Articles by 'Steve Gold'

By Steve Gold, Posted in Security

Danny Ocean, played by George Clooney in Ocean’s 11 shows the complexity, timing, and sometimes ease of leveraging social engineering for an attack. This film provides a compelling look into the art of deception and manipulation, showcasing strategies that are surprisingly relevant to cybersecurity training. In "Ocean's Eleven," Danny Ocean and his team use sophisticated social engineering tactics to rob a casino. They employ pretexting when posing as technicians or officials to access restricted are... read more.

• June 19, 2024

By Steve Gold, Posted in Security

The iconic line uttered by Agent Smith, played by Hugo Weaving, to Thomas A. Anderson, aka Neo, played by Keanu Reeves, in The Matrix. If you’ve been living under a rock or in a good sized closet, The Matrix tells the story of how Neo is awakened to the reality that his entire existence has been within a digital simulation, leading him on a journey to fight against the machines that have enslaved humanity. This awakening is akin to the realization organizations must reach about the importance of cyber... read more.

• April 09, 2024

By Steve Gold, Posted in Security

If you think hackers are only trying to get to your Windows machines, well, you’re wrong. In May 2018, the cybersecurity world was rocked by the discovery of VPNFilter, a highly sophisticated and destructive piece of malware that targeted routers and network-attached storage devices across the globe. Identified by Cisco's Talos Intelligence Group, VPNFilter highlighted a critical vulnerability in the very backbone of our internet infrastructure, affecting devices from well-known manufacturers, includi... read more.

• April 03, 2024

By Steve Gold, Posted in Security

Jurassic Park demonstrated isolation both in the literal sense, with the park being located on an isolated island, and in the operational sense, where different systems within the park are designed to function independently to prevent cascading failures. This dual approach to isolation is mirrored in the cybersecurity best practice of creating isolated instances of recovery data. The film underscores the consequences of system failures and the lack of adequate isolation measures, particularly when Dennis N... read more.

• March 26, 2024

By Steve Gold, Posted in Security

"Person of Interest," a science fiction television series that aired from 2011 to 2016, centers around a supercomputer known as "The Machine," designed to predict terrorist acts by monitoring and analyzing surveillance data. However, its capabilities extend far beyond its primary function, touching on themes of privacy, artificial intelligence, and the ethical implications of surveillance. As "The Machine" processes and stores vast amounts of sensitive information, the series showcases the elaborate measur... read more.

• March 19, 2024

By Steve Gold, Posted in Security

"Silicon Valley," the hit HBO comedy series that aired from 2014 to 2019, follows the trials and tribulations of Richard Hendricks and his team at Pied Piper as they navigate the competitive world of Silicon Valley with their groundbreaking compression algorithm. One of its core narratives provides a compelling backdrop to discuss the significance of automated backups. Throughout the series, Pied Piper faces multiple data management crises, including near-losses of crucial algorithmic data and intellectual... read more.

• March 12, 2024

By Steve Gold, Posted in Security

What better way to articulate a Data Recovery Process than map it to a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode. In “Disaster” (Season 5, Episode 5), the Enterprise-D strikes a quantum filament that cripples the starship, showcasing the necessity of robust data recovery strategies in the face of unexpected disasters. "Disaster" illustrates the broad scope of data recovery activities, as the crew faces multiple system failures. Data recovery in an organizational context similarly encompasses a wid... read more.

• March 05, 2024

By Steve Gold, Posted in Security

In the movie “Eagle Eye,” two strangers are coerced into a complex plot by a mysterious woman who communicates with them via their electronic devices. The movie showcases how technology can be manipulated to control actions and lead individuals into unintended consequences. While "Eagle Eye" focuses more on the theme of surveillance and artificial intelligence, it indirectly parallels the caution behind disabling autorun features—highlighting the risks associated with allowing external dev... read more.

• February 29, 2024

By Steve Gold, Posted in Security

I’m not referring to the hit song from Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam, as this is a cybersecurity blog about CIS Controls. But now that the song is in my head, I may have to find a way to integrate it somehow. But I digress. I’m speaking of the infamous “WannaCry” ransomware attack that hit the world back in May 2017. WannaCry exploited vulnerabilities in older versions of Microsoft Windows to encrypt data on infected computers, demanding ransom payments in Bitcoin for decryption keys. Th... read more.

• February 20, 2024

By Steve Gold, Posted in Security

This was the line said by Julius Levinson, played by Judd Hirsch in Independence Day, that changes the direction of the movie from potential annihilation to probable survival. David Levinson (Julian’s son), played by Jeff Goldblum is on the verge of giving up and accepting the fate that aliens will take over the planet. When he hears these words, he thinks about a cold, then a virus, and then a computer virus. David creates a computer virus (aka malware) that can infect alien ships, disable their def... read more.

• February 13, 2024