Endace Packet Forensics Files: Episode #39

Original Entry by : Michael Morris

Michael talks to Justin Fier, VP of Tactical Risk and Response, Darktrace.

By Michael Morris, Director of Global Business Development, Endace

Michael Morris, Director of Global Business Development, Endace

In the current era of extreme geopolitical instability, focus is intensifying on potential nation-state cyberthreats and how governments can defend against nation-states and cyber mercenaries. The increasing threat of nation-state led or sponsored attacks, combined with the massive potential impact of attacks on critical infrastructure are the stuff of nightmares that keep cyberdefenders up at night.

In this episode, I welcome back Justin Fier, VP Tactical Risk and Response at Darktrace (who was our very first guest in this series almost 40 episodes ago!) to talk about nation-state cyber, where he sees the threats lie, and what organizations can do to better prepare for possible attacks.

Justin talks about some of the great work being done by organizations like CISA, and the signs of increased collaboration between nation state defenders as being positive signs that things are moving in the right direction. But there are also significant challenges. Overcoming the slow pace of organizational change, addressing the dearth of skilled cybersecurity professionals, and building the agility to respond to the constantly evolving threat landscape are all major issues that we need to respond to as an industry – whether that’s in government defense or in securing the enterprise.

Lastly, Justin discusses what we need to do to better defend against nation-state and nation-state-sponsored attackers, and puts on his forecasting hat to predict what’s he sees as the most likely threats security teams should focus on over the next year or two.

Other episodes in the Secure Networks video/audio podcast series are available here. Or listen to the podcast here or on your favorite podcast platform.

Endace Packet Forensics Files: Episode #38

Original Entry by : Michael Morris

Michael talks to Hakan Holmgren, EVP of Sales, Cubro

By Michael Morris, Director of Global Business Development, Endace

Michael Morris, Director of Global Business Development, Endace

As data growth accelerates and distributed workloads increase, enterprises are prioritising cost efficiency and space minimization in modern datacenters. They are looking to leverage new technologies and use smaller, more cost-efficient appliances to reduce cost and improve efficiency.

By architecting infrastructure to prioritize stability and robustness and focusing on reducing carbon footprint, organizations can dramatically reduce power, storage and cooling requirements while also improving efficiency. A win-win outcome.

In this podcast, Hakan Holmgren, EVP Sales at Cubro, talks about how new technologies like Intel barefoot ASICs can accelerate packet processing for cloud datacenters and edge deployments and enable consolidation of infrastructure to reduce cost and minimize environmental impact.

Other episodes in the Secure Networks video/audio podcast series are available here.

Diversity and Inclusion: measuring our success

Original Entry by : Katrina Schollum

By Katrina Schollum, People Partner, Endace

We have been progressively working on a culture of belonging through building awareness of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) in our organization.  Led by our D&I Committee, our series of initiatives in our four focus areas of gender, ability, ethnicity and generational diversity have been implemented over time and we are proud of what we have achieved.

As part of our ongoing commitment to continuous improvement, we have taken steps to measure and report on what we have accomplished so far.  As part of the measurement, we conduct online surveys to ensure we are delivering initiatives that have a positive and constructive impact at Endace.  We recently completed a short survey that was sent to all of our team members and completed anonymously.  The results were collated and shared internally.

What was measured?

We asked about past initiatives and their efficacy to identify what changes, if any, were observed – from the level of understanding of D&I issues, to increased discussion about D&I.  We also wanted to gauge the feeling of comfort and belonging at Endace and measure whether there was any change since introducing our D&I initiatives.

One of the sets of questions was the same as a previous survey conducted 18 months ago.  These questions had a scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree.  This meant we could compare and contrast results and see what, if any, shift had occurred.

Our hardworking Diversity & Inclusion Committee.

What did we find?

We found that interactive and personal initiatives have been the most popular with our team.  Our most popular activity was our Diwali Decoration Competition, followed by our name pronunciation video featuring members of our global team.  At Endace, we like to learn by doing. So having interactive initiatives is a great way for us to build awareness.

A majority of our participants felt they have a greater understanding of D&I at Endace and have seen positive change, with 66% being able to say a definitive yes a fantastic result!  Participants also agreed that our initiatives broke down barriers to creating a stronger feeling of belonging.  The majority of our people at 74% feel comfortable openly talking about diversity at Endace. More conversation on the topic outside of direct communication and activities from the D&I Committee will enhance our progress so we continue to track and measure change on this point.

From our comparison questions, there was a higher percentage of ‘strongly agree’ answers for all questions in this set and 91% of respondents felt Endace respects its individuals and values their differences.  The results overall showed a positive trend in feelings on managerial commitment, fair treatment and a level of comfort speaking up – a great result!  This is shown through a positive uplift in results moving from agree to strongly agree from 18-23%.

While we are delighted with the results, we always can do more with our initiatives to build awareness and break down barriers.  We have a lot in plan at Endace for the coming months and we look forward to sharing in our next update.

Endace Packet Forensics Files: Episode #37

Original Entry by : Michael Morris

Michael talks to Rick Jenssen, VP of Global Operations, Plixer

By Michael Morris, Director of Global Business Development, Endace

Michael Morris, Director of Global Business Development, Endace

Many organizations face challenges maintaining their security posture while dealing with the significant shift towards remote workforces, the dynamic nature of hybrid cloud environments and rapidly growing volumes of interconnected devices.

In short, managing security at scale in highly fluid environments is a daunting challenge. So what can you do to improve your security resiliency?

In this episode of the Endace Packet Forensic files, I talk with Rick Jenssen, VP of Global Operations for Plixer, who shares his experience into building robust security at scale. Rick recommends some best practices to address the common challenges in delivering resilient security in large environments and talks about ways to address the flood of alarms SOC teams face on a daily basis. He suggests a nice, six-step, iterative approach to continually improving your security position.

Finally, Rick reinforces how important the mantra of “practice, practice, practice” is when it comes to preparing your security teams – and the wider organization. Practicing how to investigate, remediate, and respond to potential security breaches makes sure you know what needs to happen in the event of a real crisis and uncovers areas you need to work on to be better prepared.

Other episodes in the Secure Networks video/audio podcast series are available here.

Endace Packet Forensics Files: Episode #36

Original Entry by : Michael Morris

Michael talks to Neil Wilkins, Technical Director EMEA, Garland Technology

By Michael Morris, Director of Global Business Development, Endace

Michael Morris, Director of Global Business Development, Endace

What does it mean to have security at scale?  For large infrastructures with rapid data growth have you maintained or improved your security posture as you have scaled?

In this episode of the Endace Packet Forensic files I talk with Neil Wilkins, Technical Director for EMEA at Garland Technology, who outlines some of the challenges he sees organizations facing when it comes to maintaining security at scale.  He shares some recommendations and best practices to get on the right path to improve security in large environments.

Finally, Neil shares his thoughts on Security Orchestration and Automation Response (SOAR) platforms and how they can help in environments with lots of tools and events and multiple teams trying to manage the cyber security infrastructure. He provides suggestions for rolling out SOAR solutions and highlights some things to avoid to ensure the platform delivers the returns and efficiencies hoped for.

Having a large, dynamic infrastructure doesn’t mean you can’t keep your arms around your security posture, but you need to have processes and tools in place that can scale as you grow and accelerate incident response to keep ahead of growing threat volumes.

Other episodes in the Secure Networks video/audio podcast series are available here.

Amazing people driving personal success at Endace

Original Entry by : Sasha Blair

By Sasha Blair, VP, People and Legal, Endace

People are at the heart of what makes the Endace vision come to life.  Our team applies their knowledge and skills to continually innovate with fast-paced advances in technology.  It is imperative that our people grow within their roles and become drivers of innovation themselves.

People development is key to Endace’s success, and we invest heavily in continuously developing team members’ skills and expertise.

At Endace we have an annual development process that is voluntary and open to all.  Our people are in the driving seat.  They steer their own learning goals since they are the experts in their own career aspirations and motivations.  It’s not about past performance – in fact the development planning is completed prior to our annual achievement review process. The aim of the development planning process is to align individual goals and enhance current roles in preparation for future opportunities and to build new skills.  With input and guidance from business leaders, alignment with the broader business context is considered in the process.

Future career aspirations, capability development and learning opportunities are discussed, and a plan is developed in collaboration with each individual and their manager.  Managers will talk about the evolving needs of the business and how team members might contribute, build on their strengths and develop applicable skills.  The result is a documented action plan in which team members can follow and track their success.

Usama’s Experience

One of our staff Engineers, Usama Malik, spoke about his experience with the development program.

“Endace has always encouraged and supported my personal learning goals, and over the years I’ve had opportunities to explore both technical and managerial development paths. These included training courses (online, in-group and one-to-one), formal assignments and informal tasks within my role.   

Unlike many other companies, at Endace I can set the pace myself depending on my day-to-day schedule and other urgent duties.  I’ve found this flexibility very appealing, especially with learning outcomes and their business impact being evaluated during annual achievement reviews.

My 2021-2022 development plan was particularly rewarding for me.  In previous years I chose development projects within my specific technical domain. However, last year I was able to step out of my comfort zone and work with the wider systems team on projects focused on continuously improving product reliability and performance.  Endace bought new equipment to enable me to analyze hardware at the electrical level and I learned new protocols and broadened my understanding of how state-of-the-art devices work. I collaborated with people from multiple teams – including software, production, operations and customer support.  This cross-functional teamwork yielded excellent results. It has been a win-win situation for everyone, including our customers who reap the benefits of these product improvements.”

Endace’s people development process offers our team members the structure to plan, discuss and execute growth opportunities that build their potential. We have seen excellent commitment, high interest in the program and strong support from managers leading to fantastic results in preparing our people and securing our future.

Endace Packet Forensics Files: Episode #35

Original Entry by : Michael Morris

Michael talks to Timothy Wilson-Johnston, Value Chain Security Leader, Cisco

By Michael Morris, Director of Global Business Development, Endace

Michael Morris, Director of Global Business Development, EndaceWhat did we learn from the recent Log4J 2 vulnerability? How are security holes like this changing the way organizations think about deploying enterprise software solutions?

In this episode of the Endace Packet Forensic files Michael Morris talks with Timothy Wilson-Johnston about the Log4J 2 threat and how it is being exploited in the wild.

Timothy shares his thoughts about what Log4J 2 has taught us, and why organizations need to look at the bigger picture:

  • How can you better defend against vulnerabilities of this type
  • Why it’s so important to closely scrutinize solutions that are deployed – and make sure you have visibility into components that might be included with those solutions

Finally, Timothy discusses the importance of evaluating security vs function and why it is critical to have software inspection and validation processes to manage third-party risk to your business. Knowing what your vendors’ standards are and implementing a structured and repeatable process for evaluating vendors and solutions, is key to improving security maturity.

 

Other episodes in the Secure Networks video/audio podcast series are available here.

Endace Packet Forensics Files: Episode #34

Original Entry by : Mark Evans

Michael talks to Rick Peters, CISO Operational Technology, Fortinet

By Michael Morris, Director of Global Business Development, Endace

Michael Morris, Director of Global Business Development, Endace

Increasingly, the security of Operational Technology (OT) – Industrial Control Systems and SCADA – is a major focus of concern. These systems are used in many environments across industries such as manufacturing, transportation, energy, critical infrastructure and many more, and are a juicy target for both sophisticated, nation-state attackers and cybercriminals.

In this episode of the Endace Packet Forensic files I talk with Rick Peters, CISO Operational Technology at Fortinet. With a long career in engineering and almost four decades in US Intelligence before taking on his role at Fortinet, Rick knows intimately how attackers can target OT systems and has spent many years helping to defend OT systems from cyber attackers.

Rick talks about the importance of being able to trust in OT environments: in their ability to continue to provide safe and continuous business, and how we can bring some of the discipline that has been developed in IT cyberdefense into the OT environment. He outlines the importance of “consequence-driven strategy” – a deep understanding of the risks and vulnerabilities that a given system presents, coupled with a thorough assessment of the consequences of a successful compromise. As well as the importance of having a well-planned, and tested, response plan that addresses both IT and OT systems.

Rick has some great advice for cybersecurity leaders about where to start building a robust OT security posture and the importance of having IT security and OT security working in parallel. You won’t want to miss this episode!

Other episodes in the Secure Networks video/audio podcast series are available here.