Brian Petzold

3 min read

How to Manage Vulnerabilities

Most ransomware gangs gain their foothold in an organization by taking advantage of at least one vulnerability. The vulnerability may be on a user workstation after the criminal has gained initial access through a phishing campaign, or it may be on...

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2 min read

Ruminations on the New Dodd-Frank Section 1033 Rule

When the Dodd-Frank Act was passed in 2010, it included Section 1033. This section required the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to create...

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2 min read

How I Became a vCISO

I have a lot of passion for my role as a Virtual Chief Information Security Officer (vCISO) for financial institutions, and I am always happy to tell...

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2 min read

The Waning Days of the CAT Arrive

In late August, the FFIEC announced that they would sunset the Cybersecurity Assessment Tool (the “CAT”) on August 31, 2025. It had been apparent for...

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2 min read

Control Assessments Vs. Risk Assessments

When we first start working with new institutions, it is not unusual for us to see them struggling because they have focused their efforts on...

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2 min read

Is Ransomware Dying?

In December 2023 the US Justice Department announced that they had disrupted operations of ALPHV/Blackcat, a ransomware group that was responsible...

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2 min read

Consent Orders Put Focus on Third-Party Risk Management

There have been multiple consent orders issued recently which have made it clear that regulators are starting to enforce new third-party risk...

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3 min read

Best Practices to Ace Your Penetration Test

Every institution should have an internal penetration test performed annually. The goal of the penetration test is for the tester to try to gain...

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2 min read

What is a Good Password Length?

We are often asked what length passwords should be. The answer that we give in general is that we would like user passwords to be at least 14...

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