Cybersecurity Programs

16th February 2023

Your Cybersecurity Needs a Fitness Plan

I began skiing when I was 12. I grew up in Florida, but we would come up north occasionally to visit my aunt and uncle and they would take me, my brother, and our cousins out on the slopes. I loved it and I kept skiing for many years after that. But eventually, wear, tear,…

2nd February 2023

SOC 2 Physical Security Requirements

You spend all of your time carefully configuring all of your technology and network to make it as difficult as possible for an attacker to compromise you… only for your penetration tester to walk in your front door and walk out with three laptops and a hard drive filled with your confidential data. This is…

21st December 2022

Threat Intelligence: Worry about the Right Things

Parents think about threat intelligence all the time: “what could hurt our kid?” But what exactly do they worry about? No doubt this changes as children age. There was a great article on NPR where the author of “The Paranoid Parents Guide”1 shared two lists. A list of the top 5 things parents worry about….

15th December 2022

Least privilege is key to good cybersecurity.

Last weekend, Mrs. Black and I were enjoying an all too rare dinner out together. Just the two of us at a local restaurant, while the kids were happily at home in the care of their favorite sitter. Towards the end of dinner, I got up and went to the restroom. Two minutes later, and with…

20th October 2022

Modernize your Cybersecurity Measurements

Among our various Black Family traditions, one of my favorites is reading to my kids at bedtime. It’s a great way to power down after a busy day and enjoy some screen-free, quality time together. Recently, my 11-year-old son and I have been reading Alexandre Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo. First published in 1844, it has…

15th September 2022

Cybersecurity is a team sport, so who are the players?

It’s back to school time (parents, try to conceal your understandable excitement). For my 11-year-old son, the best part about going back to school is playing cello in our town’s middle school orchestra, a spot he earned over the summer despite (pardon me while I brag) being a sixth grader in competition with 7th and 8th…

25th August 2022

Communication, not computers, is the key cybersecurity leadership skill.

CFO: You’re asking for a security budget increase of 20% from last year and we’ve already reached our ratio on technology spend. CISO: …but our budget was cut 30% the year before due to other strategic projects and we haven’t addressed some key gaps… CFO: We didn’t have any security issues last year though and…

18th August 2022

Nudge your way to better Cybersecurity

Our local post office parking lot was under construction for many months. I have no idea what they were working on and it would not be notable except… … it used to be super-convenient to mail letters* there. [*Yes, those physical paper things. What can I say, I have a certain nostalgia for an age gone…

21st July 2022

Don’t Flip-Flop on Defense-in-Depth!

We just returned from our annual vacation on Cape Cod. It’s always been an ideal place to relax and recharge. This year was no exception, thanks in no small part to seven days of picture-perfect weather. But it wasn’t entirely stress free. That’s because on the very first day, my right flip-flop broke. I know, I know,…

7th July 2022

Applying Mazda’s “Gram Strategy” to Cybersecurity and Risk Management

Imagine being sixteen years old, gassing up your mothers old Chevy Cavalier and seeing a sleek smurf-blue roadster zip past the gas station. Time stops. You immediately fall in love with it. Time starts again, and you disappointedly climb into your mom’s clunker and sullenly drive yourself home. You spend the next twenty years thinking…