🔏 Simplifying Cybersecurity Issue #9

Welcome to the latest issue of Simplifying Cybersecurity!

This newsletter is packed with info to help you up your cybersecurity game. Whether you're just getting started or a seasoned cybersecurity professional, I've got you covered with tips, tools, and resources to help you keep growing and keep your career moving forward.

In this issue:

• Cybersecurity news stories you should read

• Security tools you should explore

• Tips to stand out in your next interview

• Training resources to improve your skills

• Career opportunities you can apply for today

• Recommended reading from The Bookstore

📰 Cybersecurity in the News

🤦 National Public Data Published Its Own Passwords. National Public Data (NPD) suffered a data breach that exposed personal information of hundreds of millions of Americans. The breach was exacerbated by NPD's sister company inadvertently publishing passwords to its database, further compromising the security of the data.

110K domains targeted in 'sophisticated' AWS cloud extortion campaign. Attackers are exploiting misconfigured AWS environment files to extort organizations, highlighting the importance of following cloud security best practices. These attackers are leveraging exposed credentials to gain access to cloud resources, emphasizing the need for robust authentication, access control, and proper configuration management.

Cryptocurrency ‘pig butchering’ scam wrecks Kansas bank, sends ex-CEO to prison for 24 years. The former CEO of Heartland Tri-State Bank, Shan Hanes, was sentenced to over 24 years in prison for embezzling $47 million from the bank and sending it to cryptocurrency scammers in a "pig butchering" scheme. Hanes' actions led to the collapse of the bank and caused significant financial losses for shareholders and the community.

Researchers Highlight How Poisoned LLMs Can Suggest Vulnerable Code. Researchers found a technique called CodeBreaker that can manipulate AI models to suggest vulnerable code to developers. Developers need to be cautious about accepting code suggestions from AI and should review them carefully before incorporating them into their projects.

Assume Breach When Building AI Apps. AI jailbreaks, where AI models are manipulated to act in unintended ways, are not considered vulnerabilities by AI companies but are seen as inevitable by AI jailbreaking communities. This discrepancy in views highlights the challenge in securing AI applications, suggesting that instead of trying to prevent jailbreaks, focus should be on monitoring AI applications and responding quickly when jailbreaks inevitably occur.

Ransomware Resilience Drives Down Cyber Insurance Claims. Although more UK organizations have cyber insurance, the number of claims is decreasing due to improved preparedness and stricter insurance policies. The increased resilience is largely attributed to a rise in organizations with business continuity plans and effective backup strategies, enabling them to recover from cyberattacks without paying ransoms.

🧰 For Your Security Toolbox

Cybersecurity pros need to continually sharpen the saw. Sometimes that might mean reading a book, other times that might mean completing a training class.

But from time to time, it also means rolling up your sleeves and doing some hands-to-keyboard work.

This week’s featured tool is OpenCTI, an open-source cyber threat intelligence platform.

It uses a STIX2-based knowledge schema and features a modern web app architecture with GraphQL API. OpenCTI integrates with tools like MISP and TheHive, aiming to be a central hub for cyber threat intelligence. It allows users to capitalize on technical and non-technical data with traceability, interlinking, and confidence assessment.

OpenCTI integrates with MITRE ATT&CK for data structuring and can infer new relationships from existing data for better understanding. It's available for free on GitHub with Docker images and manual installation packages.

➡️ Give OpenCTI a spin in your home lab.

💼 Interview Tips

Understanding how to respond to incidents like the ones I mentioned in this newsletter is a core skills for many cybersecurity professionals.

But after the incident, it’s equally important that we train our people on how to keep themselves and our organizations safe from similar attacks in the future.

So how will you answer questions related to security incident response and data breach post mortems in an interview?

In response to the NPD breach of 2.9 BILLION SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS (again, 🤦), I put together some security awareness training guidance on how our impacted coworkers, friends, and family members can freeze their credit.

By teaching them how to protect themselves at home, we’re encouraging secure online habits that just might help protect us all against another cyberattack in the future.

My advice: Explain what it means to freeze one's credit, what it means to temporarily lift (or thaw) that freeze, and provide links to each of the three (3) credit bureaus.

• Equifax

• Experian

• Transunion

Explain that freezes and thaws are FREE, and that signing up for paid services for this purpose isn't necessary.

➡️ Check out the original post here!

💡 Training Opportunities

To keep with the theme of learning how to train users, I have a handful of security awareness courses to share with you from LinkedIn Learning.

If you’ve got a Premium profile, or if your company has a LinkedIn Learning subscription, you can check out these courses anytime you’d like.

But even if you don’t have a LinkedIn Learning subscription, you can use these links to take these courses for FREE. The links themselves shouldn’t expire, but as soon as you click on them, you have 24 hours to complete the courses. You can bookmark them for a rainy day.

• Building a Cybersecurity Awareness Program

• Cybersecurity Awareness: Social Engineering

• Cybersecurity Awareness: Phishing Attacks

• Security Tips: Browsing the Web

• Learning Computer Security and Internet Safety

➡️ Knock out a course over lunch or bookmark them all for a rainy day.

🚀 Career Opportunities

If you’re looking for an Entry Level or Associate role, you might want to check out these opportunities:

• Associate Professional Services Consultant, Menlo Security Inc.

• Info Security Analyst, Horizontal Talent

• Junior Offensive Operator, The DigiTrust Group

• Cyber Security Administrator, Colorado Governor's Office of Information Technology

• Customer Support Tech Assoc, Corewell Health

If you’re looking for a Mid-Senior Level role, you might want to check out these opportunities:

• Senior Manager, Security Awareness Program Manager, Affirm

• Vice President, Information Security, BNY

• Field CISO, CDW

• Director of Information Security Operations, Element Solutions Inc.

• Member of Information Security (Global), Anchorage Digital

📚 The Bookstore

The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security by Kevin Mitnick explores the methods used by social engineers to manipulate individuals into divulging sensitive information or performing actions that compromise security. Mitnick emphasizes that the weakest link in any security system is often the human element, which can be exploited through techniques like pretexting, phishing, and social engineering. The book serves as a guide to understanding and defending against these tactics, highlighting the importance of awareness and training in maintaining robust security practices.

👕 Anybody want a peanut hoodie?

The Simplifying Cybersecurity store is live!

I wanted some cybersecurity swag of my own that I could start wearing to hacker cons, but I’m not the biggest fan of swag that’s covered with vendor logos. 🤷

So I decided to design some swag my own. 😉

I’ve got a handful of designs in the store now, and I’m planning to add more soon. Oh! And stickers! I haven’t uploaded any sticker designs just yet, but they’re on their way.

If you want to grab your own hoodie or tee, head on over to the store today!

That's it for this week. If I’m doing my job right, you’re a few steps closer to making the career moves you want to make.

If you’re digging this newsletter, I’ve got two quick asks:

➡️ Share it with a friend or colleague who might like it as well. We’re all in this together, and sharing what we learn along the way helps everyone.

➡️ If someone forwarded this to you, subscribe here.

➡️ Connect with me on LinkedIn! I'm always up for chatting about all things cybersecurity and career growth.

Stay safe out there, and keep learning!

Jerod