Bits, Bytes, and Bourbon

A Technology Journalist and cybersecurity professional. I have a mission to remove the marketing-speak from the information people receive in their news.

[Bits, Bytes, and Bourbon @DecryptedTech]

Shape the battlefield with what you have.
Cybersecurity is (almost) always a logistical conversation first, followed by tactical and strategic decisions based on that.
Most people would probably be shocked at how well a small team can shape the battlefield to devastating effect against an opponent.

[spencer @techspence]

> You don't need a lot, you just need folks who care, constantly learning, and want to do the right thing who aren't prevented from doing so.

This!

[Bits, Bytes, and Bourbon @DecryptedTech]

@DieinPlace The last few years felt more like ego than actual advancement or strategy.
Then again, I feel that way about most companies in the AI* space.
Lots of talk, ego, attempts at buying their way through lack of ROI etc.

[Bits, Bytes, and Bourbon @DecryptedTech]

Lots of people called out this circular financing play. Most were shouted down (this is still happening, just look in the comments of the quoted post) and told it was nothing...
I have said more than once that the affair(s) even with the suspected spy, were not the reason, they were just the actionable things the board could point to in order to push for resignation.

[Bits, Bytes, and Bourbon @DecryptedTech]

@xyzabchuhyepyep Sadly, I see it every day.

[Bits, Bytes, and Bourbon @DecryptedTech]

Many companies are going to learn a new Acronym today; BC/DR and also why just saying "it's in the cloud" does not matter.

[BlackRoomSec @blackroomsec]

Before anyone's boss asks, because that's going to be a conversation today I bet, it is not a simple matter to come up with a failover if you use Microsoft exclusively in your environment and most companies do.

What I mean by this is some bosses may be asking well if we can't rely on Microsoft to be up 100% of the time is there a way that we can route our mail somewhere else, if it goes down?

Yes you absolutely can do this but it is not going to be an easy fix or fast plan to implement.

It gets more complicated with third-party spam filters like Barracuda, Mimecast and Proofpoint in the loop.

You actually have to make sure you don't create a mail loop by even attempting to do this let alone actually implementing it.

So what's the answer for the bosses who ask this?

You will come up with a plan.

You will get back to them.

But you cannot do that until you fully understand your environment so if you do not have an accurate asset inventory that automatically updates every day, that is your first order of business.

Get one.

If you do not have a network map you need to make one and that must include the connections back to every switch panel and every patch panel.

BRS > SWITCH 3 PORT 7 > PATCH PANEL 8 PORT 2

You need to know where each data jack goes. This has nothing to do with email specifically but it's just good IT OPs daily hygiene.

If you do come up with a way to do this, you also need to worry about backup and retention requirements for the failover service. That needs to be scoped out before you sign on the dotted line.

In order to do that you need to know how much total mail and the size of all mailboxes there are because the vendor that you choose is going to ask this. They are not going to blindly ingest your data into their environment without knowing.

I don't know any IT Dept that knows their events per second on any of their equipment and they should.

What is events per second?

It's how many events are happening on the software or hardware in your environment so that when you go to replace it the vendor is going to ask you well how much data do you have, what is the size of that data?

They need to know this for ingestion purposes. No one knows this.

And they don't know it because it's an absolute pain in the ass to figure all that out throughout your entire environment across hundreds of devices because each manufacturer has a different way to obtain events per second.

Firewalls and switches are easier because you can run commands but some devices you can't easily do that or the internal OS does not support it.

Which then begs the question how do you get it then?

You need some sort of logging and monitoring in place and a lot of places don't have that.

This is a mess.

But you need to lay it out for your bosses because they're going to ask this and in the asking and not getting the answers that they're seeking they should start to realize that there's a lot of areas of their business that have not been addressed which is causing you not to have the answers to these questions.

Those should be your priority first and not worrying about failover.

You need to know what's in your environment in order to properly secure it and manage it day today.

And work on business continuity and disaster recovery plans because a lot of you don't have that either and hey, I get it, but upper management is going to be real interested in those policies and procedures this coming week after this outage.

[Bits, Bytes, and Bourbon @DecryptedTech]

@CorpseKings

[Bits, Bytes, and Bourbon @DecryptedTech]

@techspence Here's the proposed note.... the linked article, in my opinion, is not accurate and was not when the note was proposed.

[Bits, Bytes, and Bourbon @DecryptedTech]

@techspence Someone is trying to community note the post.

[Bits, Bytes, and Bourbon @DecryptedTech]

@techspence It will be indeed.

[Bits, Bytes, and Bourbon @DecryptedTech]

@techspence They have none... :-)

[spencer @techspence]

Outlook will be down until ignite where Microsoft will reveal AgentOutlook365.

[mRr3b00t @UK_Daniel_Card]

Stolen memes

[BlackRoomSec @blackroomsec]

Today's take away with the Microsoft thing is that humans are solving the problem, not AI.

Because in an emergency, it cannot be relied on.

And even using it heavily as Microsoft does throughout their entire ecosystem, they don't even trust it to solve this problem.

Remember that for the future when you start to doubt yourself and whether or not you have a place still in this world.

You do.

[Nathan McNulty @NathanMcNulty]

You might want to check your Unified Audit Logs when services come back online

UAL and Purview heavily use Exchange Online, so even though Teams and a few other services are working, logging may not be

Worth considering if things were designed to cover this long of an outage :(

[Bits, Bytes, and Bourbon @DecryptedTech]

@CorpseKings

[Bits, Bytes, and Bourbon @DecryptedTech]

@YoDanno And it howls, it howls like hell!

[Bits, Bytes, and Bourbon @DecryptedTech]

@skytaleSythe @Supersonic_Red No Malice... ;-)

[Bits, Bytes, and Bourbon @DecryptedTech]

One more thing
Fiduciary Responsibility is interesting.
I have seen boards keep CEOs on while they are hemorrhaging money with bad product decisions, after massive fines, and security events.
I have also seen that as a justification for small dips in profits in other instances.
I think the strength of the individual and their ability to show a path to recovery counts for a lot in those instances

[Bits, Bytes, and Bourbon @DecryptedTech]

@TG01_Actual @HackingLZ I could see Jensen starting another business and partnering with Elon. He has the money and name to do it.

[Bits, Bytes, and Bourbon @DecryptedTech]

Different meaning of the word "for".
Even during the times you listed he worked "$For" himself and his decisions were driven by what he wanted and his own ego.
His recent decisions and actions are, in my opinion, driven by that same ego and are having consequences.
Having someone else as a "Boss" and working "For" them is different.
As for the 2nd part, no where did I say to not explore new revenue streams. But Jensen abandoning gamers did not start with Crypto or AI. He was looking to get out even in the early 2000s' by 2009~ish he was already starting to see Tegra as an option and in 2010(ish) said he wanted Tegra and SoC to be more than 50% of revenue. So this move isn't new and, as I said, it was unwise to abandon the gaming market in the manner he has when it was consistent revenue.

Understanding the logistics of a move when there are 3rd parties involved is also part of any new strategy. TSMC warned that they would not be able to meet demand, but people plowed on anyway without a clear picture of the road ahead.

It is like getting on the road with only half a tank of gas and not knowing if your route has a gas station or not.

[Bits, Bytes, and Bourbon @DecryptedTech]

The alternative you posit, to me, is unlikely.
I cannot see Jensen working "For" anyone.
The reality is that both AMD and nVidia lost the plot a while ago on the consumer market (one that has always been gravy for them).
When they both abandoned the consumers (including gamers here) for the quick and easy money of Crypto and then GenAI they lost their fallback.
Memory companies will face this soon as well as the "regulate it" crowd moves in woth salivating hunger in their eyes starting in January...
The landscape will (in my opinion) look very different for many markets in compute and components.

It will be an interesting thing to track though