PIN." 2FA might stop hackers from using easily searchable information like someone's mother's maiden name, but these bad actors have already discovered the weak link in this particular chain. They call the phone provider, pretend to be that specific victim and ask to swap the victim's SIM account information to a new SIM card – one that is in their possession. That way, everything the victim did with their phone – texting, banking, and receiving 2FA passcodes – all goes to this new phone. More on CISO Series. Check out lots more cloud security tips sponsored by OpenVPN, provider of next-gen secure and scalable communication software. OpenVPN Access Server keeps your company's data safe with end-to-end encryption, secure remote access, and extension for your centralized UTM. Hey, you're a CISO, what's your take on this? Nigel Hedges, CISO, CPA Australia, asked, "Should security operations exist in infrastructure/operations teams?" Nigel asked this questions to colleagues and got mixed results. One CISO said it was doomed to fail, others said its up to leadership and a CISO doesn't need to own secops. "Other people were adamant that the focus required to manage secops, and streamlined incident response cant work within infra because the primary objectives of infra are towards service availability and infra projects," said Nigel who went on to ask, "Is this important prior to considering using a security vendor to provided managed security operations? Is it important to 'get the house in order' prior to using managed secops vendors? And is it easier to get the house in order when secops is not in infra?"

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/rest-assured-were-confident-our-security-sucks/) We may not have the protection you want, but what we lack in adequate security we make up in confidence. Sleep better at night after you listen to this week's episode of CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast. This episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest this week is Billy Spears (@billyjspears), CISO, loanDepot. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, CyberInt. The high ROI is what makes spear phishing campaigns so attractive to threat actors. Read our breakdown of TA505's latest series of attacks. CyberInt has been tracking various activities surrounding this and other similar attacks where legit means were used to hack international companies in the retail & financial industries. On this week's episode Why is everybody talking about this now? Tip of the hat to Eduardo Ortiz for forwarding this discussion Stuart Mitchell of Stott and May initiated on LinkedIn asking if there should be a "golden bullet" clause in a CISO's contract. He was referring to the CISO of Capital One who had to step down and take on a consulting role after the breach. What are arguments for and against? Ask a CISO Nir Rothenberg, CISO, Rapyd asks, "If you were given control of company IT, what would be the first things you would do?" What's Worse?! Should a CISO be closing sales or securing the company? Hey, you're a CISO, what's your take on this? According to Nominet's Cyber Confidence Report, 71 percent of CISOs say their organization uses the company's security posture as a selling point, even though only 17% of CISOs are confident about their security posture. There are probably many factors that contribute to this disparity. Is it a gap that will ever close, or is this just the nature of security people vs. sales? Bluetooth is a convenient and easy method of sharing data between devices, which, of course, qualifies it as a prime target for exploitation. A trio of researchers has discovered a vulnerability that has the potential of attacking billions of Bluetooth-enabled devices, including phones, laptops, IoT and IIoT technologies. In short, this Key Negotiation of Bluetooth vulnerability, which has been given the acronym KNOB, exploits the pairing encryption protocol within the Bluetooth Classic wireless technology standard, which supports encryption keys with entropy between 1 and 16 bytes/octets. It inserts between the pairing devices forcing both to agree to encryption with 1 byte or 8 bits of entropy, after which it simply brute-forces the encryption keys. More on CISO Series. Check out lots more cloud security tips sponsored by OpenVPN, provider of next-gen secure and scalable communication software. OpenVPN Access Server keeps your company's data safe with end-to-end encryption, secure remote access, and extension for your centralized UTM. What do you think of this pitch? How targeted should your pitch have to be?

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/what-security-advice-will-your-family-ignore/) This Thanksgiving we wish you lots of luck convincing your family members to use a password manager. Would getting them to switch political allegiances be easier? This episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest this week is Jeff Hudesman, head of information security, DailyPay. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor Tenable. Effective vulnerability prioritization helps you answer three questions: Where should we prioritize based on risk? Which vulnerabilities are likeliest to be exploited? What should we fix first? Tenable gives you the accurate and actionable data you need to answer these questions and better secure your business. Learn more: tenable.com/predictive-prioritization. On this week's episode Why is everybody talking about this now? Rich Malewicz, CIO, Livingston County, started a thread of common threats and scams we should warn family and friends about over the holidays. Lots of great advice. We discuss our favorites, whether we turn into family tech support, and if you had one cyber holiday wish for every family member, what would it be? Hey, you're a CISO, what's your take on this? When is the right time and WRONG time to start red teaming? (the process of letting ethical hackers loose on your business to test your defenses, your blue team.) What exactly is it you're testing? Are you testing your network's resiliency or your business' resiliency? "What's Worse?!" Three options in this "What's Worse?!" scenario. The great CISO challenge We have repeatedly touted on the podcast the benefits of multi-factor authentication or MFA. Our guest implemented an MFA solution at his company. We talk about the challenges, criteria, and roll out like? And did they see any visible evidence of security improvements? Casey from accounting is getting frustrated, waiting for client files being held up by the firewall. Jordan is trying to join a video conference that needs a plugin, but the firewall won't let it through. So they call the IT manager who then disables it. This happens a lot. Maybe not in large companies, but small law firms, medical clinics, or small businesses that might use an old-school administrator who will either turn off the firewall or opt out of using one altogether, believing in the power of a cheap antivirus product to keep things safe. More on CISO Series. Check out lots more cloud security tips sponsored by OpenVPN, provider of next-gen secure and scalable communication software. OpenVPN Access Server keeps your company's data safe with end-to-end encryption, secure remote access, and extension for your centralized UTM. What do you think of this pitch? There is lots of disagreement over whether this pitch is any good.

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/dos-and-donts-of-trashing-your-competition/) We want to malign our competitors, but just don't know how mean we should be. Miss Manners steps in on the latest episode of CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast. This episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and special guest co-host, Mark Eggleston (@meggleston), CISO, Health Partners Plans, and our guest is Anahi Santiago (@AnahiSantiago), CISO, ChristianaCare Health System. We recorded in front of a live audience at Evanta's CISO Executive Summit in Philadelphia on November 5th, 2019. Recording CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast in front of a live audience at Evanta's CISO Executive Summit in Philadelphia (11-05-19) Thanks to this week's podcast sponsors Trend Micro, Thinkst, and Secure Controls Framework. Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, helps to make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Our innovative solutions for consumers, businesses, and governments provide layered security for data centers, cloud environments, networks, and endpoints. For more information, visit www.trendmicro.com. The Secure Controls Framework (SCF) is a meta-framework – a framework of frameworks. This free solution is available for companies to use to design, implement and manage their cybersecurity and privacy controls in an efficient and sustainable manner. Our approach provides a comprehensive solution to manage complex compliance needs. Most companies find out way too late that they've been breached. Thinkst Canary changes this. Find out why the Thinkst Canary is one of the most loved products in the business and why the smartest security teams in the world run Canary. Visit https://canary.tools. On this week's episode Why is everyone talking about this now? Greg van der Gaast, former guest who runs security at The University of Salford, initiated a popular LinkedIn discussion on the topic of human error. According to his colleague Matthew Trump of the University of Sussex, in critical industries, such as aerospace, oil & gas, and medical, "human error" is not an acceptable answer. You simply have to prevent the incident. If not, a mistake can be both a regulatory violation and lethal. But people are a part of the security equation. It's unavoidable. We know zero erros is impossible, but can you accept "human error" as a fail point? Hey, you're a CISO, what's your take on this? Listener David said, "One thing I have experienced at my last two jobs is integrating with a 'global' security team whose security program is effectively and functionally inferior to our own. In these occasions, the global security team wanted us to remove current safeguards, processes/procedures and tooling that reduced the preparedness and effectiveness of our security program and introduced risk(s) that we have not been exposed to in years. All of these changes were always touted as a 'one team' initiative but never once was due diligence on security posture taken into account. "What is the best way to go about a consolidation like this? Do you not mess with a good thing and ask the 'better' security program to report up incidents, conform to compliance check boxes etc. or as a CISO do you sign off on a risk acceptance knowing that the operating company is now in a worse state of security." "What's Worse?!" We've got two rounds of really bad scenarios. What annoys a security professional Geoff Belknap, former guest and CISO of LinkedIn, appreciates a vendor's desire to "bring like minds" together around food or drink, but the invite is not welcome on a weekend. Belknap feels that the weekend intrudes into a CISO's personal/family space. There was a lot of debate and disagreements on this, but there were some solutions. One mentioned a vendor invite that included round trip Lyft rides and childcare. Oh, they did something stupid on social media again Jason Hoenich, CEO of Habitu8 posted on LinkedIn that he didn't appreciate Fortinet writing about security training for CSO Online, something for which Jason's business does and for which he believes Fortinet does not have any expertise. It appears this was a sponsored article, but Jason didn't point to the article nor did he isolate specifically what he felt was wrong with Fortinet's advice. Here at the CISO Series, we like Jason and Habitu8. They've been strong contributors to the community. But complaining and not pointing to any concrete evidence is not the best way to convince an audience. Earlier this year we saw something similar with the CEO of Crowdstrike going after the CEO of Cybereason claiming an underhanded sales tactic that was not specified nor anyone at Cybereason knew what he was talking about. Is it OK to go after your competition in a public forum? If so, what's the most professional and respectful way to handle it? It's

All links and images for this post can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/get-out-the-fud-is-coming-from-the-inside/) On this week's CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast, we're pointing fingers at practitioners, not vendors, for promoting the FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) scare-a-thon. This episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest this week is Eddie Contreras (@CISOEdwardC), CISO, Frost Bank. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor Trend Micro. Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, helps to make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Our innovative solutions for consumers, businesses, and governments provide layered security for data centers, cloud environments, networks, and endpoints. For more information, visit www.trendmicro.com. On this week's episode Why is everyone talking about this now? On LinkedIn, Ron C. of CoreSolutions Software said, "Cybersecurity is no longer just a technical problem. It's now more of a people problem! So why aren't businesses prioritizing security awareness training for their staff?" There was a massive response and mixed agreement. Regardless, are we falling short on security awareness training? Is it not effective? Is it too complicated to pull off? Is the cost not justified? More importantly, has security awareness training had any impact? Hey, you're a CISO, what's your take on this? accidentalciso on our reddit channel, r/cisoseries, asks, How does a security professional know if "CISO truly is the right career goal for them? I don't think the reality of the role is consistent with what one might think early on in their career." What was it about the CISO role that makes a security professional want to pursue it and how does that previous perception of what a CISO did counter or align with what was really experienced? It's time to play, "What's Worse?!" Is there a worst type of attack? Ask a CISO James Dobra, Bromium, asks, "Are security organizations guilty of using FUD internally, e.g. with the board and with users, while complaining that vendors use it too much?" Does FUD happen internally? Do security teams do it to get the money they want and/or shame users into submission? On August 30, 2019, white hat hacker Tavis Ormandy discovered a vulnerability in a LastPass browser extension. This was a vulnerability, not a breach and was very quickly remedied without damage. But it still causes chills when the last bastion of password security reveals its Achilles heel. It's like seeing your family doctor contract a terminal disease. But for CISOs, this might be a good thing. Password complacency and sloppy security hygiene are the scourge of security specialists everywhere. A SaaS-based password manager that uses hashes and salts to remove the existence of physical passwords in their own vaults, is still a highly proactive solution. More found on CISO Series. Check out lots more cloud security tips sponsored by OpenVPN, provider of next-gen secure and scalable communication software. OpenVPN Access Server keeps your company's data safe with end-to-end encryption, secure remote access, and extension for your centralized UTM. First 90 Days of a CISO Both Mike and our guest, Ed, are second time CISOs in their first 90 days at the role. We review what mistakes they made the first time as a CISO that they're actively avoiding this time. Are there any hurdles that are simply unavoidable and they're just going to have to face it like any new CISO would.

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/say-it-loud-i-didnt-read-the-privacy-policy-and-im-proud/) If we don't understand the purpose of a privacy policy, why should we bother reading it? We're claiming the cyber ignorance defense on the latest episode of CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast. This episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest this week is Roger Hale (@haleroger), CISO in residence, YL Ventures. Mike Johnson, co-host, CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast, Roger Hale, CISO in residence, YL Ventures, David Spark, producer, CISO Series. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor Zix. Zix simplifies administration and reporting with a single management interface. Configuring, deploying, and monitoring email security and unified archiving services has never been easier – or faster. ZixSuite combines a cloud-based email threat protection, email encryption, and unified business communications archiving, all backed by Zix's gold standard 24/7/365 support. On this week's episode How CISOs are digesting the latest security news We're blowing it with general cybersecurity education. According to a study by the Pew Internet Research Center, most Americans don't understand or can't identify basic cybersecurity concepts such as two-factor authentication, private browsing, or the purpose of a privacy policy. We talk a lot about the important of education and it appears we're not doing a good job. What are some creative ways we can dramatically improve these numbers? Hey, you're a CISO, what's your take on this? Cai Thomas, Tessian, has an article on TechRadar on the dangers of sending corporate work via personal email accounts. He outlines the issues. As per the previous story, chances are very high people are completely unaware of the risk their placing the company in by forwarding corporate email to personal accounts. No amount of education is going to solve this problem. What are the systems that companies can and should setup to give people a better alternative than sending emails to personal accounts? What's Worse?! How damaging can not having a seat on the board be? Ask a CISO Nick Sorensen, Whistic, asks, "What do you see the most proactive vendors doing to prepare for vendor security reviews from their customers?" "Your bank account has been frozen." That's now an old chestnut in the scamming world, but it thrives through increasingly sophisticated spoofing activities that include a banks' real phone number and real-looking pop-up websites for password refresh requests. Even IT experts can get caught by these things occasionally, as some have even confessed on this very podcast series. This level of relentless innovation is worth keeping front of mind when considering the amounts of data that Internet of Things devices are creating but that organizations have no plan or space for. IBM, Forrester, and others have suggested that maybe 1 percent of data generated from IoT connectivity is being used, mostly for immediate learning or predictive activities. More available on CISO Series. Check out lots more cloud security tips sponsored by OpenVPN, provider of next-gen secure and scalable communication software. OpenVPN Access Server keeps your company's data safe with end-to-end encryption, secure remote access, and extension for your centralized UTM. First 90 days of a CISO Today is Roger's first official day as a CISO in residence at YL Ventures. What the heck does that mean, and how does that differ from being an operational CISO?

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/ill-see-your-gated-whitepaper-and-raise-you-one-fake-email-address/) We're all in with not wanting "follow up email marketing" on the latest episode of CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast. This episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest this week is Ian Amit (@iiamit), CSO, Cimpress. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor Trend Micro. Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, helps to make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Our innovative solutions for consumers, businesses, and governments provide layered security for data centers, cloud environments, networks, and endpoints. For more information, visit www.trendmicro.com. On this week's episode Why is everyone talking about this now? To gate or not to gate. Mike posted on LinkedIn about how much he appreciated vendors who don't gate their content behind a registration wall. The post blew up on LinkedIn. The overwhelming response got some vendors willing to change their tune. Hey, you're a CISO, what's your take on this? Kevin Kieda of RSA Security asks, "For an initial meeting what are the things you want the sales person to know about your business that many of them don't." Kevin says he gets frustrated that he gets the sense a prospect wants them to know what tools they're using even though he knows he often can't find out that information. What is the must know, nice to know, and boy I'm impressed you know that? Mike Johnson recommends BuiltWith.com for basic OSINT on a company site. What's Worse?! Whose mistakes are worse? Your own or the vendor's? The great CISO challenge Factor Analysis of Information Risk (FAIR) is a risk framework (often laid ontop of others) that simplifies the understanding of risk by identifying the blocks that contribute to risk and their relationship to each other and then quantifying that in terms of money. Ian, can you give me an example of how you actually do this? Since its inception back in 2010, Zero Trust Architecture has been gaining traction. Much of the interest stems from the nature of work and data today – people working from anywhere on any device, and data racing around networks and to and from the cloud means there is no single fortress where everything can exist safely. Operating on a belief that everything inside the perimeter is safe because it's inside the perimeter is no match to today's hacking, penetration and inside sabotage. The establishment of new perimeter protections, including microtunnels and MFA is best applied to new cloud deployments but must still somehow be factored into a legacy architecture without becoming more inconvenient and vulnerable than what it is trying to replace. More on CISO Series. Check out lots more cloud security tips sponsored by OpenVPN, provider of next-gen secure and scalable communication software. OpenVPN Access Server keeps your company's data safe with end-to-end encryption, secure remote access, and extension for your centralized UTM. Why is this a bad pitch? What's the polite way to hande the way too generic vendor request. We offer two examples of non-specific pitches that are obviously just begging for a CISO's time. Is there a polite way to refute the request and let them know without talking down to them and letting them know that this isn't a tactic they should pursue?

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/rated-1-in-irresponsible-security-journalism/) No security alert is too small for us to completely misrepresent its severity. The sky is falling on the latest episode of CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, Zix. Zix simplifies administration and reporting with a single management interface. Configuring, deploying, and monitoring email security and unified archiving services has never been easier – or faster. ZixSuite combines a cloud-based email threat protection, email encryption, and unified business communications archiving, all backed by Zix's gold standard 24/7/365 support. On this week's episode Why is everybody talking about this now? Two recent stories showed some fallibility in multi-factor authentication or MFA. We repeatedly recommended MFA on this show. But, the FBI announced some technical and social engineering techniques that are being used to break multi-factor authentication. In addition, Twitter admitted that email addresses and phone numbers used to set up MFA might have been sent to third party advertisers. The FBI says its news shouldn't change our trust in MFA. William Gregorian, CISO, Addepar, posted on LinkedIn that the press is claiming that MFA is broken and that's irresponsible journalism. Let's dig a little deeper Security professionals thrive on hearing about and learning about the latest threats. It feeds the latest security headlines and conferences. While it's often fascinating and keeps everyone interested, to what level are security concerns based on well-known years old threats vs. the latest threats? "What's Worse?!" Whose mistakes are worse? Yours or the vendors'? Please, enough. No, more. We've talked a lot about machine learning on this show and the definition of it is broad. What's ML's value in threat protection. We discuss what we've heard enough about with regard to machine learning being used for threat protection And what would we like to hear a lot more. When companies in retail or enterprise remind their online visitors to change their passwords, are they doing them a favor or causing them grief? Password managers exist, of course, as do newer forms of passwordless authentication, multifactor authentication and behavioral and biometric data. But ultimately, whose responsibility is this? Should a merchant website place the onus of personal security back on the customer? And if so, how would this protect the merchant's own property? If this jeopardizes a sale or transaction, the cost of proactive security, at least for the short term appears too great. And it's obvious, from the avalanche of data breaches of recent years that stored data of any sort becomes a permanent liability. More available on CISO Series. Check out lots more cloud security tips sponsored by OpenVPN, provider of next-gen secure and scalable communication software. OpenVPN Access Server keeps your company's data safe with end-to-end encryption, secure remote access, and extension for your centralized UTM. Ask a CISO Gina Yacone, a consultant with Agio, asks, "If you're performing a table top exercise. Who are the only three people you would want to have a seat at that table?"

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/cybercrimes-solved-in-an-hour-or-your-next-ones-free/) In the real world, cybercrimes just don't get solved as fast as they do on CSI. So we're offering a guarantee. If we don't catch the cyber-perpetrator in an hour (including commercial breaks) we'll make sure you're attacked again. This episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our sponsored guest this week is Jason Hill (@chillisec), lead researcher at CyberInt Research Lab. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, Cyberint. The high ROI is what makes spear phishing campaigns so attractive to threat actors. Read our breakdown of TA505's latest series of attacks. CyberInt has been tracking various activities surrounding this and other similar attacks where legit means were used to hack international companies in the retail & financial industries. On this week's episode What annoys a security professional Question on Quora asks, "What does everybody get wrong about working in the field of forensics?" There were a handful of answers from looking to TV and film dramas to that it's only a post mortem analysis. What are the biggest misconception of digital forensics? Why is everybody talking about this now? Tip of the hat to Stu Hirst of Just Eat who posted this Dilbert cartoon that got a flurry of response. Read for yourself, but in essence, it's a boss that thought technology would solve all his problems. Not realizing that people and process are also part of the equation. All too familiar. The "I've been hearing a lot about __________" phenomenon. What causes this behavior and how do you manage it? "What's Worse?!" How much flexibility to you require in your security team and the business? Please, Enough. No, More. How far can AI go? Where does the human element need to exist? What are the claims of the far reaching capabilities of AI? We discuss what we'd like to hear regarding the realistic capabilities and limitations of AI. Every year, the Fall season sees billions of dollars being spent on home-based IoT devices. The back-to-school sales are the starting point, Cyber Monday is the clubhouse turn and the year-end holiday season is the finish line. As usual, these devices – printers, DVRs, IP cameras, smart home assistants, are relatively inexpensive and provide plug and play convenience, to satisfy an impatient customer base. For the rest of the cloud tip, head to CISO Series. Check out lots more cloud security tips sponsored by OpenVPN, provider of next-gen secure and scalable communication software. OpenVPN Access Server keeps your company's data safe with end-to-end encryption, secure remote access, and extension for your centralized UTM. We don't have much time. What's your decision? What are the best models for crowdsourcing security? There are entire businesses, such as bug bounty firms, that are dedicated to creating crowdsourced security environments. Our guest this week is passionate about investigative work. We asked him and Mike what elements they've found that inspire and simplify the community to participate in a crowdsourced security effort.

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/mapping-unsolvable-problems-to-unattainable-solutions/) We're busting out the Cyber Defense Matrix to see what our security program we'll never be able to achieve. This episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest this week Sounil Yu (@sounilyu), former chief security scientist for Bank of America and creator of the Cyber Defense Matrix. David Spark, producer, CISO Series, Sounil Yu, creator, Cyber Defense Matrix, Mike Johnson, co-host, CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor, Zix. Zix simplifies administration and reporting with a single management interface. Configuring, deploying, and monitoring email security and unified archiving services has never been easier – or faster. ZixSuite combines a cloud-based email threat protection, email encryption, and unified business communications archiving, all backed by Zix's gold standard 24/7/365 support. On this week's episode Why is everybody talking about this now? Mike asked the LinkedIn community, "What's bad security advice that needs to die?" We had an entire episode of Defense in Depth on this very topic called "Bad Best Practices." The post got nearly 300 responses, so it's obviously something many people are passionate about. Is there a general theme to bad security advice? The great CISO challenge Sounil Yu is the creator of a very simple problem-to-solution chart for security professionals called the Cyber Defense Matrix. This simple chart allows a cyber professional to see how their tools, processes, and people are mapped to all different levels of security protection. We discuss the purpose of the matrix and all the real world applications. "What's Worse?!" We have a real world "What's Worse?!" scenario and Mike and Sounil compete to see if they answered the way the real world scenario actually played out. Hey, you're a CISO, what's your take on this? Last week on Defense in Depth we talked about a discussion initiated by Christophe Foulon of ConQuest Federal on cyber resiliency. Some people argued that it should be a security professional's primary focus because its action is in line with the interests of the business. Should a cyber professional shift their focus to resiliency over security? Would that facilitate better alignment with the business? Exploitable weaknesses measured in decades. Not a comforting thought. But this is a reality that exists in at least two major IT ecosystems. The first is Microsoft and the second is firmware. Teams belonging to Google's Project Zero have found exploitable security flaws affecting all versions of Windows going back to Windows XP – which presents a logistical nightmare for admins the world over. Sarah Zatko, Chief Scientist at the Cyber Independent Testing Lab spoke recently at Red Hat and DEF CON in Las Vegas about deficiencies in the security of firmware, including those from companies that manufacture the world's best-known routers. More available at CISO Series. Check out lots more cloud security tips sponsored by OpenVPN, provider of next-gen secure and scalable communication software. OpenVPN Access Server keeps your company's data safe with end-to-end encryption, secure remote access, and extension for your centralized UTM. Ask a CISO Thanks to Chris Castaldo, CISO at Dataminr, for this post on new research from the firm Marsh and Microsoft. According to the study, half of the respondents didn't consider cyber risk when adopting new tech. A full 11 percent did no due diligence to actually evaluate the risk a new technology may introduce. Does it take that much effort to understand the basic risks of introducing a new technology? What are some first level research efforts that should be done with any new tech consideration or adoption?

All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/wait-what-good-news-in-cybersecurity/) On this episode of CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast, cybercrime fails and we brag about it. This episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest this week is Geoff Belknap (@geoffbelknap), CISO, LinkedIn. Mike Johnson, co-host, CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast, Geoff Belknap, CISO, LinkedIn, and David Spark, producer, CISO Series. Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor Trend Micro. On this week's episode How CISOs are digesting the latest security news We simply don't hear enough good news cybersecurity stories that make those involved proud. What are the cybersecurity stories that aren't being told publicly that should be? First 90 Days of a CISO Michael Farnum, Set Solutions, said, "If you come into the job and aren't willing to critically review existing projects AND put a stop to the ones that are questionable, then you are going to cause yourself problems later. It might seem like an unwise political move when new to the company, but you have to be willing to swing the axe (or at least push the pause button) on anything that doesn't make sense." Not so easy, but where's the line where you can actually push and say, "We're changing course"? It's time to play, "What's Worse?!" We've got a split decision! Hey, you're a CISO, what's your take on this? On a previous episode of Defense in Depth, we talked about employee hacking or getting the staff on the same page as the CISO and the security program. I quoted instructor Sarah Mancinho who said, "I am a firm believer that CISOs/CIOs should have their own dedicated IT strategic communications person(s) that report to them, and not any other office. Most comms roles I've seen...had to report to HR/PR/General Comms....none of whom really knew anything about technology/technical comms/infosec....and had little to no interaction with the IT/security team." My co-host, Allan Alford, loved this idea, never had it, but would love to have it. What value could a dedicated PR person bring to the security team? The devious new Android malware called Cerberus steals credentials by using a downloaded fake Adobe Flash player. That is not really innovative in itself, but what's interesting is the way it seeks to avoid detection by using the phone's accelerometer to confirm that the infected target is a real device and not on the screen of a security analyst. According to ESET researcher Lukas Stefanko, quoted in Forbes, the app actually counts a number of physical footsteps taken by the phone's owner, and deploys once the required number has been reached. For more, check out the full tip on CISO Series. Check out lots more cloud security tips sponsored by OpenVPN, provider of next-gen secure and scalable communication software. OpenVPN Access Server keeps your company's data safe with end-to-end encryption, secure remote access, and extension for your centralized UTM. Why is everybody talking about this now? What's behind the cybersecurity skills shortage? In an article on the Forbes Council, Mark Aiello, president of cybersecurity recruiting firm CyberSN, pointed out some ugly truths as to why it's so difficult to hire cybersecurity talent. He pointed to low pay, the desire to find unicorns, poor job descriptions, training and growth. Is the core issue that the cybersecurity industry just does a very poor job welcoming new entrants? Today, what does a cybersecurity professional need walking in the door? And what are CISOs willing to accept no knowledge of, yet willing to train?

All images and links for this episode can be found on CISO Series (https://cisoseries.com/serious-hackers-wear-two-black-hoodies/) We're doubling down and embracing the absolute worst of hacker tropes. Put on your black hoodie and then a second one. Boot up your Matrix screensaver and listen to the latest episode of CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast. This episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our sponsored guest this week is Bruce Potter (@gdead), CISO, Expel. Here are the links to the items Bruce mentioned on the show: Expel's third-party assessment framework NIST CSF (and soon to be PF) self assessment tool Oh Noes! The incident response role playing game Thanks to this week's podcast sponsor Expel Expel is flipping today's managed security model on its head (Ouch!) for on-prem and cloud, taking a technology-driven approach that lets analysts focus on what humans do best: exercise judgment and manage relationships. The company offers 24x7 monitoring through its security operations center-as-a-service, using the security tools customers already have. On this week's episode We've got listeners, and they've got questions A listener, who wishes to remain anonymous asks, "I am a one person security organization, and I get frustrated reading industry news and even listening to the CISO Series (love the show). My frustration is that so very often articles, blogs and podcasts assume that you/your organization has a security TEAM... How do you thrive and not just survive as a security shop of one?" What can a one-person shop expect to do, and not do? Let's dig a little deeper Bruce is also the founder of the Shmoo Group and his wife is the organizer for the annual ShmooCon which is a hacker conference held in DC every year. I'm stunned that his 2200-person event sells out in less than 20 seconds. There is obviously huge demand to attend and speak at your event. This year's event he had 168 submitted talks and 41 were accepted. Bruce tells us what makes a great ShmooCon submission and what were the most memorable talks from ShmooCon. "What's Worse?!" Today's game probably speaks to the number one problem with every company's security program. Hey, you're a CISO, what's your take on this? An issue that comes up in security all the time is "how do you do more with less." Are there ways to advance your security program when you don't have more budget or more people to do so? Study after study shows a top priority for cloud users is having visibility into application and data traffic. But most are not getting it. Nine out of ten respondents believe that access to packet data is needed for effective monitoring. So even though the cloud providers maintain the fortress, the enterprise still needs to see what's going on. They're ultimately responsible, after all. Cloud needs its own approach to monitoring, more closely based on how cloud customers interact with their data. It needs its own tools and greater level of communication between them and their providers. More on CISO Series. Check out lots more cloud security tips sponsored by OpenVPN, provider of next-gen secure and scalable communication software. OpenVPN Access Server keeps your company's data safe with end-to-end encryption, secure remote access, and extension for your centralized UTM. Why is everybody talking about this now? We have talked in the past about the tired and negative image of the hacker in the black hoodie. It's pretty much all you see in stock photos. And since that's all any media outlet uses, that image just keeps getting reinforced. Poking fun and I think truly trying to find a better hacker image meme, Casey Ellis, founder of Bugcrowd, challenged others on LinkedIn to find a better "hacker stock photo" than the one he posted of hands coming out of a screen and typing on your keyboard with a cat looking on. We debate the truly worst hacker images we've seen and we propose a possible new stock image of the hacker.