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

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

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

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

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

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

What is data deduplication, and why does Curtis call it the single most important development in backup over the last 30 years? In this encore episode, W. Curtis Preston and Prasanna Malaiyandi break down exactly how dedupe works, why it's not the same as compression, and why the fine print of your dedupe domain determines how much storage you actually save.

This episode originally aired as part of the Backup to Basics series, and it's back because listeners couldn't get enough of it — not just downloads, but people who stuck around for the whole conversation, some more than once. That says something, because this isn't a surface-level explainer. Curtis and Prasanna get into fingerprints, dedupe indexes, and the real-world tradeoffs between file-level and block-level dedupe.

You'll hear why Curtis argues that file-level dedupe isn't "real" dedupe at all, just single-instance storage wearing a costume. Then the conversation shifts to the split that shapes entire product categories: source-side dedupe versus target-side dedupe. Curtis walks through why source dedupe requires you to essentially replace your backup software, while target dedupe lets you bolt an appliance onto whatever you're already running. Prasanna pushes back on some of the assumptions along the way, which is exactly the kind of back-and-forth that made this episode stick with listeners the first time around.

By the end, they even get into hybrid dedupe, a concept that splits the difference and confuses almost everyone the first time they hear about it.

If you've ever wondered why your backup storage doesn't need to be 30 or 40 times the size of your production data, or you just want to finally understand what your backup vendor means when they throw around terms like "dedupe ratio," this is the episode that clears it up.

Chapters:

00:00 – Intro

08:10 – What Is Data Deduplication?

12:24 – Dedupe vs. Compression

16:13 – Fingerprints and the Dedupe Index

16:52 – What's a Dedupe Domain?

19:48 – Is File-Level Dedupe Really Dedupe?

21:53 – Source Dedupe vs. Target Dedupe

28:20 – What Is Hybrid Dedupe?

Phishing-resistant MFA could have stopped a Chinese state-sponsored threat actor from spending over a year inside North American academic and medical research networks — and we're going to tell you exactly how it happened and what you need to do about it.

A group called UNC5608, tracked by Google's Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG), exploited a vulnerability unique to REDCap — a research data platform that allows multiple software versions to run simultaneously. They got in via stolen admin credentials, planted custom malware called Infinite.red directly into REDCap's upgrade process, harvested credentials for over a year, then used those credentials to log into Google Workspace as a domain admin and create fake compliance rules to silently forward sensitive research emails — military strategy, geostrategic policy, advanced tech, specific pathogens — straight to Gmail accounts they controlled. And nobody noticed for a very long time.

Prasanna and I break down the full attack chain, then walk through every prevention layer that could have stopped it: inventory management, patching, password hygiene, SSO, phishing-resistant MFA, passkeys, DBSC, context-aware access, compliance rule monitoring, credential separation across security domains, and logging. We also get into what backups can and can't do for you in a long-dwell-time attack like this — and why infrastructure-as-code and truly immutable golden images matter more than you might think.

If you're running any kind of research platform, academic institution, or medical network — or honestly any organization that uses Google Workspace — this one's for you.

Chapters:

00:00 — Intro: The attack that phishing-resistant MFA could have stopped

01:03 — Show intro & woodworking banter

03:26 — What is a living-off-the-land attack?

04:02 — Who is UNC5608 and who did they target?

05:08 — How REDCap's multi-version design was exploited

06:11 — Infinite.red malware and credential harvesting

09:01 — Google Workspace infiltration via fake compliance rules

10:18 — The keywords they were stealing: pathogens, military strategy, and more

11:50 — What could the victims have done differently?

12:42 — Inventory management, patching, and legacy version removal

14:00 — Why you can't trust application-level authentication alone — use SSO

15:18 — Phishing-resistant MFA and why it matters

16:00 — Passkeys, FIDO, and why there are zero known attacks against them

17:57 — Device-bound session credentials (DBSC) and context-aware access

19:38 — Monitor your compliance rules — have a compliance rule for the compliance rule

20:40 — Credential separation across security domains

23:00 — Get some logging — XDR, SIEM, and catching exfiltration in progress

24:00 — What can backups actually do in a long-dwell-time attack?

27:00 — Infrastructure-as-code and the right cyber recovery approach

28:58 — Protecting your golden images with immutable storage

31:59 — Wrap-up