If At First You Don't Succeed, There's Always Blackmail

Direct link for episode on blog (https://cisoseries.com/if-at-first-you-dont-succeed-theres-always-blackmail/)

We note that blackmail has become an option even in cybersecurity sales. It appears some vendors have become so desperate that they've resorted to borderline criminal activity.

This show, like all the previous ones is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our guest this week is Branden Newman, CISO for Adidas.

Thanks to this week's sponsor, Logicgate

LogicGate is an agile GRC process automation platform that combines powerful functionality with an intuitive design to enhance enterprise governance, risk, and compliance programs. With our prebuilt process templates, organizations quickly and efficiently operationalize their GRC activities without requiring support from consultants or corporate IT.

On this week's episode

How CISOs are digesting the latest security news

CNBC published a piece about security vendors being so desperate for meetings with CISOs that they've resorted to blackmail. They see a breach, even if it's not holding any critical or personal data, and they threaten to take it to the press if the CISO doesn't meet with them and/or let them fix it. Has this happened to our CISOs and if so, what did they do?

Why is everybody talking about this now?

We talk about the basics a lot on this show, but I'm getting the sense that the industry is finally taking it seriously. We saw evidence at RSA with 60% of the content being focused on fundamentals. And CISOs at major companies not touting the latest threats, but getting back to basics. We've talked a lot about this issue on the show. How else can the industry turn the focus about getting back to basics?

What's Worse?!

I challenge the CISOs once again on what is probably the shortest What's Worse?! question.

Hey, you're a CISO, what's your take on this?'

The horror of the badge scanner. Chad Loder, CEO of Habitu8, posted that he never uses badge scanners because "There's nothing worse than talking to someone only to have them ask, 'Mind if I scan you?' - it reinforces the idea that the goal of this human interaction is to ensure you're added to a list." The goals of attendees (learning and valuable conversations) are not coinciding with the goals of vendors (more scans for follow up cold calls and marketing). What is the ideal booth experience for a security professional?

BTW, I wrote a book on how to engage at a trade show entitled Three Feet from Seven Figures: One-on-One Engagement Techniques to Qualify More Leads at Trade Shows. Check it out at http://threefeetbook.com

Ask a CISO

Jeremiah Grossman, CEO of Bit Discovery, and a former guest, asked this question on Twiter which caused a flurry of discussion: "In InfoSec we often hear, 'Why don’t organizations just do or fix … X?' As a thought exercise, ask the opposite. 'Why should businesses do or fix… X?,' and do so in dollars and cents terms.It’s often surprisingly difficult." Is it possible to calculate this formula?