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Mike Wilkes

Adjunct Professor at NYU

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Content Mike is Following

Do you trust the data & reports from the big analysts?

Strategy & Architecture

Yes

Sometimes

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111.8k views123 Upvotes58 Comments

What plans do you have to adopt a Zero Trust access model within your company?

Security & GRC Threat & Vulnerability Management

Zero Trust access is already in place

Zero Trust projects are underway

Zero Trust projects are planned

No plans for Zero Trust

I am unfamiliar with Zero Trust

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1.3k views

When you've got production assets running in the cloud CNAPP is necessary, but is it sufficient? Curious to hear other's thoughts on the 2024 Gartner CNAPP Market Guide.

Security Strategy & Roadmap Peer Insights

Mike WilkesAdjunct Professor at NYU in Media10 months ago

If you have read the 2024 Market Guide for CNAPP, you might have also seen the Table 3 therein which lists certain representative CNAPP Vendors. Some of such names are:
1. Crowdstrike Falcon Cloud Security
2. Microsoft ...read more

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I was looking at a client's DNS configurations for MX records and noticed that they have just one entry: smtp.google.com At first I thought this was a mistake, but apparently after April 2023 this is now the recommended setting. One record with a "weight" of "1." I've been managing and configuring SMTP services and DNS records for 30+ years and I've always believed (and seen the belief reinforced over time) that DNS is a SPoF (Single Point of Failure) for many organizations. The most impressive outage of the last few years was in October 2021 when folks at Facebook instantly took down Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp with one mistaken BGP configuration change. Question: Why would Google have put all of their DNS eggs in one basket? Meaning, all of their DNS services behind smtp.google.com (in IPv4 at least) seem to live within one ASN: 15169 with over 11 million IP addresses. They seem exposed to a BGP outage and/or BGP hijacking attack with this setup.

References: Google Workspace MX record values 9 & MxToolbox (asn:15169)

Cloud Risk Management

Mike WilkesAdjunct Professor at NYU in Mediaa year ago

Google's public DNS servers use DNSSEC to authenticate responses whenever possible. They also load balance their infrastructure via various means. One example is just a DNS lookup of smtp.google.com, where you are treated ...read more

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CrowdStrike outage: Any quick advice for orgs affected? What immediate actions are your IT and other teams taking to mitigate the effects of the outage?

Crowdstrike Outage 2024 IT Strategy & Roadmap

Mike WilkesAdjunct Professor at NYU in Mediaa year ago

Right now, communication is key!

We have invoked a passphrase protocol to protect our users from social engineering attempts to gain unauthorised access to our users computers or systems by claiming to be from IT support ...read more

What is some “Q4 wisdom” you’ve received in your career that you like to impart on your team to help get them through the busy/stressful holiday season?

Mike WilkesAdjunct Professor at NYU in Media7 months ago

When negotiating with vendors, there is always a push to reconcile some additional spend at the end of their calendar year with some steep discounts. You may feel pressure to take them up on it. But rest assured, there will ...read more

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