The weakest link in most cybersecurity systems is you - that is, human beings. And one of the primary ways that people are tricked into infecting their devices (and potentially then threatening other devices on the network) is through phishing. We've all seen the Nigerian Prince scams, but with AI tools like ChatGPT, scam emails are going to get a lot harder to spot. On today's show, author and cybersecurity expert Nick Oles will teach us how to recognize phishing emails, introduce us to tools for detecting and protecting against phishing, and detail other techniques for defending against these sorts of attacks. All of this is just a taste of the top notch advice contained in his new book, "How to Catch a Phish".

Interview Notes

How to Catch a Phish: https://www.amazon.com/How-Catch-Phish-Practical-Detecting/dp/1484293606 

Win a free copy!! https://fdsd.me/catchaphish 

Nick Oles on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-o-8b5b6349/

National Cybersecurity Awareness Month: https://www.cisa.gov/cybersecurity-awareness-month 

Virustotal URL scanner: https://www.virustotal.com/gui/home/url 

URLscan.io: https://urlscan.io/

SANS PICERL Incident Response model (PDF): https://www.sans.org/media/score/504-incident-response-cycle.pdf 

Malwarebytes personal: https://www.malwarebytes.com/getprotection 

Further Info

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Subscribe to the newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter 

Check out my book, Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons: https://fdsd.me/book 

Table of Contents

Use these timestamps to jump to a particular section of the show.

0:00:45: Patron book club update0:02:11: Nat'l Cybersecurity Awareness Month0:02:48: What drove you to write the book?0:06:57: What really happens behind the scenes when I send an email?0:13:37: What are email headers and why would I want to look at them?0:17:13: How are email senders spoofed and can we prevent this?0:23:35: Do email clients have indicators for vetted senders?0:25:40: What is phishing and how can we recognize it?0:32:06: How has phishing evolved over the years?0:37:01: What are spearphishing and business email compromise?0:40:24: Do spam filters help at all with phishing emails?0:42:50: How do I know if I can trust any link or URL in an email?0:48:34: Are web email clients safer than dedicated email apps?0:51:35: How can we know which email attachments are safe to open?0:54:48: If I accidentally click a bad link or attachment, what then?0:59:11: How will AI impact phishing campaigns?1:01:13: Are things getting better or getting worse?1:04:08: Interview wrap-up1:07:44: Book giveaway details