CISO Tradecraft®

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**CISO Tradecraft®**

You are not years away from accomplishing your career goals, you are skills away. Learn the Tradecraft to Take Your Cybersecurity Skills to the Executive Level.

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Latest Episodes:

#35 - Setting Up an Application Security Program Jun 25, 2021

Show notes

On this episode of CISO Tradecraft, you can learn how to build an Application Security program.

Start with Key Questions for
- Security
- IT Operations
- Application Development/Engineering Groups
Identify Key Activities
- Asset Discovery
- Asset Risk Prioritization
- Mapping Assets Against Compliance Requirements
- Setting up a Communications Plan
Perform Application Security Testing Activities
- SAST
- DAST
- Vulnerability Scanners
- Software Composition Analysis
- Secrets Scanning
- Cloud Security Scanning
Measure and Improve Current Vulnerability Posture through metrics
- The number of vulnerabilities present in an application
- The time to fix vulnerabilities
- The remediation rate of vulnerabilities
- The time vulnerabilities remain open
- Defect Density - number of vulnerabilities per server

We also recommend reading the Microsoft Security Developer Life Cycle Practices Link

For more great ideas on setting up an application security program please read this amazing guide from WhiteHat Security Link

If you would like to improve cloud security scanning by automating Infrastructure as Code checks, then please check out Indeni CloudRail Link

#34 - Metrics that Matter Jun 18, 2021

Show notes

What is measured gets done. However before you measure you need to think about how best to measure. On this episode of CISO Tradecraft, we provide you new insights into optimizing metrics that matter.

What is a Metric?

Metrics drive outcomes. Before picking a metric consider the following:

What data is required?
What stories can it tell?
What questions does it invite?
How sustainable is it?

When you report metrics highlight three things:

Status or Measure- Where is your company right now?
Trends- What direction is your company headed?
Goals- A description of where your company wants to be

Goals or Metrics should be SMART:

Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-based

For a helpful list of metrics that you might consider please check out the following list from Security Scorecard Link

Thank you again to our sponsor CyberArk, please check out their CISO Reports.

#33 - 10 Steps to Cyber Incident Response Playbooks Jun 11, 2021

Show notes

On this episode of CISO Tradecraft, you can learn the 10 steps to Incident Response Planning:

Establish a Cyber Incident Response Team
Develop a 24/7 Contact list for Response Personnel
Compile Key Documentation of Business-Critical Networks and Systems
Identify Response Partners and Establish Mutual Assistance Agreements
Develop Technical Response Procedures for Incident Handling that your team can follow:
- External Media - An alert identifies someone plugged in a removable USB or external device
- Attrition - An alert identifies brute force techniques to compromise systems, networks, or applications. (Examples Attackers trying thousands of passwords on login pages)
- Web - A Web Application Firewall alert shows attacks carried out against your website or web-based application
- Email - A user reports phishing attacks with a malicious link or attachment
- Impersonation - An attack that inserts malicious processes into something benign (example Rogue Access Point found on company property)
- Improper Usage - Attack stemming from user violation of the IT policies. (Example employee installs file sharing software on a company laptop)
- Physical Loss- Loss or theft of a physical device (Example employee loses their luggage containing a company laptop)
Classify the Severity of the Cyber Incident
Develop Strategic Communication Procedures
Develop Legal Response Procedures
Obtain CEO or Senior Executive Buy-In and Sign-off
Exercise the Plan, Train Staff, and Update the Plan Regularly

To learn more about Incident Response Planning, CISO Tradecraft recommends reading this helpful document from the American Public Power Association

If you would like to automate security reviews of infrastructure-as-code, then please check out Indeni CloudRail Link

#32 - Brace for Incident (with Bryan Murphy) Jun 04, 2021

Show notes

Special Thanks to our podcast Sponsor, CyberArk.

Experienced CISOs know that it's not a matter of if, but when. Incidents happen, and there is an established response strategy nicknamed PICERL that works:

(P)reparation
(I)dentification
(C)ontainment
(E)radication
(R)ecovery
(L)essons Learned

If we "shift left" with our incident planning, we can minimize our organizational risk -- thorough preparation, including establishing an environment of least privilege, significantly increases the challenge for an attacker, buys us time to identify early, and limits the damage potential from an incident.

This episode features Bryan Murphy, the Incident Response team leader at CyberArk. His insights from managing dozens of responses are invaluable, and they are now yours through this special episode

#31 - Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity May 28, 2021

Show notes

On this episode of CISO Tradecraft, you can learn about the new Executive Order on Improving the Nation's Cyber Security. The episode provides a brief background on three security incidents which have influenced the Biden administration:

SolarWinds
Microsoft Exchange Servers
Colonial Pipeline Attack

The episode then overviews the various sections of the new Executive Order:

Policy
Removing Barriers to Sharing Threat Information
Modernizing Federal Government Cybersecurity
Enhancing Software Supply Chain Security
Establish a Cyber Safety Review Board
Standardizing the Federal Government’s Playbook for Responding to Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities and Incidents
Improving Detection of Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities and Incidents on Federal Government Networks
Improving the Federal Government’s Investigative and Remediation Capabilities
National Security Systems

Thanks to CyberArk for sponsoring this episode. Please check out CyberArk's new conference

#30 - Cloud Drift (with Yoni Leitersdorf) May 21, 2021

Show notes

This episode is sponsored by Indeni.

On this episode of CISO Tradecraft, G Mark Hardy discusses with Yoni Leitersdorf (CEO and CISO of Indeni) the risks which can occur in a cloud environment after it has been provisioned. Essentially it's quite common for organizations to change their cloud environment from what was declared in a Terraform or Cloud Formation Script. These unapproved cloud changes or Cloud Drift often create harmful misconfigurations and have the potential to create data loss events.

The podcast discusses the pros and cons of two key approaches to solve the Cloud Drift problem:

Static Security Testing in a build pipeline
Runtime Inventory Approaches

The podcast features Yoni Leitersdorf. Yoni founded a company (Indeni) to address Cloud Drift and discusses the business point of view of why this is a critical concern for the business. If you would like to learn more about what Yoni is working on please check out Indeni

Yoni Leitersdorf can also be found on: LinkedIn

Twitter

#29 - Identity and Access Management is the New Perimeter May 14, 2021

Show notes

Identity is the New Perimeter. On this episode of CISO Tradecraft you will increase your understanding of Identity and Access Management. Key topics include:

Audit Trail
Authentication
Authorization
Identity Compromise
Least Privilege
Microsegmentation
Multi Factor Authentication (MFA)
Privileged Access/Account Management (PAM)
Role Based Access Control (RBAC)
Single Sign On (SSO)

#28 - AI and ML and How to Tell When Vendors Are Full of It May 08, 2021

Show notes

Have you ever heard a vendor has software features such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Machine Learning (ML)? What does that mean? On this episode we answer those questions so you know when vendors are full of it.

Common reasons to use Artificial Intelligence
Types of Artificial Intelligence
What Machine Learning is
How Machine Learning works
How to select the right algorithm

References

How to Select Machine Learning Algorithms

ML Algorithm Cheat Sheet

63 Machine Learning Algorithms

#27 - Roses, Buds, & Thorns May 01, 2021

Show notes

Today, CISO Tradecraft hosts a 5 minute discussion to talk about reflection. The concept is Roses, Buds, and Thorns. It’s an exercise designed to identify opportunities to make positive change.

Roses- What’s working
Buds - What are new ideas
Thorns- What do we need to stop

If you would like to learn more please check out the article from MITRE

We would love to hear your feedback here.

Thank you, CISO Tradecraft

#26 - Blockchain for CISOs Apr 23, 2021

Show notes

On this episode CISO Tradecraft we dive into the world of blockchain. As a CISO you may be expected to explain to executives what the technology does and possibly how it works. Here's your briefing to make you successful. We'll cover:

History of money and birth of bitcoin
Why blockchain uniquely solves an age-old trust problem
Potential business uses of blockchain technology
Smart contracts and why they work
Blockchain variants such as private and permissioned

https://www.cisotradecraft.com

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