Silicon Prairie Cyber Services' Blog

 Do you have a culture of cybersecurity in your business? When you send out a simulated phishing email, is there a buzz in your office? Are people competing against each other, trying to get the perfect score, and never clicking? Or are they rolling their eyes and complaining about having to take more cybersecurity training?   Did you know that humans are the most significant attack surface in your business? The bad guys are coming for your humans, too, not just your tech. Because your humans have a big target on their backs, you need to build a culture of cybersecurity within your business where everyone understands the vital role they play in staying safe from cyber attacks. Getting all of your humans engaged in cybersecurity is so important NIST even released a guidebook called "Cybersecurity is Everyone's Job."   The guidebook is worth a look. It breaks business functions into seven categories and addresses how each person can do their part to secure the busin...

Take a moment to geek out with me here at the beginning of this email. Before I get to layer 8, I have to talk about the OSI Model. The OSI Model is a model that describes the seven layers that computers use to communicate over networks. You start at the bottom at layer 1 with the physical stuff (think cables and wires). Then it ends at the top with layer 7 with all those awesome apps you use. As a cyber professional, you focus on securing all seven layers. But, did you know there's also a layer that's never pictured in the model? What is layer 8? Let's talk about it. Layer 8 is your humans.  Unfortunately, much like my last email, IT pros refer to humans negatively in layer 8. The IT Pros use layer 8 to focus on their human's lack of awareness and cybersecurity culture. If they lack awareness and culture, isn't that our fault as the cybersecurity pros? Instead of making fun of employees and complaining that they don't know anything, we need to step up and Commu...

It's time for some sayings to go. It's time to kick "You can't patch stupid" to the curb.   I've heard this saying ever since I've been in IT, and it's said in cyber too. A user would do something wrong, and someone in the department would remark, well, you can't patch stupid. I'm guilty of saying it myself, to be honest with you. Now, I've never said it directly to someone, but I'm sure someone heard one of us say, you can't patch stupid at some point somewhere along the line. I guess it's because we're a grouchy and calloused group in the IT field, but it's not cool, and we need to stop saying it.   I don't talk about feelings often living in a tech world, but imagine how someone would feel if they heard that? Pretty crappy. Would they believe that you're for the human? Would they think you care about providing quality solutions to make their jobs simple and more secure? Would they think that cybersecur...