Protecting People

Five Minute Forecast for the week of July 5th. All the cyber security news you need to stay ahead, from Proofpoint’s Protecting People podcast. 

No letup in sight from the recent wave of cyber attacks 
Solar Winds still blowing as notorious attacker strikes again 
And cracked versions of popular video games provide a crypto-mining bounty 

Joining us is Proofpoint Threat Researcher Selena Larson with a primer on how cyber criminals are using a legitimate security testing tool called Cobalt Strike to make their attacks even more effective.

Proofpoint has concluded 3 of their 2021 conferences: Wisdom, Protect, & Protect EMEA with great success; highlighting their guest speakers and information protection—the show takes a behind-the-scenes look at the action.


Tim Choi, Vice President Product Marketing at Proofpoint, joins the show to discuss the Proofpoint conferences.


What we talked about:
- The Structure of the Protect, Protect EMEA, & Wisdom Conferences
- Discussing the Conference Panel Participants
- COVID-19 and the Information Protection Transformation
- Security Awareness Training within an Organization


Check out these resources we mentioned during the podcast:
- Protect Conference 2021 - Day 1 Recap
- Protect Conference 2021 - Day 2 Recap
- Wisdom Recap

To hear more interviews like this one, subscribe to the Protecting People Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform.

June 28. All the cyber security news you need to stay ahead, from Proofpoint’s Protecting People podcast. 

The NSA opens its doors to the cyber security research community
San Francisco’s water supply is threatened by a digital breach 
And copyright activists block access to piracy sites with an unusual piece of malware 

Joining us is Proofpoint Threat Researcher Selena Larson, to explain why cyber criminals are now operating fake movie streaming sites and support call centers.

Five Minute Forecast for the week of June 21. All the cyber security news you need to stay ahead, from Proofpoint’s Protecting People podcast

Presidents Biden and Putin butt heads over cyber security strategy
US businesses pay big money to ransomware gangs, but the FBI is clawing some of it back
And attackers hide in plain sight on Steam – a popular gaming platform

Joining us is Proofpoint Threat Researcher Daniel Blackford, giving the lowdown on the steganography techniques attackers are using to place malware on the Steam platform.

About 85% of threats involve some sort of human interaction, and about 50% of organizations have experienced a successful phishing attack.


So, attacks are overwhelmingly focused on people.


In a recent Expert Insights episode of Protecting People, we spoke with Brett Shaw, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Proofpoint, about some of the latest trends in the threat landscape — and how to protect people from them.


What we talked about:
- Email is the easiest way to prey on vulnerabilities
- Reducing risk means developing a multi-layered approach to security
- A system is only as good as the data that feeds it, but…
- Human action can overset any system with just one click


Check out these resources we mentioned during the podcast:
- The State of the Phish 2021
- The Verizon DBIR report [referenced at 3:28]
- Email Fraud and Security Awareness Kit [referenced at 4:57-5:46]


For more episodes like this one, subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and the Proofpoint website, or just search for Protecting People in your favorite podcast player.


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Let’s talk about the adversarial relationship between end users and vendors.Things could improve in both directions.


In this episode, we interview Dan Holden, VP of Cyber Security at BigCommerce, about anger, angst, and ‘forgivability’ in the vendor/end user relationship.


What we talked about:

- It’s more about fit than about vendor or product

- The advantages of building a vendor relationship with a startup

- The CISO’s role in understanding the vendor landscape

- 3 questions for the CISO to ask to set vendor priorities


You’re invited to Protect 2021 on June 8-9.


For more episodes like this one, subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and the Proofpoint website, or just search for Protecting People in your favorite podcast player.


Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Protecting People in your favorite podcast player.

Dan Holden, VP of Cybersecurity at BigCommerce takes a threat centric angle when discussing information security. He emphasizes the importance of awareness around the extent of cybercrime capability.


What we talked about:

- Different ways to handle information security

- Changes in the threat landscape

- External aspects of cybercrime capability

- Framework vs. Strategy

Check out these resources we mentioned during the podcast:

- Proofpoint Protect 2021



For more episodes like this one, subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and the Proofpoint website, or just search for Protecting People in your favorite podcast player.


Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Protecting People n your favorite podcast player.

The new world has changed our concerns about how information is accessed and handled. Remote work has accelerated the insider threat, insider risk, and DLP concern. The need for information protection is at an all-new high.


In this episode in our Inside Line on Information Protection series, host Brian Reed chatted with Tim Choi, Vice President Product Marketing at Proofpoint, about information protection and the upcoming Protect 2021 conference.


What we talked about:

- New information protection situations Tim has seen

- Why Protect 2021 is focused on customers

- Where to register for Protect 2021


Check out this resources we mentioned during the podcast:
- You’re invited to attend Proofpoint Protect 2021


Find additional content and subscribe to Protecting People on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.


Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Protecting People in your favorite podcast player.

We’ve been joined by Gretel Egan, Senior Security Awareness Training Strategist at Proofpoint, to discuss this year’s State of the Phish (SOTP) Report, where we get an in depth look at user awareness, vulnerability and resilience.


This episode covers:

- A breakdown of what goes into the SOTP report and where the data is sourced from

- The broadness of the term ‘phishing’ and what it includes or means, in the context of the data

- The application of phishing techniques across different media

- How the COVID-19 pandemic gave attackers the opportunity of a lifetime

- How to measure informational security preparedness and awareness within your organization

- The resilience ratio, and how automated reporting can improve this figure for your organization


Below is the link to access this year’s State of the Phish Report:

- The 2021 SOTP Report


Find additional content and subscribe to Protecting People on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.


Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Protecting People in your favorite podcast player.

When everyone is feeling overwhelmed by taxes and afraid of doing something wrong, that’s when the phishing, smishing, and website impersonation reaches its height.


How can we reassure and train our employees about tax-related scams?


In this episode of our Expert Insights series, we interview Susan Mackowiak, Senior Director, Program Content at Proofpoint, about resources to avoid being a victim of a tax scam.


What we talked about:

- What scammers are trying to accomplish

- How the IRS contacts you and how to contact the IRS

- An overview of the contents of Proofpoint’s Tax Awareness Kit


Check out these resources we mentioned during the podcast:

- Tax Season Awareness Kit

- 7th Annual Report for the State of the Phish

- The IRS’s phishing reporting site


Find additional content and subscribe to Protecting People on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.


Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Protecting People in your favorite podcast player.