1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,370
Eveline Oehrlich: Hello
everybody, this is Evelyn early

2
00:00:02,400 --> 00:00:06,690
Chief Research Officer at the
DevOps Institute on the humans

3
00:00:06,690 --> 00:00:13,020
of DevOps podcast. And today we
have a fantastic guest, Rachel

4
00:00:13,050 --> 00:00:17,790
Tobac. She's actually my first
hacker I have met. But before we

5
00:00:17,790 --> 00:00:21,330
get there, let me quickly tell
you a little bit about Rachel.

6
00:00:21,600 --> 00:00:25,770
So Rachel is a hacker and CEO of
SocialProof Security, where she

7
00:00:25,770 --> 00:00:30,030
helps people and companies keep
the data safe by training and

8
00:00:30,030 --> 00:00:34,050
pentesting them on social
engineering risks. Rachel  was a

9
00:00:34,050 --> 00:00:37,470
place winner of the DefCon's
wild spectator sport the social

10
00:00:37,470 --> 00:00:40,620
engineering Capture the Flag
contest three years in a row.

11
00:00:40,620 --> 00:00:43,800
Congratulations. Rachel has
shared her real life social

12
00:00:43,800 --> 00:00:47,100
engineering stories with NPR
Last Week Tonight, the New York

13
00:00:47,100 --> 00:00:53,490
Times Business Insider, CNN, NBC
Nightly News, and Forbes and

14
00:00:53,490 --> 00:00:57,210
many, many more. And having her
here on our show, I am honored

15
00:00:57,240 --> 00:01:01,620
to be able to speak to you in
her remaining space. And that's

16
00:01:01,650 --> 00:01:04,770
really fantastic to also see
that Rachel is the chair of the

17
00:01:04,770 --> 00:01:08,550
board for the nonprofit Women in
Security and Privacy (WISP),

18
00:01:09,090 --> 00:01:12,750
where she works to advance women
to lead in the fields. Welcome,

19
00:01:12,750 --> 00:01:13,890
welcome, Rachel.

20
00:01:14,160 --> 00:01:16,080
Rachel Tobac: Thank you for
having me, Evelyn.

21
00:01:16,860 --> 00:01:19,920
Eveline Oehrlich: I am excited.
Like I said, you are really my

22
00:01:19,920 --> 00:01:24,240
first white hat hacker. And I
was doing some reading on the

23
00:01:24,240 --> 00:01:30,240
colors of white hat and black
hat. And give us a little bit of

24
00:01:30,810 --> 00:01:34,740
an insight on white hat versus
black hat. And if there are any

25
00:01:34,740 --> 00:01:38,460
other colors of the hats, you
guys are or these folks are

26
00:01:38,460 --> 00:01:39,000
wearing.

27
00:01:39,690 --> 00:01:42,510
Rachel Tobac: A lot of people
use different hats to describe

28
00:01:42,510 --> 00:01:45,750
different work, I tend to stick
away actually from the hat

29
00:01:45,750 --> 00:01:48,180
description. But I'll give you a
high level definition of what

30
00:01:48,180 --> 00:01:51,030
people think of. People think of
a black hat hacker as a

31
00:01:51,030 --> 00:01:54,180
criminal, someone who's doing
fraud, crime, they don't have

32
00:01:54,180 --> 00:01:57,270
permission to do the hacking
that they're doing. And a white

33
00:01:57,270 --> 00:02:00,420
hat hacker is thought of as
somebody who does have

34
00:02:00,420 --> 00:02:04,950
permission first. So some might
call that an ethical hacker. I

35
00:02:04,950 --> 00:02:08,160
just use the word hacker to
describe that person. So we use

36
00:02:08,160 --> 00:02:11,610
the word hacker in the hacker
community to describe somebody

37
00:02:11,700 --> 00:02:14,100
who gets permission to do the
things that they're doing. And

38
00:02:14,100 --> 00:02:16,740
they're not trying to inflict
harm. They're trying to help

39
00:02:16,740 --> 00:02:20,280
people secure their machines and
their software. And they think

40
00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:24,300
of somebody who is not getting
permission as a criminal. So the

41
00:02:24,300 --> 00:02:27,060
words that we typically use in
the field are hacker and

42
00:02:27,060 --> 00:02:27,450
criminal.

43
00:02:27,870 --> 00:02:30,300
Eveline Oehrlich: Ah,
interesting. Now I was looking

44
00:02:30,300 --> 00:02:35,280
at your website, in the
SocialProof Security and watched

45
00:02:35,280 --> 00:02:39,060
the trailer of the training
video library. And there it says

46
00:02:39,060 --> 00:02:45,450
that you're you're doing musical
and spoken word content, all

47
00:02:45,450 --> 00:02:49,020
about the topics you need to
know to catch a cybercriminal in

48
00:02:49,020 --> 00:02:54,480
the act. And that's very, a very
different way of creating

49
00:02:54,480 --> 00:02:56,460
training where the DevOps
Institute, of course, our

50
00:02:56,460 --> 00:03:01,050
training institute, so explain
to our listeners, what does that

51
00:03:01,050 --> 00:03:05,340
mean, and even more. So how did
you get that idea? Which, by the

52
00:03:05,340 --> 00:03:06,450
way, I think is awesome.

53
00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:10,470
Rachel Tobac: Yes, of course. So
I'll tell you a little story to

54
00:03:10,470 --> 00:03:14,310
give you some background on
this. I've been I've been doing

55
00:03:14,310 --> 00:03:19,200
SocialProof Security since 2017.
So at that point, after I got my

56
00:03:19,200 --> 00:03:23,340
start in the DEF CON, hacking
competitions, I did the social

57
00:03:23,340 --> 00:03:25,980
engineering one for three years
and got second place three years

58
00:03:25,980 --> 00:03:29,220
in a row. Companies started
asking me Hey, Rachel, can you

59
00:03:29,220 --> 00:03:33,510
come to our organization and
talk about how you hack, we want

60
00:03:33,510 --> 00:03:36,450
to hear about the human element
of security, how we can avoid

61
00:03:36,450 --> 00:03:40,260
becoming one of your targets,
etc. So I did that. We then

62
00:03:40,260 --> 00:03:42,870
built out a whole line of
services for things like talks,

63
00:03:42,870 --> 00:03:46,680
workshops and training. Then
those clients were like, Hey,

64
00:03:46,680 --> 00:03:49,890
Rachel, we just did this live
event with you three months ago,

65
00:03:49,890 --> 00:03:53,490
eight months ago. Do you have
any videos we want to use other

66
00:03:53,700 --> 00:03:56,490
types of content, not just live
events, because you know, we

67
00:03:56,490 --> 00:04:00,690
have new people starting every
day? And so I said sure. So I

68
00:04:00,720 --> 00:04:03,600
kind of started with like a
little experiment with the

69
00:04:03,600 --> 00:04:09,990
community. We saw that on
TikTok. The sea shanty genre was

70
00:04:09,990 --> 00:04:14,970
trending like crazy in 2021. And
I was like, Okay, well, maybe I

71
00:04:14,970 --> 00:04:18,540
should make a tech talk about
password management and multi

72
00:04:18,540 --> 00:04:22,590
factor authentication and how to
stay safe online. So I did that

73
00:04:22,590 --> 00:04:24,750
because I like to meet people
where they're at, you know, if

74
00:04:24,750 --> 00:04:27,090
people are on TikTok, and
they're using sea shanties to

75
00:04:27,090 --> 00:04:31,050
communicate information that
I'll do that too. And it was

76
00:04:31,050 --> 00:04:35,610
surprisingly successful. We had
over 400,000 views on that, like

77
00:04:35,640 --> 00:04:39,000
immediately, and companies
started reaching out to me, I

78
00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:43,530
had over 100 companies say, hey,
that InfoSec see Shanti about

79
00:04:43,980 --> 00:04:47,670
multi factor authentication and
password managers. I don't know

80
00:04:47,670 --> 00:04:51,180
why, but for some reason that
worked and people are now asking

81
00:04:51,180 --> 00:04:56,160
me, How can I get MFA on my
personal device? How do I get a

82
00:04:56,160 --> 00:04:59,280
password manager? How do I avoid
reusing my passwords? How do I

83
00:04:59,280 --> 00:05:02,880
report a phishing Email, things
that they would not normally ask

84
00:05:02,880 --> 00:05:07,200
me, Can you make more songs, and
I have a background in

85
00:05:07,200 --> 00:05:12,360
neuroscience, musical theater,
improv. Not a classically

86
00:05:12,360 --> 00:05:15,780
trained singer. But I sing. And
in fact, even I met my husband

87
00:05:15,780 --> 00:05:19,650
and my business partner. Both my
husband and my business partner,

88
00:05:19,680 --> 00:05:24,420
that's the same person have been
great at a open mic night, when

89
00:05:24,420 --> 00:05:27,390
we were teenagers. So that's
actually a huge part of my story

90
00:05:27,390 --> 00:05:31,170
and background. And I was like,
you know, I am uniquely

91
00:05:31,170 --> 00:05:33,630
positioned to try something
really different here and make

92
00:05:33,630 --> 00:05:37,050
music and help people understand
how to stay safe on the

93
00:05:37,050 --> 00:05:40,260
internet. So we did it. We were
like, the sea shanty worked,

94
00:05:40,260 --> 00:05:44,670
let's let's do a beta launch. So
we recorded spoken word videos,

95
00:05:44,730 --> 00:05:49,560
and music based songs, all about
things like malware, phishing,

96
00:05:49,560 --> 00:05:53,580
passwords, ransomware, social
media safety, patching,

97
00:05:53,580 --> 00:05:57,270
reporting, social engineering,
multifactor authentication, and

98
00:05:57,270 --> 00:06:00,570
we'll like, we'll just test it,
we'll see how people feel, you

99
00:06:00,570 --> 00:06:02,880
know, what do they like about
it. And in our research, we

100
00:06:02,880 --> 00:06:06,540
found that about 80% of the
people loved the music based

101
00:06:06,540 --> 00:06:09,480
training, and about 20% of
people were like, I learned

102
00:06:09,480 --> 00:06:13,590
better with spoken training. I
like to learn from people who

103
00:06:13,590 --> 00:06:16,860
are speaking. And I like to see
the hacking demonstrations that

104
00:06:16,860 --> 00:06:20,640
way. So we built both equally,
so that everyone gets a chance

105
00:06:20,640 --> 00:06:27,060
to try the genre that works best
for them. And it's worked. I

106
00:06:27,060 --> 00:06:30,660
mean, it's it's really shocking
me, we had over 160 companies

107
00:06:30,660 --> 00:06:34,830
reach out in the first three
weeks asking for demos, and

108
00:06:34,920 --> 00:06:37,260
people are using it, and they're
trying it and giving us

109
00:06:37,260 --> 00:06:39,540
feedback. It's it's literally
blowing my mind.

110
00:06:39,690 --> 00:06:42,480
Eveline Oehrlich: Wow, that is
fantastic. So I could just

111
00:06:42,480 --> 00:06:48,060
imagine having a song or rhythm,
something in my head, which I

112
00:06:48,090 --> 00:06:51,150
can repeat over and over again
to make sure that I do certain

113
00:06:51,150 --> 00:06:54,720
things. So that's pretty much
what you guys are doing. That is

114
00:06:55,080 --> 00:06:58,830
That is fantastic. When AB told
me, Hey, I have Rachel Tobac.

115
00:06:58,830 --> 00:07:04,350
She does this musical hacking. I
was like, oh, I need to talk to

116
00:07:04,350 --> 00:07:08,160
her. We need to bring this out.
This is fantastic. So So you

117
00:07:08,160 --> 00:07:10,470
actually have a background, you
said in behavioral analysis,

118
00:07:10,470 --> 00:07:13,920
right? So some of that, I'm
sure. And by the way, my

119
00:07:13,920 --> 00:07:16,740
daughter was actually a
psychologist behavioral analysis

120
00:07:16,770 --> 00:07:21,210
also in Kansas City. She and I
have sometimes conversations on

121
00:07:21,240 --> 00:07:26,310
things like in why we in
technology are so sometimes

122
00:07:26,310 --> 00:07:30,390
boring and don't grasp onto
things. So so the behavioral

123
00:07:30,600 --> 00:07:34,500
analysis aspect that must have
helped you right to think

124
00:07:34,500 --> 00:07:37,200
through in terms of what this
does to the individuals?

125
00:07:37,710 --> 00:07:41,070
Rachel Tobac: Absolutely, yeah.
So my degree is in neuroscience

126
00:07:41,070 --> 00:07:45,750
and behaviorism. I also studied
cognitive behavioral psychology

127
00:07:45,750 --> 00:07:49,350
just as like a additional
element for my neuroscience

128
00:07:49,350 --> 00:07:54,270
background. It helps give me
context about the why behind the

129
00:07:54,270 --> 00:07:59,820
hard science. So I have both.
And I found that I can

130
00:07:59,880 --> 00:08:04,320
understand better things like UX
research, when I have a

131
00:08:04,320 --> 00:08:08,040
background in something like
neuroscience, why people make

132
00:08:08,040 --> 00:08:11,400
the decisions that they do. And
so I figured back in the day

133
00:08:11,400 --> 00:08:14,640
when I decided to study that,
that I could apply that to a

134
00:08:14,640 --> 00:08:18,030
wide range of different types of
roles. I had no idea what I was

135
00:08:18,030 --> 00:08:21,270
going to become when I was in
school. When I was in school a

136
00:08:21,270 --> 00:08:25,350
long time ago, I was working in
a rat lab, I was trying to study

137
00:08:25,350 --> 00:08:29,430
the effects of things like music
on humans and rats, I even did a

138
00:08:29,430 --> 00:08:33,540
rat study in our rat lab,
helping a rat distinguish

139
00:08:33,540 --> 00:08:36,480
between different types of music
and seeing if that was useful

140
00:08:36,480 --> 00:08:40,170
within their neural pathways. So
there's a lot of different

141
00:08:40,170 --> 00:08:43,440
research that I did, that ended
up helping me later in life, I

142
00:08:43,440 --> 00:08:45,810
thought I was going to become a
teacher. And I did, I taught for

143
00:08:45,810 --> 00:08:49,950
six years. But after that, it
helped me build my UX research

144
00:08:49,950 --> 00:08:53,520
career and my hacking career. So
it's wild how you can take such

145
00:08:53,520 --> 00:08:56,760
a nonlinear path. And I'm sure
the folks listening to this

146
00:08:56,850 --> 00:09:00,450
probably have unique pathways to
the jobs that they have today.

147
00:09:00,720 --> 00:09:03,540
And I think it's really cool
because not everybody needs to

148
00:09:03,540 --> 00:09:06,330
go to school for their specific
area of study, they can apply

149
00:09:06,330 --> 00:09:07,650
something that they learned
earlier.

150
00:09:07,860 --> 00:09:10,050
Eveline Oehrlich: Yeah, very,
very encouraging. Because

151
00:09:10,080 --> 00:09:13,110
Skilling and re-skilling and
upskilling is a big challenge

152
00:09:13,110 --> 00:09:16,800
right now there is of course in
technology a large amount of

153
00:09:17,850 --> 00:09:22,650
skillful people needed. But do
they all need to be it engineers

154
00:09:22,680 --> 00:09:25,290
study computer science and
things like that? We just did

155
00:09:25,290 --> 00:09:27,630
some research on that. So that's
interesting. You mentioned that

156
00:09:27,660 --> 00:09:30,960
now, you said social
engineering, I just want to make

157
00:09:30,960 --> 00:09:33,810
sure I had to look it up. I
thought I knew what it was, but

158
00:09:33,810 --> 00:09:37,770
I had to look it up. But for our
listeners, tell us what that is.

159
00:09:37,800 --> 00:09:39,240
What is social engineering?

160
00:09:39,270 --> 00:09:42,480
Rachel Tobac: Sure. Social
engineering is the human element

161
00:09:42,540 --> 00:09:45,390
of hacking and security. So you
can think of any way that a

162
00:09:45,390 --> 00:09:48,810
person would be persuaded to do
something that they wouldn't

163
00:09:48,810 --> 00:09:51,870
normally do. So maybe for
instance, Evelyn, let's say I'm

164
00:09:51,870 --> 00:09:53,970
going to hack you. I'm not going
to but let's say for the

165
00:09:53,970 --> 00:09:58,620
purposes of this example I where
I would need to come up with a

166
00:09:58,650 --> 00:10:02,340
pretext who I'm for tends to be
to convince you to do something

167
00:10:02,340 --> 00:10:05,790
that you wouldn't normally do,
like, click a link, download

168
00:10:05,790 --> 00:10:09,030
something malicious, tell me
something sensitive, send me

169
00:10:09,030 --> 00:10:11,670
money when I shouldn't actually
be receiving that money from

170
00:10:11,670 --> 00:10:16,290
you. And so I need to come up
with all of the science, the

171
00:10:16,290 --> 00:10:19,920
reasoning for why you should be
doing those things. And it's

172
00:10:19,920 --> 00:10:22,830
sometimes it's as easy as just
sending somebody a link. But for

173
00:10:22,830 --> 00:10:26,430
folks that know better and know,
to avoid those types of things,

174
00:10:26,520 --> 00:10:30,180
we have to get pretty serious
with our pretexting, or who

175
00:10:30,180 --> 00:10:33,630
we're pretending to be. And it's
more than just acting, but we

176
00:10:33,630 --> 00:10:36,510
have to understand the full
backstory of who were

177
00:10:36,510 --> 00:10:39,810
impersonating. And who we're
pretending to be when we're

178
00:10:39,810 --> 00:10:44,550
impersonating to the target, the
victim. And so there's, there's

179
00:10:44,550 --> 00:10:47,100
a lot that goes into social
engineering. And it's it's been

180
00:10:47,100 --> 00:10:50,610
one of the most fun fields to be
able to transition into. And it

181
00:10:50,850 --> 00:10:54,450
really does serve a lot of the
interests that I had from

182
00:10:54,450 --> 00:10:56,220
neuroscience and behaviorism.

183
00:10:56,250 --> 00:10:59,970
Eveline Oehrlich: So when you go
to your besides being on these

184
00:11:00,300 --> 00:11:04,680
broadcasts being a sought after
speaker joining us on the

185
00:11:04,680 --> 00:11:07,830
podcast, and I'm sure you're
traveling as well, to other

186
00:11:07,830 --> 00:11:11,400
places, when you go to your
clients, what what does that

187
00:11:11,400 --> 00:11:15,000
look like? How can I? How can I
understand what do you do with

188
00:11:15,000 --> 00:11:20,460
them for them? In an engagement,
let's say I am Jack in the Box

189
00:11:20,460 --> 00:11:24,570
around the block. And I'd like
you to help us because we have

190
00:11:24,570 --> 00:11:26,610
issues what what does it look
like?

191
00:11:26,940 --> 00:11:28,980
Rachel Tobac: Sure, there's a
variety of different ways that I

192
00:11:28,980 --> 00:11:33,900
help our clients. So first and
foremost, training, a lot of

193
00:11:33,900 --> 00:11:36,930
times people need to train all
of the folks at their

194
00:11:36,930 --> 00:11:41,040
organization, or maybe one
subset of individuals, for

195
00:11:41,040 --> 00:11:44,250
instance, the client facing
folks at their organization,

196
00:11:44,640 --> 00:11:48,210
they might be concerned that the
account managers and the

197
00:11:48,210 --> 00:11:51,720
helpdesk, and the customer
service team keeps getting

198
00:11:51,720 --> 00:11:55,860
requests to change email
addresses on accounts, which can

199
00:11:55,860 --> 00:11:58,710
lead to account takeover and
admin access that shouldn't be

200
00:11:58,710 --> 00:12:02,490
granted. And so I can come in
there and help them understand

201
00:12:02,640 --> 00:12:05,340
what are those protocols look
like that you're using for

202
00:12:05,340 --> 00:12:08,100
identity verification? What does
it look like when you're

203
00:12:08,100 --> 00:12:11,400
authenticating a person as
someone? How do we know that

204
00:12:11,400 --> 00:12:14,550
they are who they say they are.
And that helps folks think

205
00:12:14,550 --> 00:12:17,580
through their protocols, update
them to avoid getting social

206
00:12:17,580 --> 00:12:21,060
engineered, or at least mitigate
a lot of those risks. And so

207
00:12:21,060 --> 00:12:24,660
training is a huge part of it.
Another thing that we do is we

208
00:12:24,660 --> 00:12:27,990
actually get hired to hack
companies. So for instance, a

209
00:12:27,990 --> 00:12:31,590
bank might say, hey, we want to
know, can you steal money from

210
00:12:31,590 --> 00:12:36,000
our clients accounts. And so we
set up test accounts, that

211
00:12:36,030 --> 00:12:39,210
customer support teams do not
know our test accounts so that

212
00:12:39,210 --> 00:12:42,000
we don't steal anybody's actual
money. And then we go in there,

213
00:12:42,000 --> 00:12:46,110
and we actually try account
takeover, can I steal money that

214
00:12:46,110 --> 00:12:49,470
we in fact, we just had an
engagement like this recently,

215
00:12:49,470 --> 00:12:52,260
and we were able to steal money
from two out of three of the

216
00:12:52,260 --> 00:12:55,650
accounts. And so that helps them
understand the vulnerabilities.

217
00:12:55,800 --> 00:12:59,010
What does it look like? How can
they prevent it? And what can we

218
00:12:59,010 --> 00:13:01,710
do to overhaul this process? So
this doesn't happen when a

219
00:13:01,710 --> 00:13:03,090
criminal tries next

220
00:13:03,270 --> 00:13:06,000
Eveline Oehrlich: Right. So you
so you develop an actionable

221
00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:09,480
plan for them to say, hey, you
have to have different scripts,

222
00:13:09,750 --> 00:13:13,650
different conversations, process
adjustments, et cetera, et

223
00:13:13,650 --> 00:13:17,250
cetera, which they can then
follow. And then is there is

224
00:13:17,250 --> 00:13:21,150
there follow ups to do with them
to ensure I'm assuming you will,

225
00:13:21,150 --> 00:13:22,500
right, because, yeah.

226
00:13:22,890 --> 00:13:24,810
Rachel Tobac: Yeah, it's really
important to follow up and make

227
00:13:24,810 --> 00:13:28,320
sure that everybody understands
the why behind these changes. So

228
00:13:28,380 --> 00:13:31,350
yeah, a big part of my job is
the training, the protocol

229
00:13:31,350 --> 00:13:34,200
adjustments, we call that a
protocol workshop. And then

230
00:13:34,200 --> 00:13:36,690
going in there and doing those
keynotes or talks to talk

231
00:13:36,690 --> 00:13:39,060
through what did we learn? What
can we do about it? And what are

232
00:13:39,060 --> 00:13:41,730
the recommendations and changes?
And now of course, we have the

233
00:13:41,730 --> 00:13:44,670
videos too, so that if you're
looking for something that you

234
00:13:44,670 --> 00:13:47,280
can use for onboarding or
monthly training or something

235
00:13:47,280 --> 00:13:49,530
like that, we have that and you
don't need to have a live event

236
00:13:49,530 --> 00:13:49,950
to do it.

237
00:13:50,280 --> 00:13:52,290
Eveline Oehrlich: Yep. So what
would you say the biggest

238
00:13:52,290 --> 00:13:56,730
vulnerabilities are in terms of
what you're seeing in your

239
00:13:56,760 --> 00:14:00,180
career and your journeys across
the enterprise and the globe,

240
00:14:01,500 --> 00:14:02,160
today.

241
00:14:03,180 --> 00:14:04,830
Rachel Tobac: One of the biggest
things that I've seen if you've

242
00:14:04,830 --> 00:14:10,140
seen my Doni hack video, where I
take over a CNN Correspondent's

243
00:14:10,170 --> 00:14:15,240
accounts, and I steal points, I
gain access to his accounts. Let

244
00:14:15,240 --> 00:14:17,370
me take a step back. Actually, I
want to make sure that I

245
00:14:17,370 --> 00:14:19,800
understood I communicate to
everybody that there's two

246
00:14:19,800 --> 00:14:22,920
different ways that I hack.
Either I hack you by contacting

247
00:14:22,920 --> 00:14:26,160
you directly, or I hack you
through the service providers

248
00:14:26,160 --> 00:14:27,000
that you trust.

249
00:14:27,060 --> 00:14:29,340
Eveline Oehrlich: Ah, yes. And I
think that's, that's the one I

250
00:14:29,340 --> 00:14:30,690
saw. Yeah, yeah.

251
00:14:31,860 --> 00:14:34,980
Rachel Tobac: So in this Doni
hacking video, I contacted the

252
00:14:34,980 --> 00:14:38,730
services that Doni trusts with
his data to get access to his

253
00:14:38,730 --> 00:14:41,400
accounts, I didn't contact Doni
directly. So just to give that

254
00:14:41,400 --> 00:14:46,800
context. So I contacted those
organizations via phone and I

255
00:14:46,800 --> 00:14:50,010
said, Hey, I'm Doni. I'm
spoofing his number and this

256
00:14:50,010 --> 00:14:52,920
caller ID looks like it's
calling from him. I updated the

257
00:14:52,920 --> 00:14:55,860
pitch of my voice to match you
know, what they might expect for

258
00:14:55,860 --> 00:14:59,160
something Doni  O'Sullivan so
that they don't question me. And

259
00:14:59,160 --> 00:15:03,210
then from there We continue down
the path of trying to gain

260
00:15:03,210 --> 00:15:05,910
access to Doni's accounts. And
for a lot of these

261
00:15:05,910 --> 00:15:11,310
organizations, the questions
that they ask an individual to

262
00:15:11,310 --> 00:15:15,030
verify that person is who they
say they are, are what we call

263
00:15:15,060 --> 00:15:19,410
knowledge based authentication
questions. Kba. And these types

264
00:15:19,410 --> 00:15:22,770
of questions are things like,
what street did you grow up on?

265
00:15:23,250 --> 00:15:25,830
Where do you live now, your
current address, your date of

266
00:15:25,830 --> 00:15:29,220
birth, last four digits of your
credit card, your email address

267
00:15:29,220 --> 00:15:32,100
or phone number, just calling in
and spoofing from that phone

268
00:15:32,100 --> 00:15:35,160
number is sometimes enough to
verify that specific question.

269
00:15:35,640 --> 00:15:39,000
And so I'm able to get access to
his airline accounts, hotel

270
00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:44,400
points, his coffee card, it the
list goes on and on and on, and

271
00:15:44,400 --> 00:15:47,160
steal all of those points, all
that information, do full

272
00:15:47,160 --> 00:15:51,180
account takeover very quickly.
And so one thing that I try and

273
00:15:51,180 --> 00:15:55,110
help organizations understand
is, if you have folks at your

274
00:15:55,110 --> 00:15:58,530
company who pick up the phone,
that's a major vulnerability in

275
00:15:58,530 --> 00:16:02,310
and of itself. And those
protocols in many cases need to

276
00:16:02,310 --> 00:16:06,810
be overhauled to verify that I
am who I say I am, when I'm

277
00:16:06,810 --> 00:16:09,600
calling in to help you are
calling in to ask you for help.

278
00:16:10,440 --> 00:16:14,280
And we also need to verify the
internal folks like the folks

279
00:16:14,280 --> 00:16:18,000
that we rely on to do our job,
IT support, things like that,

280
00:16:18,090 --> 00:16:20,940
that those individuals are who
they say they are, because we're

281
00:16:20,940 --> 00:16:24,930
seeing a lot of organizations
get hacked, because somebody

282
00:16:25,140 --> 00:16:28,650
gives a customer support person
a call, and either pretends to

283
00:16:28,650 --> 00:16:31,680
be IT support from the company
to gain access to internal

284
00:16:31,680 --> 00:16:35,520
accounts. That's what happened
in the Twitter hack of 2020. Or

285
00:16:35,730 --> 00:16:38,640
they're calling in and saying,
Hey, I'm Evelyn, I need access

286
00:16:38,640 --> 00:16:40,950
to my account. I just lost my
phone, can you go ahead and

287
00:16:40,950 --> 00:16:44,190
change the phone number on my
account? Okay, great. Hang up,

288
00:16:44,190 --> 00:16:46,470
call back. Can I change the
email address on my account?

289
00:16:46,710 --> 00:16:50,400
Right now? I can verify right?
And so we have all these issues

290
00:16:50,400 --> 00:16:53,790
with account takeover and phone
based authentication protocols.

291
00:16:53,790 --> 00:16:56,010
And that's one of the big things
that I like to support on.

292
00:16:56,370 --> 00:16:59,190
Eveline Oehrlich: Yeah, I was
listening to one where you were,

293
00:16:59,460 --> 00:17:04,530
I think it was a delivery of a
furniture or something. And the

294
00:17:04,560 --> 00:17:08,190
the service person was actually
quoted or telling you the the

295
00:17:08,190 --> 00:17:12,270
address to confirm you to
confirm with you that that was

296
00:17:12,270 --> 00:17:16,290
the reason address. So that's an
excellent example of where the

297
00:17:16,290 --> 00:17:19,740
front end, whoever service
individual needed to think

298
00:17:19,740 --> 00:17:23,220
through and the protocol needed
to be changed. That's an

299
00:17:23,220 --> 00:17:24,570
excellent example. Yeah,

300
00:17:24,600 --> 00:17:26,850
Rachel Tobac: I really like how
when you just said that you were

301
00:17:26,850 --> 00:17:29,250
like the frontline person has to
think through and it's like,

302
00:17:29,250 --> 00:17:32,040
wait, no, they don't even think
about it. Their team needs to

303
00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:36,240
change the protocol that you
use, because we have to take the

304
00:17:36,360 --> 00:17:40,260
pressure off of individuals to
try and do something that their

305
00:17:40,260 --> 00:17:43,830
organization isn't telling them
to do. Right. We can't expect

306
00:17:44,040 --> 00:17:46,920
the person whose job it is to
help you get access to your

307
00:17:46,920 --> 00:17:50,640
account to on the fly come up
with the verification protocols.

308
00:17:50,670 --> 00:17:55,290
Yes. Fair, right. Yeah.
Excellent. Yeah, we can't blame

309
00:17:55,320 --> 00:17:59,700
people, we have to put the
responsibility on companies to

310
00:17:59,700 --> 00:18:01,890
update their protocols. I love
that distinction you just made

311
00:18:01,890 --> 00:18:02,400
on the fly?

312
00:18:02,690 --> 00:18:07,190
Eveline Oehrlich: Yeah, that
great, great correction of me,

313
00:18:07,190 --> 00:18:11,960
of course, right? Because that
has significant impact. The

314
00:18:11,960 --> 00:18:15,530
companies need to do what they
need to do. So you made some

315
00:18:15,530 --> 00:18:18,680
points on what companies can do.
Tell me about individuals all of

316
00:18:18,680 --> 00:18:22,670
us are out there, you know, we
get I mean, what should we watch

317
00:18:22,670 --> 00:18:28,430
out for? And can we actually
become something like, tell

318
00:18:28,430 --> 00:18:31,640
them? Hey, you guys, you just
said something, you need to

319
00:18:31,640 --> 00:18:35,570
update your can we become
Rachel, maybe two questions. One

320
00:18:35,570 --> 00:18:38,450
question is, how should
individuals protect themselves

321
00:18:38,450 --> 00:18:41,300
for not getting hacked? Right?
Let's go there first, I think,

322
00:18:42,050 --> 00:18:45,950
Rachel Tobac: Sure. So
individuals, let's just say you

323
00:18:45,950 --> 00:18:49,460
can't control the services you
trust with your data, right? We

324
00:18:49,460 --> 00:18:54,830
can't hope and pray that they
don't allow other people to call

325
00:18:54,830 --> 00:18:57,710
in as us and get access to our
data. So let's only talk about

326
00:18:57,710 --> 00:19:02,150
what we can focus on as
individuals. The first thing is

327
00:19:02,150 --> 00:19:06,320
password reuse. Because we know
that about 52% of people just

328
00:19:06,320 --> 00:19:10,280
admit reusing their passwords
across multiple sites, including

329
00:19:10,280 --> 00:19:13,460
the types of individuals who
listen to this podcast, and even

330
00:19:13,460 --> 00:19:17,300
hackers. And so we need to make
sure that we don't reuse their

331
00:19:17,300 --> 00:19:20,120
passwords, because that's one of
the easiest ways for me to hack

332
00:19:20,120 --> 00:19:24,320
you, I can just log into my
password dump repository that I

333
00:19:24,320 --> 00:19:28,370
have access to. It's all up
there, it's on the internet.

334
00:19:28,370 --> 00:19:31,370
It's not the dark web, it's just
the clear internet. And I can go

335
00:19:31,370 --> 00:19:33,800
ahead and get access to your
password and just log in as you.

336
00:19:34,040 --> 00:19:36,620
So we need to make sure that we
don't reuse their passwords

337
00:19:36,620 --> 00:19:39,440
because if they ended a breach,
end up in a breach with which

338
00:19:39,440 --> 00:19:41,840
they're probably going to at
some point, I'm going to use it

339
00:19:41,840 --> 00:19:44,570
against you to steal your money
or gain access to your email,

340
00:19:44,600 --> 00:19:49,430
etc, etc. Use a password manager
to store those long, random and

341
00:19:49,430 --> 00:19:52,940
unique passwords and always use
multi factor authentication to

342
00:19:52,940 --> 00:19:56,270
back them up. We know a lot of
people, even folks in the

343
00:19:56,270 --> 00:20:00,650
developer community know the
importance of multi factor

344
00:20:00,650 --> 00:20:05,330
authentication, because if your
tools that you've worked on

345
00:20:05,330 --> 00:20:08,660
maybe an open source tool,
somebody gains access to that.

346
00:20:08,690 --> 00:20:11,300
Now we have a huge supply chain
issue. This is something that

347
00:20:11,300 --> 00:20:14,450
we're seeing over and over
again, in the news. And so the

348
00:20:14,450 --> 00:20:17,630
importance of multi factor
authentication, and making sure

349
00:20:17,780 --> 00:20:22,370
we don't just use a password to
secure those important updates

350
00:20:22,400 --> 00:20:27,230
that we push, it's essential.
And so those are the main things

351
00:20:27,230 --> 00:20:29,330
that I would say you have
control over and can make a

352
00:20:29,330 --> 00:20:33,290
change today, you can prioritize
updating 10 of your passwords,

353
00:20:33,290 --> 00:20:34,310
like this weekend.

354
00:20:36,170 --> 00:20:39,020
Eveline Oehrlich: Listen, listen
up. I'm going to do that exactly

355
00:20:39,020 --> 00:20:43,250
after this call. Because I am
one of those who even so I mean

356
00:20:43,250 --> 00:20:48,020
it and but yes, we're guilty of
lots of that. Great. So you

357
00:20:48,020 --> 00:20:50,420
mentioned a few things on
companies, but they could do of

358
00:20:50,420 --> 00:20:55,160
course, go get some training,
start singing songs, learning

359
00:20:55,160 --> 00:20:59,180
songs, right. Anything else on
the company side they could do,

360
00:20:59,240 --> 00:21:02,660
which you think is absolutely
high priority for those who are

361
00:21:02,660 --> 00:21:03,830
listening in today?

362
00:21:04,340 --> 00:21:06,350
Rachel Tobac: Sure. Well, we
need to make sure that the

363
00:21:06,350 --> 00:21:09,770
companies protect us using two
methods of communication to

364
00:21:09,770 --> 00:21:13,670
confirm we are who we say we are
when we call in chat and or

365
00:21:13,670 --> 00:21:17,000
email in to get help. And so if
I call into a company, and I

366
00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:19,880
say, Hi, I'm Evelyn, I need to
change the email address on my

367
00:21:19,880 --> 00:21:22,430
account, they should say
something like, Sure, Evelyn, I

368
00:21:22,430 --> 00:21:25,880
just shot a word or code to your
phone, go ahead and read that

369
00:21:25,880 --> 00:21:29,270
out to me. Now, that's going to
stop me as a hacker because I'm

370
00:21:29,270 --> 00:21:31,880
spoofing your phone number, I
can't gain access to your text

371
00:21:31,880 --> 00:21:34,940
messages, of course without
doing a sim swap. But a lot of

372
00:21:34,940 --> 00:21:37,940
times, this is just low hanging
fruit, and we need to avoid

373
00:21:37,940 --> 00:21:41,390
those types of issues, then, we
need to make sure that

374
00:21:41,870 --> 00:21:45,410
individuals at companies
understand the likelihood of

375
00:21:45,410 --> 00:21:49,850
them receiving a phishing email,
a vishing call SMS Testament

376
00:21:49,880 --> 00:21:52,640
text messages pretending to be
something like Okta, which we're

377
00:21:52,640 --> 00:21:58,400
seeing over and over again,
right now. And what we can do to

378
00:21:58,400 --> 00:22:01,550
spot those and report them
quickly. A lot of times people

379
00:22:01,550 --> 00:22:03,830
be like, Oh, that seems spammy,
I'm just gonna delete it, or I'm

380
00:22:03,830 --> 00:22:08,300
gonna ignore it. But we can
actually save our coworkers who

381
00:22:08,300 --> 00:22:11,150
are likely to fall for that
stuff. If we report quickly. And

382
00:22:11,150 --> 00:22:13,670
then the end, the institution
can say, we've got a big

383
00:22:13,670 --> 00:22:16,850
problem, we got to shut this
down and let people know. And

384
00:22:16,850 --> 00:22:19,790
then from there, of course,
multi factor authentication that

385
00:22:19,790 --> 00:22:23,480
matches the company's threat
model. For instance, this is a

386
00:22:23,480 --> 00:22:26,840
really famous case with the
Twitter hack of 2020. In that

387
00:22:26,840 --> 00:22:30,590
case, an attacker called up
customer support, pretending to

388
00:22:30,590 --> 00:22:34,130
be IT support, got access to
that password was able to log

389
00:22:34,130 --> 00:22:37,340
into the admin portal, and send
out all those spammy tweets

390
00:22:37,340 --> 00:22:40,550
with, you know, from like Elon
Musk, former President Barack

391
00:22:40,550 --> 00:22:45,110
Obama, Kanye West's list goes
on. And they are able to do that

392
00:22:45,110 --> 00:22:47,690
because there wasn't multi
factor authentication on that.

393
00:22:47,990 --> 00:22:51,140
On that account, the individual
didn't use a second method of

394
00:22:51,140 --> 00:22:55,850
communication to confirm the
caller was truly IT support. And

395
00:22:55,940 --> 00:23:00,350
their MFA model didn't match
their threat model. And so they

396
00:23:00,350 --> 00:23:04,670
used app based MFA when a Ubikey
a security key would have been a

397
00:23:04,670 --> 00:23:08,960
great match for them, because
it's not fishable. And so they

398
00:23:08,960 --> 00:23:12,350
ended up making that change to
security keys, and since then,

399
00:23:12,350 --> 00:23:15,140
have not seen issues and they
posted all about this on their

400
00:23:15,140 --> 00:23:17,030
blog. They've been really,
really forthcoming about how

401
00:23:17,030 --> 00:23:19,970
that works. So a lot of great
success stories with security

402
00:23:19,970 --> 00:23:23,000
keys for folks who have an
elevated threat model. Wow.

403
00:23:23,030 --> 00:23:25,610
Eveline Oehrlich: Wow. Wow. Wow.
Wow, lots, lots of great advice.

404
00:23:25,850 --> 00:23:28,130
I want to go back, we have a few
minutes left, I'm gonna go back

405
00:23:28,130 --> 00:23:32,210
to where we started out with
which is to kill your, your job.

406
00:23:32,450 --> 00:23:35,690
What do you do during the day?
Sounds fantastic. doesn't get

407
00:23:35,690 --> 00:23:40,340
boring, is very exciting and
right, right up in the digital

408
00:23:40,370 --> 00:23:45,620
age, right. It's key and
essential. So, so wanted to see

409
00:23:45,680 --> 00:23:50,750
any career advice. For listeners
here, you already said don't

410
00:23:50,750 --> 00:23:55,280
have to necessarily get a degree
in security to be a white hat

411
00:23:55,280 --> 00:23:59,750
hacker. Any anything else? Sure,

412
00:23:59,870 --> 00:24:02,180
Rachel Tobac: I recommend if
you're excited about hacking,

413
00:24:02,180 --> 00:24:06,260
and you want to try some ethical
hacking, go to DEFCON, happens

414
00:24:06,260 --> 00:24:09,830
every year in Las Vegas in July
or August. It's an amazing

415
00:24:09,830 --> 00:24:14,750
conference for 30,000 Plus
hackers descending upon one area

416
00:24:14,840 --> 00:24:18,770
practicing learning and
tinkering together. And so I

417
00:24:18,770 --> 00:24:21,710
highly recommend starting with
some talks maybe that you find

418
00:24:21,710 --> 00:24:24,650
online from DEFCON and then from
there seeing what your interests

419
00:24:24,740 --> 00:24:27,530
look like. If you would like to
join women in security and

420
00:24:27,530 --> 00:24:30,170
privacy all are welcome. You're
welcome to join us for our

421
00:24:30,170 --> 00:24:34,250
workshops where we get to tinker
and try different tools and see,

422
00:24:34,280 --> 00:24:38,180
you know, where do our interests
lie within hacking and privacy?

423
00:24:38,810 --> 00:24:42,290
And then from there, try it.
There's a lot of really cool

424
00:24:42,290 --> 00:24:46,070
ethical hacking skills that you
can try at DEFCON with your

425
00:24:46,070 --> 00:24:48,710
peers so I highly recommend
getting in there and just

426
00:24:48,740 --> 00:24:51,350
jumping in. A lot of people are
first timers every

427
00:24:51,350 --> 00:24:54,080
Eveline Oehrlich: year. When is
the next DEFCON coming up.

428
00:24:55,160 --> 00:24:57,890
Rachel Tobac: Let's see. DEFCON
2023

429
00:24:58,490 --> 00:25:00,350
Eveline Oehrlich: Sorry to put
you on the spot but I want to

430
00:25:00,350 --> 00:25:02,600
make sure that everybody knows
when it's happening.

431
00:25:02,810 --> 00:25:05,630
Rachel Tobac: August 10, through
the 13th to 2023.

432
00:25:05,810 --> 00:25:07,970
Eveline Oehrlich: All right,
everybody has enough time to buy

433
00:25:07,970 --> 00:25:11,630
themselves a ticket Las Vegas is
has a lot to offer besides

434
00:25:11,630 --> 00:25:14,570
DEFCON as well. All right,
super. Rachel, thank you so

435
00:25:14,570 --> 00:25:17,990
much. I'm gonna call you a
guardian angel. I think I read

436
00:25:17,990 --> 00:25:21,260
that somewhere else, you are
making the world a better place

437
00:25:21,800 --> 00:25:27,290
with your work. If people wanted
to learn more about you and the

438
00:25:27,290 --> 00:25:31,370
organization, where should they
go? Of course, yeah,

439
00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:34,300
Rachel Tobac: LinkedIn is fine.
Rachel Tobac there and then my

440
00:25:34,300 --> 00:25:39,430
Twitter handle is just my name
are  R-A-C-H-E-L T-O-B-A-C. Or

441
00:25:39,430 --> 00:25:41,290
you gonna go to my website
socialproofsecurity.com.

442
00:25:42,250 --> 00:25:44,770
Eveline Oehrlich: Fantastic.
Rachel, this has been really,

443
00:25:44,770 --> 00:25:48,100
really, really, really good.
Very good, very great. You have

444
00:25:48,100 --> 00:25:50,590
a lot of energy and you have
great job. I'm very envious of

445
00:25:50,590 --> 00:25:54,310
your job. Maybe I should try
that. As an analyst. I get to do

446
00:25:54,310 --> 00:25:57,490
a lot of fun things. But yours
sounds a lot more fun than mine.

447
00:25:57,790 --> 00:25:59,410
Rachel Tobac: Well, you can hack
a bank with me next time,

448
00:25:59,410 --> 00:25:59,740
Evelyn.

449
00:26:00,010 --> 00:26:02,680
Eveline Oehrlich: There we go.
That sounds great. Appreciate

450
00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:06,700
your time. Have a great rest of
the day. And thanks to everybody

451
00:26:06,700 --> 00:26:09,910
listening in to the humans of
DevOps with Evelyn Oehrlich and

452
00:26:09,910 --> 00:26:13,930
today with our guest Rachel
Tobac Take care. Thank you. Bye

