Articles by 'Steve Gold'

By Steve Gold, Posted in Security

In John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023), the High Table does not operate on goodwill. Every obligation is written, formalized, and binding. The marker system works because the terms are explicit and non-negotiable. Nobody at the High Table closes a deal with a handshake and a smile, because a vague agreement in that world gets you killed. Your vendor contracts work the same way: if security requirements are not in writing, they do not exist. What Is Ensure Service Provider Contracts Include Security Requirements? ... read more.

• October 13, 2026

By Steve Gold, Posted in Security

In Dune: Part Two, Paul Atreides does not treat every alliance the same way. The Fremen are strategic partners with deep access to his plans and survival. The Spacing Guild controls critical infrastructure that nothing in the known universe moves without. House Corrino is a threat dressed up as diplomacy. Paul classifies each relationship by what it controls and what risk it carries, because treating them equally would get him killed. Your vendor ecosystem works exactly the same way. What Is Classify Servi... read more.

• October 06, 2026

By Steve Gold, Posted in Security

In Netflix's The Diplomat (2023), Ambassador Kate Wyler does not wing her relationships with foreign governments. She operates inside a framework of protocols, obligations, and documented agreements. When a crisis hits, she knows exactly what her options are and what the rules of engagement require. Without that framework, every new incident becomes a scramble. Your vendor relationships work the same way. When something goes sideways with a service provider, a documented policy tells you exactly what to do... read more.

• September 29, 2026

By Steve Gold, Posted in Security

You’re running late for an appointment. No coffee, no breakfast, the outfit is not, exactly, what you were hoping for.  You need to make up time, so you start looking for it wherever you can find it. You approach an intersection with a stop sign, glance both ways, and roll right through without fully stopping. Congratulations. You are now a GRC expert. You knew the rule. You know how to be compliant. You made a calculated decision to accept the risk anyway because the odds felt good and the pay... read more.

• September 22, 2026

By Steve Gold, Posted in Security

In The Bear, every station in the kitchen has a different job, a different set of skills, and a completely different set of things that can go wrong. You do not train the pastry chef the same way you train the expeditor. You do not pull the sous chef aside to explain how to plate a salad. Everyone needs to know the basics, but the role-specific skills are what keep the kitchen from catching fire. Your security training program works the same way. What Is Conduct Role-Specific Security Awareness and Skills... read more.

• September 15, 2026

By Steve Gold, Posted in Security

In Succession, every power move and every backstab eventually came back to one question: what's on the record? When things went sideways for the Roys, the only way to reconstruct the truth was to go back to the tape. Someone, somewhere, had kept a log of what happened. CIS Safeguard 13.6 is your network's version of that tape. What Is CIS Safeguard 13.6? Network traffic flow logs are records of every connection that crosses your network. Source IP, destination IP, port, protocol, bytes transferred, timest... read more.

• September 08, 2026

By Steve Gold, Posted in Security

In the 2022 Andor series, the Rebel network operates on strict need-to-know access. Operatives who break protocol lose their connection to the network entirely, not as punishment, but as operational necessity. If your credentials or your compliance are in question, the network shuts you out before you become the breach. That's exactly the model CIS Safeguard 13.5 asks you to build for your remote users. What Is Manage Access Control for Remote Assets? CIS Safeguard 13.5 is about making sure remote access... read more.

• September 01, 2026

By Steve Gold, Posted in Security

In Severance, the employees of Lumon Industries live in a world of strict compartmentalization. Your work self cannot access what your personal self knows, and you certainly cannot wander into another department's floor without authorization. Every boundary is enforced at the threshold, with no exceptions. That is exactly what good network traffic filtering looks like. What Is Perform Traffic Filtering Between Network Segments? Traffic filtering between network segments means controlling what can talk to... read more.

• August 25, 2026

By Steve Gold, Posted in Security

In Andor (2022), the rebel intelligence cell at Ferrix doesn't wait for the Empire to announce its arrival. They funnel every signal, every movement, every comm transmission into a single command center and watch the whole network in real time. The moment something looks wrong, someone knows. That is exactly what a Network Intrusion Detection System does for your enterprise, and CIS Safeguard 13.3 says you should have one. What Is Deploy a Network Intrusion Detection Solution? A Network Intrusion Detectio... read more.

• August 18, 2026

By Steve Gold, Posted in Security

In HBO's The Last of Us (2023), the cordyceps fungus does its most dangerous work quietly, at the individual host level, before anyone realizes what is happening. By the time the network-level symptoms appear, containment is already a long shot. The parallel to cybersecurity is uncomfortable but exact. Host-based intrusion detection is about catching the infection on the machine where it starts, before it moves anywhere else. What Is Deploy a Host-Based Intrusion Detection Solution? A host-based intrusion... read more.

• August 11, 2026