Art of NetSec

The first line of the defense in a network is the people who use it. As someone who secures data, it is easy to blame breaches on user error, but in many cases, it is a matter of ignorance rather than stupidity. It is our responsibility to educate and inform our users of the negative opportunities their actions can create and the potential consequences of a breach. The video in the link is a talk from Defcon 19 by Jayson E. Street entitled Steal Everything, Kill Everyone, Cause Total Financial Ruin and Jayson goes into depth describing many breaches that he has done as part of penetration testing. The one weak link in every incident was the human element; they all fell victim to his social engineering and didn’t think to question him. Teach your users to question everything and report suspicious activity. Breed a security culture and your first line of defense will be strong.