Interest in Identity Security is Spiking - John Shier, Will Lin, Christopher Harrell, Jim Broome - ESW #364

"Identity security has been around forever though", you might be thinking. Allow me to clarify. Identity is the largest cybersecurity product category, but most of it is focused on identity governance, authentication, multi-factor, etc. Very little of it is focused on operational identity security. It's this trend, where we recently (within the last 2 years) started seeing the ITDR (Identity Threat Detection and Response) acronym that we'll be focused on today. Particularly:

• Why is this trend/spike occurring now?
• What was or is missing to do identity security properly?
• What does the future of securing identity look like?

And it's difficult to do better for this conversation than Will Lin. He spent the last half decade as a VC. On a daily basis, he was looking at the big picture of cybersecurity markets and trends. He discussed security challenges with CISOs and other security buyers on a regular basis, both directly and through the Security Tinkerers community he founded. All this led to a decision to quit the VC world to become a founder himself. Of all the categories he could have chosen, he chose identity security, and that's why we're happy to have him for this conversation.

Segment Resources:

• The Future of Identity AKA Identity promo video focused on the future of Identity

We start off discussing the latest round of fundings, centered largely around data security and securing LLM use. This dovetails into a discussion about marketing language and how difficult it can be for buyers to work out what the latest round of early stage startups are doing.

Next, we discuss Cloudflare and Bugcrowd's acquisitions, as well as Synopsys's divestiture of its appsec portfolio.

From here, we dive into a raft of new features across both IT and cybersecurity products, like Azure, Dashlane, LastPass, and PagerDuty. Discussing Huntress's active remediation feature triggers a conversation about this latest product trend: vendors seem to think buyers are ready for fully automated remediation actions. We're not so sure they are.

To wrap up the cybersecurity coverage, Brandon Dixon has an interesting tutorial regarding a Security Copilot use case that looks a LOT like the default phishing enrichment use case that has been used for every SOAR POC ever. To clarify, this is a great piece in that it is all practical, has no marketing fluff, and shows you how to do something useful with Security Copilot. Where it pulls up short is managing to live up to the hype we've been hearing about Security Copilot from day one.

We agree to table the discussion on Microsoft Recall until we know more about what GA of the feature will look like, and then dig into a VERY interesting squirrel story about an audio-based hacking puzzle created by a rock band.

The interview will delve into the healthcare industry's tumultuous year in 2023, marked by 124 million breached health records across 725 hacking incidents (according to The HIPAA Journal). This interview will explore the critical role that MSSPs play in safeguarding health data and systems against potential security incidents, such as ransomware and business email compromise attacks. Jim Broome will share how to proactively prepare for an incident - including establishing a comprehensive incident response plan, outlining strategies for containment, restoration, and ongoing security operations, and how an MSSP can help.

Segment Resources: Tales from the Road Blog: An External Pen Test at a Healthcare Organization Reveals the Dangers of the Dark Web - https://www.directdefense.com/tales-from-the-road-an-external-pen-test-reveals-the-dangers-of-the-dark-web/

2023 Security Operations Threat Report: https://go.directdefense.com/2023-Security-Operations-Threat-Report

This segment is sponsored by DirectDefense. Visit https://securityweekly.com/directdefensersac to learn more about them!

In the dynamic landscape of cybersecurity, the urgency to eliminate passwords as a security vulnerability has never been more critical. Organizations are continuing to face a surge in the variety and complexity of cyber threats at historical rates, often fueled by compromised employee login credentials – resulting from attacks such as phishing which has been exacerbated by the rise in use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The 2023 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report underscores the staggering impact of breaches caused by stolen credentials, accounting for a staggering 74% of incidents. Christopher Harrell, Yubico’s Chief Technology Officer, shares how organizations can achieve passwordless authentication at scale with high assurance phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication (MFA) to elevate their security posture against phishing attacks while creating phishing-resistant users.

Segment Resources: https://www.yubico.com/blog/empowering-enterprise-security-at-scale-with-new-product-innovations-yubikey-5-7-and-yubico-authenticator-7/

https://www.yubico.com/press-releases/yubicos-key-product-innovations-empower-enterprise-security-and-phishing-resistant-passwordless-authentication-at-scale/

This segment is sponsored by Yubico. Visit https://securityweekly.com/yubicorsac to learn more about them!

In this podcast segment, we delve into Sophos' fifth annual State of Ransomware report, exploring significant findings and trends in the evolving ransomware landscape. We'll discuss the sharp increase in recovery costs, the strategic targeting of backups by hackers, and the evolving role of cyber insurance in ransom payments. Our discussion will provide insights into how organizations can adapt their cybersecurity measures to mitigate these heightened threats and recover more effectively from attacks.

Segment Resources: Blog: The State of Ransomware 2024 Report: https://assets.sophos.com/X24WTUEQ/at/9brgj5n44hqvgsp5f5bqcps/sophos-state-of-ransomware-2024-wp.pdf Press release: Ransomware Payments Increase 500% In the Last Year, Finds Sophos State of Ransomware Report

This segment is sponsored by Sophos. Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/sophosrsac to learn more about them!

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Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/esw-364