Cybersecurity starts with your users Your cybersecurity trained employees are a central component of your security posture, according to Freaky Clown (FC), CEO and Head of Ethical Security at Cygenta. FC is a professional red teamer who tests the security of organizations by breaking into them. FC talked to Carole Theriault in part two of an interview on the CyberWire’s Hacking Humans podcast. FC says that managers are often surprised by how far he can get without being caught, because employees don’t know to watch out for threats. He describes a number of unusual situations in which he has convinced employees to participate in strange activities, such as building teepees with their coats as a team building exercise, or setting up a bar in a government building. “You can ... Read More

Passwords get stolen and sold The bad guys are constantly coming out with new ways to hack into your network and steal your organization’s confidential information. Verizon's recent Data Breach Report showed that 81% of hacking-related breaches used either stolen or weak passwords. And, a new survey from Dark Reading shows 44% of organizations say users pose the greatest threat to data security! Find out if your users are putting a big target on your organization’s back KnowBe4’s Password Exposure Test (PET) is a new and complimentary IT security tool that allows you to run an in-depth analysis of your organization’s hidden exposure risk associated with your users. PET makes it easy for you to identify users with exposed emails publicly available on the web, and checks your Active Directory to see if they are using weak or compromised ... Read More

AI and facial recognition are dangerous As I proofread this post, Facebook users are jumping on a new fad. They are posting pictures of themselves 10 years ago and today. They do this to show much they have aged, or have not aged, in 10 years. I think this is dangerous. AI can take these facial images, superimpose your face on an image and then defraud you. This starts to be more than a bit concerning. The faces in this post (below) look like pretty normal humans. They could be social media shots. However, they were generated by a recent type of algorithm: generative adversarial network, or GAN. Nvidia researchers Tero Karras, Samuli Laine, and Timo Aila posted details of the method to produce completely imaginary fake faces with ... Read More