Case Study: From 76 to 94 — Turning Security Findings into Business Resilience

Author: Brian NicholsTitle: Director of Infrastructure & CISOCompany: Select Data, LLCFramework Alignment: NIST CSF v1.1 | ISO 27002 | HITRUST | OWASP Challenge: When Cyber Insurance Meets Real Accountability In 2024, Select Data’s cyber insurance provider introduced a new requirement for policy renewal: “Enroll with SecurityScorecard and improve your external cybersecurity rating.” At the time, […]

Data Recovery Insights: Learning from Mistakes

The author reflects on their experience with data backups after a sysadmin’s mistake led to production downtime. They emphasize the importance of understanding storage systems over merely having backups. While snapshots offer quick recovery, true resilience comes from validated backups. Knowledge in system restoration is crucial for effective data management.

From Sysadmin to Cybersecurity: My IT Transformation

All Systems Argo: A Journey Through Technology, Security, and Storytelling There’s something poetic about the phrase All Systems Argo. When I registered this domain years ago, it was a playful mashup:“All Systems Are Go” — the phrase you hear before a rocket launch — and Jason and the Argonauts, my dad’s favorite story. The name […]

How to thwart Ransomware attacks and prevent future attacks

What is Ransomware? Ransomware : a type of malicious software designed to block access to a computer system until a sum of money is paid. “Although ransomware is usually aimed at individuals, it’s only a matter of time before business is targeted as well” (Ismet, 2016). Unfortunately, when it comes to ransomware, once your files […]

When Did The iPhone Actually Become Useful?

The iPhone hit the market in 2007 and revolutionized smartphones as we know them today. The first general iPhone had slew of problems and left users feeling disappointed because of its limited function. Now, in 2016 the iPhone reaches over 10 billion in sales and is now the standard to which all other phones are […]

Milky Way Galaxy: How Big Is Our Galactic Home?

Every wonder just how big the Milky Way galaxy really is? In the late 1920s, astronomers thought all of the stars in the universe were contained inside of the Milky Way. It wasn’t until Edwin Hubble discovered a special star known as a Cepheid variable, which allowed him to precisely measure distances, that astronomers realized […]

NASA’s Journey To Mars – Martian Potatoes by 2030?

NASA Authorization Act of 2010 According to NASA, in 2010 the organization outlined the goals in the bipartisan NASA Authorization Act and the U.S. National Space Policy, to develop the capabilities needed to send humans to an asteroid by 2025 and Mars in the 2030s. Over the last 40 yeas, robotic explorers have studied Mars. […]

Cisco IOS XE Release 3.6E (Catalyst 3650 Switches)

Cisco IOS-XE No Longer Uses Trunk Encapsulation Dot1q I have a pair of Cisco Catalyst 3650X-48TS switches running IOS 12.2(55) and when using trunk encapsulating dot1q from the router to the switch, and then, to the client, Cisco decided to change the commands. For example, I want to pass two VLANs from the switch to my ESXi […]

Get Your Head Out of Your App

US Death Toll Continues to Rise Car accidents are one of the leading causes of death in the US, causing over 100 fatalities daily. In 2007 alone more than 43,100 deaths resulted from 10.6 million traffic accidents. For every 100 licensed teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19, there will be 21 traffic accidents, […]

Juno Spacecraft Captures Stunning Image of Jupiter’s North Pole

August 27, 2016, NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured stunning images of Jupiter’s north pole. According to NASA, the images were taken from 2,500 miles above Jupiter’s clouds, during the first of 36 flybys Juno will make around the planet. “First glimpse of Jupiter’s north pole, and it looks like nothing we have seen or imagined before,” said Scott Bolton, principal […]

All Systems (Are) Go.

This blog was created originally for me to share my experiences, problems, failures and ultimately successes with other like minded individuals that also work in various IT departments around the world.

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