The Backup Wrap-Up

W. Curtis Preston (Mr. Backup)
  • 4.7(26개의 평가)
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Formerly known as "Restore it All," The Backup Wrap-up podcast turns unappreciated backup admins into cyber recovery heroes. After a brief analysis of backup-related news, each episode dives deep into one topic that you can use to better protect your organization from data loss, be it from accidents, disasters, or ransomware.   The Backup Wrap-up is hosted by W. Curtis Preston (Mr. Backup) and his co-host Prasanna Malaiyandi. Curtis' passion for backups began over 30 years ago when his employer, a $35B bank, lost its purchasing database – and the backups he was in charge of were worthless. After miraculously not being fired, he resolved to learn everything he could about a topic most people try to get away from.  His co-host, Prasanna, saw similar tragedies from the vendor side of the house and also wanted to do whatever he could to stop that from happening to others. A particular focus lately has been the scourge of ransomware that is plaguing IT organizations across the globe.  That's why in addition to backup and disaster recovery, we also touch on information security techniques you can use to protect your backup systems from ransomware.  If you'd like to go from being unappreciated to being a cyber recovery hero, this is the podcast for you. 

  1. 1시간 전

    RDP Security Best Practices Every Admin Ignores Until It's Too Late

    RDP security best practices come down to one rule most admins break on day one: that protocol has no business facing the internet. Dr. Mike Saylor and Prasanna Malaiyandi join me to break down why RDP earned the nickname Ransomware Deployment Protocol, who's out there scanning for your open port right now, and what to actually do about it. Here's the part that gets me. Every Windows box ships with this thing turned on. You didn't ask for it. Nobody handed you a manual. It's just there, running, waiting. Mike calls it a dollar store hammer — still a tool, still gets the job done, just not the one you'd pick if anybody gave you a budget. I call it a hack-me sign taped to your back. We get into how initial access brokers work, and it's less sophisticated than you'd hope. Somebody runs a Shodan query, gets a list of every exposed RDP service on the planet with IP addresses and device types, cross-references it against leaked credentials, packages the whole thing up, and sells it. Mike says the recon that used to take days now takes about 30 seconds with the AI tools floating around the dark net. Then there's the credentials-don't-even-matter problem. Default RDP traffic isn't encrypted internally. Mike walks through a routing table poisoning job where his team captured an admin's keystrokes going to a server. No login required. Just be in the middle. The back half is all fixes. Block the protocol and the port, not one or the other, because attackers will happily move to a different port. Check 3389 before you kill it — your database might be sitting on it. Enforce network level authentication. Put a VPN or a zero trust product in front, and Mike points out enterprise-grade stuff runs about six bucks a user now, so the "no budget" excuse is thinner than it used to be. Bastion hosts. Group policy. Monitoring at the endpoint, network, and firewall layers, with a governance layer on top so you know what's allowed before something breaks at 2am. Prasanna plays devil's advocate the whole way through and swears he isn't pro-RDP. Mike wears three hats and can't pick one. I have exactly one opinion and I'm not moving off it. CHAPTERS: 00:00 Windows ships with a back door 01:26 Welcome and my Facebook Marketplace weekend 03:18 Why RDP means Ransomware Deployment Protocol 04:46 What RDP actually does 05:51 Blue hat, red hat: Mike's split opinion 06:11 Does RDP deserve its bad reputation? 08:10 On by default, and you can't fully kill it 09:30 The back door nobody locks 11:52 Does the cloud secure RDP for you? 14:12 Who scans for exposed RDP, and how Shodan works 17:10 Initial access brokers explained 18:36 Vulnerabilities that skip credentials entirely 19:08 Unencrypted traffic and stolen keystrokes 20:38 The never-on-the-internet rule 20:59 The network survival stack: VPN and zero trust 23:22 Block the port and the service 24:17 Stopping lateral movement once they're inside 25:25 Network level authentication 27:50 Port 3389: check before you block it 29:44 Bastion hosts 30:26 Monitoring, auditing, and governance 31:19 Blue, red, and purple hats

    RDP Security Best Practices Every Admin Ignores Until It's Too Late

  2. 8월 24일

    Phishing Resistant MFA: Regular MFA Isn't Enough Anymore

    Phishing resistant MFA is the difference between a bad guy getting one email address and a bad guy getting your entire company's inbox. On this episode, Prasanna, Dr. Mike Saylor, and I dig into why plain old multi-factor authentication isn't the finish line anymore; it's the starting line. We open with a real attack: a vulnerable REDCap database, stolen Google Workspace admin credentials, and email forwarding rules quietly running for over a year before anyone noticed. From there Mike breaks down how social engineering actually works (the research bad guys do on you before they ever send an email) and why "report as phishing" buttons have themselves become an attack vector. I share the story of the free credit monitoring scam that got me, and why freezing your credit reports is one of the best five-minute security moves you can make. Mike then walks through FIDO2 and passkeys, why they're built on old-school public/private key encryption, and why they're transactional instead of just another code sent to your phone. We cover the Flax Typhoon espionage campaign, the Raptor Train botnet, and how hard-coded credentials on IoT devices turned into root-level access for a foreign intelligence operation. Then Mike introduces "killing the trust button," which is phrase for the idea that most networks default to open, and every one of those defaults is a decision somebody made without thinking about the risk. We talk about blocking traffic by country, limiting concurrent logins, expiring MFA tokens, and why starting with your administrative accounts is the easiest place to build momentum. And yes, we talk about just asking an AI assistant like Copilot or Claude to walk you through turning this stuff on, because you probably already have these tools and don't know it. We close on why MFA by itself still isn't enough — session token theft, MFA exhaustion attacks, and the "remember this device" setting that undoes everything you just set up. If you're the person responsible for an environment with important accounts sitting there with no MFA, we've got a name for that, and it's not a nice one. Chapters: 0:00 – Cold Open 1:31 – Welcome to the Show 4:12 – The REDCap/Google Workspace Attack 8:38 – Social Engineering: How Attackers Do Their Homework 13:06 – Freeze Your Credit Reports 16:55 – What Is FIDO2? (Phishing Resistant MFA Explained) 18:58 – Flax Typhoon and the Raptor Train Botnet 24:43 – Professional Malfeasance: No More Excuses for Skipping MFA 28:05 – Killing the Trust Button 32:51 – Start With Your Administrative Accounts 36:36 – Why MFA Alone Isn't Enough: MFA Exhaustion 39:27 – Passkeys, Impossible Travel, and Final Takeaways

    Phishing Resistant MFA: Regular MFA Isn't Enough Anymore

  3. 8월 17일

    Backup Security Best Practices: Lessons From a Real Red Team Breach

    Backup security best practices start with one uncomfortable truth: if you haven't checked your backup server for a default password, someone else might check it for you. In this episode, Prasanna and Mike Saylor join me to dig into how backup systems become the easiest way into your network — and the easiest way out for stolen data. We walk through the real story of a red teamer who used a backup server's weak credentials to restore a domain controller straight outside the company's firewall, then had the run of the place. From there we get into the stuff that actually gets skipped: service accounts nobody's watching because they're "always on" and mostly invisible, default passwords baked into backup hardware that never get changed, and why the backup admin — usually the newest, most junior person on the team — ends up holding the keys without the security training to know what they're holding. We talk about how to find every service account you've got, how to figure out which ones actually need the privileges they've been handed, and why "it's always been that way" is exactly how breaches happen. We close out on authentication: multi-factor authentication versus passkeys, why email one-time codes aren't the security win companies think they are, and why an authenticator app with its own PIN beats "remember this device" every time. Mike also shares a story about catching failed admin logins that turned out to be something a lot more human than a hacker — and why monitoring for those anomalies matters either way. If you manage backup infrastructure, run a security team, or just got handed the backup admin job because nobody else wanted it, this episode is your checklist. Backup security best practices aren't complicated — they're just consistently ignored, and that's exactly what attackers count on. Chapters: 00:00 – Cold open: the hacker on your backup server 01:34 – Welcome and episode setup 04:17 – The Duane Lafleur red team story 06:41 – Backup servers as an exfiltration risk 08:19 – Service accounts: the invisible attack surface 28:40 – Locking down the admin account 30:08 – MFA vs. passkeys for backup security

    Backup Security Best Practices: Lessons From a Real Red Team Breach

  4. 8월 10일

    Building a Cybersecurity Culture in Your Company (Encore)

    Building a cybersecurity culture in your company doesn't take a bigger budget — it takes a weekly habit. In this final episode of our encore series, returning guest snorkel42, a longtime Reddit voice in InfoSec, breaks down how he turned a company with zero dedicated security staff into one with a real security culture, just by committing to one small improvement every week instead of waiting on the next six-figure product. We picked this one to bring back because of how it performed with you — not just downloads, but how much of the episode people actually stuck around for. That combination told us this conversation landed, and a lot of you came back to it more than once. snorkel42 walks through where the term "security cadence" came from: a network engineering team, no InfoSec department, and a room full of unused tools nobody had the bandwidth to run. Instead of asking for more products, the team set a rule — one security change a week, no new vendor purchases allowed — for six months straight. What happened next is the real story: leadership noticed, and the team went from begging for resources to being handed them. From there we get into what it actually took to build that cybersecurity culture day to day — the early challenges, how the team picked what to tackle first, and how a scrappy internal habit turned into something leadership actively championed. We also cover MFA, including why not all MFA is created equal, the SIM jacking risk that undercuts SMS-based codes, and the push-notification fatigue tactics attackers use to wear users down until they hit "yes" out of exhaustion. snorkel42 closes with a piece of advice worth sitting with: stop chasing the latest zero-day and start building your cybersecurity culture around how attacks actually function, start to finish. Do that, and ransomware protection comes along for free. If you're the person in your company quietly carrying the security load, or you're trying to convince leadership that culture matters more than another line-item purchase, this one's for you. 00:00:00 — Cold open: you already own the tools you need 00:01:36 — Show intro and disclaimers 00:04:05 — Guest introduction: snorkel42's Reddit history and security cadence series 00:05:53 — Where the term "security cadence" came from 00:08:40 — Early challenges building the habit 00:44:57 — MFA, password security, and why not all MFA is equal 00:47:46 — SIM jacking and push-notification fatigue attacks 00:51:45 — Patching, WannaCry, and why chasing zero-days misses the point

    Building a Cybersecurity Culture in Your Company (Encore)

  5. 8월 3일

    Cybersecurity Best Practices for Individuals (Encore)

    Cybersecurity best practices for individuals aren't complicated — they're just often ignored, and that's exactly what this encore episode digs into. This is a rerun of one of our most-engaged episodes, brought back not just because of how many people downloaded it, but because of how much of it people actually stuck around for. Curtis and Prasanna sat down with Mark Shriner, host of the SecureTalk podcast, for a wide-ranging conversation about what it actually takes to protect yourself online — no jargon, no scare tactics, just the stuff that works. Mark's path into cybersecurity started with a career pivot in 2017, and what he found was a field that goes a mile wide and a mile deep — everything from pen testing to encryption to endpoint protection. But the through-line of this conversation is that security isn't just an IT department problem anymore. It's everybody's problem, whether you're an executive with sensitive data or a parent trying to explain phishing to your kids. The conversation opens with a genuinely shocking data point: in a University of Michigan study, researchers dropped USB drives around campus, and 48% of them got plugged into a computer, some within minutes. That's the kind of thing that makes MFA (multi-factor authentication) feel less optional. Curtis shares his own MFA journey — from skeptic to evangelist — and the group breaks down why SMS-based authentication is riskier than people think, especially with SIM swapping attacks on the rise. From there, the conversation covers a lot of ground: the gift card scam that almost caught Mark's son on his third day of an internship, why "didn't expect it, don't click it" is one of the best pieces of advice you'll hear, and how phone-based social engineering is just as dangerous as email-based phishing. On the business side, Mark and Prasanna talk through device management, BYOD policies, and tools for spotting anomalous network behavior. And of course, backups get their due. Mark's advice for individuals is refreshingly simple: use a cloud-based backup service if you can, but if you can't or won't, at least use whatever's already available to you — Time Machine, an external drive, anything. The point isn't the perfect solution. It's action. Which is exactly how the episode got its name: by the end, everyone agreed the real takeaway was just do something. Don't do nothing. If you've been meaning to turn on MFA, start backing up your laptop, or just get a better handle on the basics, this is the episode to catch up on. Chapter markers: 00:00 Cold open 00:03 Meet Mark Shriner 00:10 How Mark got into cybersecurity 00:15 The University of Michigan USB drive study 00:16 Turning on MFA: Curtis's personal journey 00:19 SIM swapping and SMS authentication risks 00:23 Top security concerns for individuals 00:24 Backups, ransomware emails, and phishing basics 00:25 Being aware and pausing before you click 00:26 The gift card scam story 00:28 Phone-based scams and social engineering 00:31 Careful what you post online 00:31 Company-level MFA and security best practices 00:34 Device management and BYOD 00:35 DDI tools and data leak detection 00:43 Cybersecurity best practices for individuals: backup edition 00:45 Just do something — the summary that named the episode

    Cybersecurity Best Practices for Individuals (Encore)

  6. 7월 27일

    Stopping Ransomware Lateral Movement Before It Spreads

    Ransomware lateral movement is exactly what it sounds like — once an attacker's inside your network, they start crawling around looking for more to encrypt, and stopping that crawl is often the difference between a bad day and a catastrophe. In this encore episode, part four of our seven-episode series pulling the best of the archives back into your feed, W. Curtis Preston and Prasanna Malaiyandi sit down with networking expert Tom Hollingsworth to break down exactly how attackers move once they're in, and what you can actually do about it. This one's back because listeners didn't just download it — they stuck with it, and a fair number of you came back for a second listen. That kind of engagement told us this conversation was worth surfacing again, especially with ransomware attacks as common as they are right now. Tom walks through the fundamentals of network segmentation — VLANs, air gaps, and why a "flat" network (where everything can talk to everything) is a gift to any attacker who gets in. From there the conversation moves into Zero Trust Network Architecture, what it actually takes to implement it at scale, and why flipping the switch from "allow everything" to "deny by default" is both the right move and the one that generates a thousand help desk tickets on day one. There's a good stretch on how schools, stadiums, and hotels handle network isolation differently than a typical enterprise, plus a practical rundown of incident response — locking down external access, isolating infected segments, keeping communication running when your own network is down, and why every kill switch needs to actually be wired to something. If you've ever wondered how much of this is built into your existing networking gear versus something you have to buy separately, or you just want a clearer mental model for how ransomware spreads once it's past the perimeter, this is a great one to revisit. Chapter Markers: 00:00:00 - Intro and why ransomware lateral movement matters right now 00:01:25 - Welcome back, meet Tom Hollingsworth 00:04:06 - Why isolating the network is step one after a ransomware attack 00:06:07 - Networking basics: how ransomware exploits flat networks 00:09:31 - VLANs, air gaps, and network segmentation 00:14:12 - Zero Trust Network Architecture explained 00:19:02 - Managing zero trust at scale across teams 00:25:48 - Special cases: schools, stadiums, and hotels 00:34:31 - Blocking newly registered domains to stop command and control 00:38:01 - Incident response: locking down the network 00:42:12 - Keeping communication running during an attack 00:44:54 - A real-world story: isolating infected devices 00:50:01 - Building segmentation in from the start

    Stopping Ransomware Lateral Movement Before It Spreads

  7. 7월 20일

    Ransomware Response Checklist: Prevent It, Slow It, Survive It

    This episode is built around a ransomware response checklist — a three-part Reddit series by a security specialist who goes by snorkel42, breaking down exactly how to prevent, contain, and recover from a ransomware attack. This is an encore episode, and it's back not just because a lot of people downloaded it originally, but because so many of you listened all the way through — some of you more than once. That kind of engagement told us this one was worth bringing back. Curtis Preston and Prasanna Malaiyandi dig into snorkel42's series, which breaks the whole problem into three parts: how to stop ransomware from getting in, how to slow it down if it does, and what to actually do once you've been hit. Curtis and Prasanna go section by section — covering phishing and dropper prevention, application whitelisting, blocking lateral movement between servers, locking down RDP and SSH, honeypot files for catching intruders in the act, and building a real incident response plan before you ever need one. They also get into the messier parts most people don't talk about — what it's actually like to negotiate for a decryption key, why getting your data back isn't the end of the story, and why a ransomware attack is nothing like a normal disaster recovery scenario. Along the way, Curtis makes the case that most organizations already have the gaps this attacker needs — and that fixing them now is a lot cheaper than fixing them after the fact. Whether you're building your first incident response plan or just want to stress-test the one you've already got, this episode gives you a practical, section-by-section framework to work from. Chapter Markers: 00:00 – Encore intro & episode setup 00:01:37 – Show intro and banter 00:06:21 – Preventing the breach: phishing, droppers, and whitelisting 00:14:46 – Blocking lateral movement, RDP/SSH lockdown 00:20:28 – Detecting exfiltration and honeypot files 00:24:19 – What to do once you've been hit 00:25:58 – Building your incident response plan 00:30:43 – Decryption, ransom payments, and why it's not over yet

    Ransomware Response Checklist: Prevent It, Slow It, Survive It

  8. 7월 13일

    How to Protect Backups from Ransomware (Encore)

    How to protect backups from ransomware starts with a hard truth: attackers aren't just encrypting your data anymore, they're stealing it first — and no backup system on earth undoes an exfiltration. In this encore episode of The Backup Wrap-Up, Curtis and Prasanna dig into what real immutability looks like versus the marketing version, why root access quietly undermines most "immutable" storage claims, the difference between virtual and true physical air gaps, and the exact questions you should be firing at your backup vendor before you trust them with your last line of defense. This one's an encore for a reason — it was one of the most listened-to episodes in the show's history, with listeners sticking around for the full runtime and then some. That's the kind of signal that tells you it's worth a second run. Along the way, they cover S3 object lock and what actually happens if your account gets deleted or your credit card stops working, why compromised admin credentials are involved in the majority of attacks and what your vendor should be able to undo, and why bit rot — rare, but nasty when it's silent — still belongs on your checklist. If you manage backup or DR for a living, or you're just trying to figure out whether your current setup would actually hold up, this episode gives you a concrete list of questions to ask and red flags to watch for. Chapters: 00:00 – Cold Open: Ransomware Is After Your Backups 01:19 – Welcome & Banter 05:50 – Topic Setup: Protecting Backups from Ransomware 07:36 – The Extortion & Exfiltration Playbook 15:25 – What Is an Air Gap? 18:22 – Virtual Air Gaps 27:57 – Real (Physical) Air Gaps 28:12 – What Is Immutability, Really? 29:23 – Bit Rot 30:42 – Root Access & the Limits of Immutability 32:51 – S3 Object Lock 40:20 – Questions to Ask Your Backup Vendor 42:31 – What Happens If You Delete Your Account? 44:29 – Compromised Credentials & Worst-Case Scenarios 46:41 – Final Thoughts

    How to Protect Backups from Ransomware (Encore)
모두 보기(363개)

4.7
최고 5점
26개의 평가

소개

Formerly known as "Restore it All," The Backup Wrap-up podcast turns unappreciated backup admins into cyber recovery heroes. After a brief analysis of backup-related news, each episode dives deep into one topic that you can use to better protect your organization from data loss, be it from accidents, disasters, or ransomware.   The Backup Wrap-up is hosted by W. Curtis Preston (Mr. Backup) and his co-host Prasanna Malaiyandi. Curtis' passion for backups began over 30 years ago when his employer, a $35B bank, lost its purchasing database – and the backups he was in charge of were worthless. After miraculously not being fired, he resolved to learn everything he could about a topic most people try to get away from.  His co-host, Prasanna, saw similar tragedies from the vendor side of the house and also wanted to do whatever he could to stop that from happening to others. A particular focus lately has been the scourge of ransomware that is plaguing IT organizations across the globe.  That's why in addition to backup and disaster recovery, we also touch on information security techniques you can use to protect your backup systems from ransomware.  If you'd like to go from being unappreciated to being a cyber recovery hero, this is the podcast for you. 

정보

  • 제작진
    W. Curtis Preston (Mr. Backup)
  • 방송 연도
    2019년 - 2026년
  • 에피소드
    363
  • 등급
    전체 연령 사용가
  • 저작권
    © All rights reserved
  • 웹사이트 보기
    The Backup Wrap-Up

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