Articles by 'Steve Gold'

By Steve Gold, Posted in Security

In the fast-paced world of cybersecurity, keeping software up-to-date is a critical defense against vulnerabilities and threats. Ensuring that workforce members can verify and report out-of-date software patches or any failures in automated processes and tools is essential. This blog post explores best practices for this training, using engaging references from popular culture to make these concepts more relatable and memorable. The Importance of Software Updates Imagine if the Avengers didn’t upgra... read more.

• July 30, 2024

By Steve Gold, Posted in Security

In the battle against cyber threats, the ability to recognize and report potential security incidents is crucial. Just as heroes in pop culture stories must identify and respond to danger, your workforce needs to be equipped with the knowledge and skills to spot and report cybersecurity incidents. This blog post explores the importance of training employees to recognize potential incidents and outlines best practices for reporting them, using references from popular culture to make these concepts engaging a... read more.

• July 23, 2024

By Steve Gold, Posted in Security

In an era where data breaches and cybersecurity incidents dominate headlines, unintentional data exposure remains a significant threat to organizational security. Training workforce members to be aware of the causes for unintentional data exposure is essential. I’m going to cover common causes using factual pop culture references to highlight the importance of these practices. Mis-Delivery of Sensitive Data Imagine the chaos that ensues in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" when Harry receive... read more.

• July 16, 2024

By Steve Gold, Posted in Security

In “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring”, the fellowship travels to Mordor to destroy the One Ring of the Dark Lord Sauron. In one scene, the fellowship come face to face with a Balrog. Knowing they cannot all escape, Gandalf stands on a bridge and yells “You Cannot Pass” and fights the Balrog to the death. What Gandalf did on the bridge relates to how we should handle our data. Gandalf recognized the threat of the Balrog to both his fellow travelers (colleagues) and t... read more.

• July 09, 2024

By Steve Gold, Posted in Security

Yeah, I know. I’m using the same pop culture reference to make a point. But the reference is perfect and the point is important so read on. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) "Ocean's Eleven" showed breaking into a high-security vault requires more than just picking a lock; it involves bypassing multiple layers of security measures. This is similar to multi-factor authentication (MFA). MFA enhances security by requiring users to present multiple pieces of evidence (factors) to verify their identity.... read more.

• July 02, 2024

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