The presentation shared with the Greater KC ISACA chapter on 11/14/19. The talk starts with housekeeping, then progresses into the heart of our language problem before ending with the dream to secure America. The talk was very well received, and now you can use it however you wish.

1. WANTED – People Committed to
Solving our Information Security
Language Problem
Evan Francen, CEO, SecurityStudio

2. Agenda - Format
Solving our Information Security Language Problem

3. IMPORTANT!
Before I get started…
• The World Health Organization states that over 800,000
people die every year due to suicide, and that suicide is the
second leading cause of death in 15-29-year-olds.
• 5 percent of adults (18 or older) experience a mental illness
in any one year
• In the United States, almost half of adults (46.4 percent) will
experience a mental illness during their lifetime.
• In the United States, only 41 percent of the people who had a
mental disorder in the past year received professional health
care or other services.
• https://www.mentalhealthhackers.org/resources-and-links/

4. UNSECURITY: Information Security Is Failing. Breaches Are Epidemic.
How Can We Fix This Broken Industry?
Published January, 2019
Solving our Information Security Language Problem

5. Resources & Contact
Want to participate?
Want to partner?
Want these slides?
LET’S WORK TOGETHER!
• Email: efrancen@securitystudio.com
• @evanfrancen
• @StudioSecurity
#S2Roadshow
• Blog - https://evanfrancen.com
• Podcast (The UNSECURITY Podcast)
Thank you!

6. Last week…

7. You know we have an
language problem in
our industry, right?
Our Industry
AI
Blockchain
Penetration Test
Vulnerability
Management
NIST CSF
RiskRisk
Management
Containers
Incident
Management
Cyber
Insurance
Threats
Maturity
Assessment
Malware
Security
Cryptography
Breach
APT
Cybersecurity
BCDR
Malware
Trojan
Spoofing UTM
Phishing
Vishing
DDoS Worm
Botnet ML
Vulnerability
Zero-Day
Layered
Exploit
Threat Actor
Attribution
Kali
OSCP
CISSP
NIST CSF
How many of you
are security people
(my tribe)?

8. You know we have an
language problem in
our industry, right?
Normal
People See
Us Like
AI
Blockchain
Penetration Test
Vulnerability
Management
NIST CSF
RiskRisk
Management
Containers
Incident
Management
Cyber
Insurance
Threats
Maturity
Assessment
Malware
Security
Cryptography
Breach
APT
Cybersecurity
BCDR
Malware
Trojan
Spoofing UTM
Phishing
Vishing
DDoS Worm
Botnet ML
Vulnerability
Zero-Day
Layered
Exploit
Threat Actor
Attribution
Kali
OSCP
CISSP
NIST CSF

9. Why?
Because we
don’t agree on a
language
Their Language
FIX: Fundamentals and
simplification.
Translation/Communication
WARNING – It’s work and
it’s NOT sexy.
Let’s test this…

10. Information Security is

11. Managing RiskInformation Security is

12. Eliminating RiskInformation Security is
NOT

13. ComplianceInformation Security is
NOT

14. Managing RiskInformation Security is
of what?

15. Managing RiskInformation Security is
unauthorized disclosure,
alteration, and/or
destruction of information.
of

16. Managing RiskInformation Security is
in what?
unauthorized disclosure,
alteration, and/or
destruction of information.
of

17. Managing Risk
Administrative
Controls
Physical
Controls
Technical
Controls
Information Security is
unauthorized disclosure,
alteration, and/or
destruction of information.
of
in

18. Managing Risk
Administrative
Controls
Physical
Controls
Technical
Controls
Information Security is
Easier to go through your
secretary than your firewall
Firewall doesn’t help when
someone steals your server
YAY! IT stuff
unauthorized disclosure,
alteration, and/or
destruction of information.
of
in

19. Managing Risk
Administrative
Controls
Physical
Controls
Technical
Controls
Information Security is
What’s risk?
unauthorized disclosure,
alteration, and/or
destruction of information.
of
in

20. Managing Risk
Likelihood
Impact
Administrative
Controls
Physical
Controls
Technical
Controls
Information Security is
Of something
bad happening.
If it did.
unauthorized disclosure,
alteration, and/or
destruction of information.
of
in

21. Managing Risk
Administrative
Controls
Physical
Controls
Technical
Controls
Information Security is
in
unauthorized disclosure,
alteration, and/or
destruction of information.
of
Likelihood
Impact
How do you figure out
likelihood and impact?

22. Managing Risk
Vulnerabilities
Administrative
Controls
Physical
Controls
Technical
Controls
Information Security is
Start with vulnerabilities.
Likelihood
Impact
in
unauthorized disclosure,
alteration, and/or
destruction of information.
of

23. Managing Risk
Vulnerabilities
Administrative
Controls
Physical
Controls
Technical
Controls
Information Security is
Start with vulnerabilities.
• Vulnerabilities are weaknesses.
• A fully implemented and
functional control has no
weakness.
• Think CMMI, 1 – Initial to 5 –
Optimizing.
in
unauthorized disclosure,
alteration, and/or
destruction of information.
of
Likelihood
Impact

24. Managing Risk
Vulnerabilities
Administrative
Controls
Physical
Controls
Technical
Controls
Information Security is
OK, but there’s no risk
in a weakness by itself,
right?
Likelihood
Impact
in
unauthorized disclosure,
alteration, and/or
destruction of information.
of

25. Managing Risk
Vulnerabilities
Administrative
Controls
Physical
Controls
Technical
Controls
Information Security is
OK, but there’s no risk
in a weakness by itself,
right?
That’s right! We need threats too.
in
unauthorized disclosure,
alteration, and/or
destruction of information.
of
Likelihood
Impact

26. Managing Risk
Threats
Vulnerabilities
Administrative
Controls
Physical
Controls
Technical
Controls
Information Security is
Likelihood
Impact
in
unauthorized disclosure,
alteration, and/or
destruction of information.
of

27. Managing Risk
Threats
Vulnerabilities
Administrative
Controls
Physical
Controls
Technical
Controls
Information Security is
Likelihood
Impact
in
unauthorized disclosure,
alteration, and/or
destruction of information.
of
There is NO risk
• For vulnerabilities
without a threat.
• For threats without
a vulnerability.

28. Managing Risk
Threats
Vulnerabilities
Administrative
Controls
Physical
Controls
Technical
Controls
Information Security is
Likelihood
Impact
in
unauthorized disclosure,
alteration, and/or
destruction of information.
of
There is NO risk
• For vulnerabilities
without a threat.
• For threats without
a vulnerability.
So, what is information
security?

29. Managing Risk
Threats
Vulnerabilities
Administrative
Controls
Physical
Controls
Technical
Controls
Information Security is
Likelihood
Impact
in
unauthorized disclosure,
alteration, and/or
destruction of information.
of

30. Some truth about information security
It’s relative.
Something insecure at the core will always be insecure.
You can’t manage what you can’t measure.
You can’t manage risk without assessing it.
Complexity is the enemy.
BONUS: Empty spaces always get filled.

31. Some truth about information security
It’s relative.
Something insecure at the core will always be insecure.
You can’t manage what you can’t measure.
You can’t manage risk without assessing it.
Complexity is the enemy.
You cannot build an effective
security program or strategy without
an assessment.

32. Some truth about information security
It’s relative.
Something insecure at the core will always be insecure.
You can’t manage what you can’t measure.
You can’t manage risk without assessing it.
Complexity is the enemy.
You cannot build an effective
security program or strategy without
an assessment.
As much as 90% of
organizations fail to do
fundamental information
security risk assessments.
WHY? Reason #1: Complexity

33. Managing Risk
Threats
Vulnerabilities
Administrative
Controls
Physical
Controls
Technical
Controls
Information Security is
Likelihood
Impact
in
unauthorized disclosure,
alteration, and/or
destruction of information.
of
Fine for our tribe, but
what about the others?

34. Managing Risk
Threats
Vulnerabilities
Administrative
Controls
Physical
Controls
Technical
Controls
Information Security is
Likelihood
Impact
in
unauthorized disclosure,
alteration, and/or
destruction of information.
of
What if we made a
simple score to
represent this?

35. Managing Risk
Likelihood
Impact
Threats
Vulnerabilities
Administrative
Controls
Physical
Controls
Technical
Controls
Information Security is
We call it the S2Score.
We did.

36. Managing Risk
Likelihood
Impact
Threats
Vulnerabilities
Administrative
Controls
Physical
Controls
Technical
Controls
Information Security is
The S2Score is a simple and effective language to
communicate information security to everyone (citizens,
city councils, county boards, other security people,
auditors, regulators, etc.).

37. Managing Risk
Likelihood
Impact
Threats
Vulnerabilities
Administrative
Controls
Physical
Controls
Technical
Controls
Information Security is
As much as 90% of
organizations fail to do
fundamental information
security risk assessments.
Reason #2: Cost

38. Managing Risk
Likelihood
Impact
Threats
Vulnerabilities
Administrative
Controls
Physical
Controls
Technical
Controls
Information Security is
Let’s make an information security risk assessment that’s
FREE!
The assessment that creates the S2Score is
available at no cost to anyone.

39. Managing Risk
Likelihood
Impact
Threats
Vulnerabilities
Administrative
Controls
Physical
Controls
Technical
Controls
Information Security is
Let’s make an information security risk assessment that’s
FREE!
The assessment that creates the S2Score is
available at no cost to anyone.
There’s no
catch.

40. Managing Risk
Likelihood
Impact
Threats
Vulnerabilities
Administrative
Controls
Physical
Controls
Technical
Controls
Information Security is
Let’s make an information security risk assessment that’s
FREE!
The assessment that creates the S2Score is
available at no cost to anyone.
There’s no
catch.
For those who like our snazzy
standards and acronyms, the S2Org
is derived from and mapped to:
• NIST CSF
• NIST SP 800-53
• NIST SP 800-171
• ISO 27002
• COBIT
• Others…

41. Managing Risk
Likelihood
Impact
Threats
Vulnerabilities
Administrative
Controls
Physical
Controls
Technical
Controls
S2Score is
Cool. Speaking the same language should be free.
We have another language problem
What about the language between organizations?
We can use the S2Score to communicate 3rd-party information
security risk too.

42. Managing Risk
Likelihood
Impact
Threats
Vulnerabilities
Administrative
Controls
Physical
Controls
Technical
Controls
S2Score is
Managing Risk
Likelihood
Impact
Threats
Vulnerabilities
Administrative
Controls
Physical
Controls
Technical
Controls
S2Score is
If two organization’s use S2Score as their
language, just share the scores.
SIMPLE!

43. Managing Risk
Likelihood
Impact
Threats
Vulnerabilities
Administrative
Controls
Physical
Controls
Technical
Controls
S2Score is
BONUS
How do we secure America?
A man can dream!
Simple. Adoption.
Let’s do a demonstration to
show what I mean.

44. I live in Waconia, Minnesota.
A town in Carver County.

45. Carver County is one of 87
counties in Minnesota.

46. Minnesota is one state
amongst 49 other beautiful
states.

47. Minnesota is one state
amongst 49 other beautiful
states.
Are you troubled having the U.S. Flag
anywhere near the word “Poor”?
I am.

48. How do we secure America?
By speaking a common language we can work on what really matters (our most
significant risks).
What we’re going to do:
• Keep preaching.
• Work politically.
• Keep improving (by listening). What you need to do:
• Get your free S2Org Assessment and do it!
• Help us preach.
• Help us work politically.
• Help us improve (by talking).

49. How do we secure America?
By speaking a common language we can work on what really matters (our most
significant risks).
What we’re going to do:
• Keep preaching.
• Work politically.
• Keep improving (by listening). What you need to do:
• Get your free S2Org Assessment and do it!
• Help us preach.
• Help us work politically.
• Help us improve (by talking).
What’s the
point?
People are the point!
Information security is not about information or security
as much as it is about people.
People within our industry and people who work with us
are confused and we’re wasting valuable resources.

50. Your Tasks:
1. Do your S2Org Assessment:
https://app.securitystudio.com/organization/signup
2. Help us preach by telling everyone.
3. Help us politically by telling your leadership.
4. Help us improve by telling us:
• Contact within the tool or here:
https://securitystudio.com/contact/
• Twitter: @evanfrancen or @StudioSecurity
How do we secure America?
Thank you!
We’re also looking for partners!