Hey everybody, I'm Matt Major from Growth Mode
Content. Welcome to episode 101. Can you believe
it? We surpassed 100. We didn't even quit at
100. I was ready. We're going all the way to
at least 112 maybe? Yeah. That was a joke. Matt
Major here, mildly awake on my, I don't know
how many cup of coffee. Joined always. What's
on the shirt today, Mike? Oh, it's a Bill shirt.
I should have known it was a Bill shirt. Yeah,
yeah, yeah. It says, where else would you rather
be than right here, right now, which is kind
of a Bill's mantra that before the game they
started. Where else would you... It's a speech
Marv Levy gave the Super Bowl teams back in the
90s in the huddle. It was very famous. Like,
where else would you rather be? Bit by bit, I'm
being indoctrinated in your weird culture, and
I don't know how I feel about it. Propagandizing
you daily. You just don't know it yet. Oh, jeez.
How was your weekend? It was awesome. Yeah? Yeah,
yeah, yeah. It was great. It was... My parents
came to visit. I haven't seen them in a while.
The Bills won. What else did we do? I don't know.
We did a ton of shit. Oh, we went to... Where
did we go? I don't know. I'm not awake yet. But
I had a good weekend. I did, too. I had family
in from out of state. We had a really big sort
of family reunion party. My uncle retired, and
he's moving to California. Very nice. So everybody
got together. California. It was a good time.
But my cousins came up, who I haven't seen in
a number of years. And I kind of showed them
around the area a little bit. Yeah. Took them
to Beacon Skiff. Very good. That was where we
started our day on Friday there. did the cider
flights. Those were great. I don't know if you've
ever done that, but I always think of them as
having the one hard cider, and they have a million,
and you can sample them, and it's... Well, you're
a big wine slushy guy. Where would you rank cider?
Is that right underneath wine slushies for you?
Here's the thing, I don't really... The wine
slushy I drink in the summer, because it's warm,
and I don't really drink much at all, so I don't
pound many of those things, so it's really...
I don't know that I've ever ordered a cider or
bought a four pack or anything just because it's
not necessarily my thing. It was great to taste
and see the different options they have. I'm
just not somebody that would drink an entire
one. I quit drinking at the worst time because
they have everything. If I had quit in the 90s
when there was like Blue Light, Mic Light, and
then you got crazy with those Magic Hat. Whoa.
I mean, now you got chocolate, marshmallow, pumpkin,
pecan pie. Well, whatever you want. You could
have a spaghetti dinner in a bottle. We should
also, before I tell you about the rest of my
day, we should also acknowledge our returning
champion sitting so quietly and politely. I know.
Also, one of the coolest, I'm going to say, don't
let anybody else hear this, one of the coolest
growth mode content podcasts that we make. By
far. Hack dissection. Mike Leasy's here. Yeah.
Woo. What's up, buddy? Hey, guys. Thanks for
having me back. And we figured out. He was technically
our first guest, because we launched at the Winter
Fair. And he came on the Winter Fair. Yeah, that's
right. He was one of the OGs from the beginning.
100 episodes later, here he is. We're going to
get into a bunch of cool things with Mike and
talk about all the stuff that he does for fun
and what's coming up on his podcast. I just want
to give a couple quick plugs before I get too
far off track. After Beacon Skiff, we went to
Skinny Atlas, because of course, you know, you
got a somebody comes to New York, you gotta show
them around Skinny Atlas. Head lunch at the Lakefront
Tavern, pub, whatever it is, the local awesome.
Right there on the water? Best chicken wings
I've had in anywhere, and I can't remember how
long. Whoa, you know that's my department. Dude,
old school, the way it's done right, fried with
good hot sauce, like. Were they saucy? Like,
you know what I mean? You know when you get a
plate of wings and they're dressed, but... It's
just greased to the bottom of the bucket? Correct.
I like when they're saucy. I like when they're
swimming. Listen, here's how you make wing sauce.
It's hot sauce and butter. That's it. You want
it hotter or spicier, you know, it's more or
less butter. People get too much more creative
with that, you've done it wrong. I've come up
with the wings that I make sometimes on Football
Sunday called baked, grilled, and buffalo build.
And I have worked for years. Of course. Of fucking
course. See, I just tried to propagandize you.
Of course. It is more, yes, it is, you know,
you could do franks and butter and that's it.
But you, there is, I've been trying to dial this
in for years to get the perfect, cause there's,
you know, there's - Well, see, there's a million
people that make different sauces and many of
them are phenomenal, but I'm just saying, traditional
OG wing sauce, done right, has two ingredients.
Do you remember Tony's Pizza in Herkimer? Yeah.
To this day. I have yet to find a mild sauce
like theirs. Yeah, they're mild sauce. Yep that
golden yellow I That might be the last time I
had good wings other than than in skinny atlas,
but I'm telling you but My family had some other
things there. They were phenomenal Just go go
there and eat is what I'm trying to say and then
while we're on go there and eat Unbeknownst to
me. It was parents weekend at SU. Oh, so the
city was flooded with things I wanted to take
my family out to dinner somewhere and I saw a
manager like maybe I'll maybe I'll go to noble
cellar You know, this is the nicest place in
Syracuse. So I've heard yet to be there. I saw
this reach out to my friend Sarah who happens
to own the place and said hey Can I you know
book a table for us and she's like, well, I've
been booked for weeks Sure, I got you and she
got us a table for six of us It was the best
meal I've probably ever had in a restaurant.
Fine dining, correct? Yes, but I've been to places
that were more expensive and more fancy, not
nearly as good of an experience and as good of
the food. So listen, like every aspect, right?
If you haven't been to the place, it's an old
historic church. They remodel it. It's gorgeous
inside. They've got awesome video projections
up that just blows my mind. But the staff, from
the host to the bartender to the waiter, We're
not only incredibly knowledgeable, as you'd expect
in a place like that. You know, typically you
get those people, but they're also a little snooty
because they're very high class. Sure. You know,
serving you whatever. Incredibly friendly, also
incredibly knowledgeable staff. All of them,
it was mind blowing. And the food was, we had
this elk appetizer. Whoa. Dude, I don't even...
Was it better than the camel jerky from the fair?
Thousand percent. Okay. I don't even know how
to describe it other than it's unlike anything
I've ever had before, and it was phenomenal.
My cousin had a steak, so it was the best steak
he ever had. Wow. Wow. It was just absolutely,
I can't say enough good things. It's not a lie
when people and you hear all these things rave
about it. Sometimes it's kind of nonsense. It's
not in this case. This is the by far best restaurant
in Syracuse. Probably the best in New York. Can
I tell you what I loved about it? I wasn't there.
But after you made that post, so I checked out
the website, right? So good job. It worked. Here's
what I love right off the bat. Their kind of
motto or whatever, approachable fine dining.
I love that. I've never heard it phrased like
that, but sometimes one word can change. Because
you hear fine dining, and I've been to fine dining
restaurants, and it's obviously fantastic, but
there is always that... Almost that imposter
syndrome when you walk into a fine dining place
no matter how successful you get in life you
walk up to find out you're like Do I really belong
here when you hear someone say it's approachable
fine dining? I immediately know like these are
not pretentious assholes They just know how to
cook some damn good food, dude And I'll be honest
it was a menu full of words that I had never
seen before in my life Oh, yeah, you're like
this mean honey at one point. We we asked a waiter
like what the hell is that? He very non -judgmentally
explained it to us and it was great. Because
they're approachable. It was phenomenal. They
even have a suggested, like if you don't even,
you don't even want to dig in, they have a suggested
option for all your courses and everything. You
can go just bring me the chef's recommendation
tonight and they'll just set you up all. I'd
be afraid to do that because they'd be like,
send all the expensive shit out. You know what's
funny? I was like, well, I don't know if I want
to do that. No, no, they tell you exactly what
it is. But I was like, I don't know if I want
to do that. So I ordered off the menu and I realized
that I ended up Picking what they had suggested.
I should perfect with it, but you know you're
in a good restaurant You're gonna spend some
dough when you see the price on the menu as market
price Yeah, you know I had I had an embarrassing
experience at a fine dining place I didn't even
realize it was happening But I have a very weak
stomach and I I've had a tug -of -war with seafood
over the years like I came from you know Herkimer
I didn't I didn't eat seafood. I didn't like
seafood your idea food is a for I found out yeah,
yeah exactly My idea of seafood was a one -eyed
perch from the Mohawk River. But I found out
that it's like, over the years my taste had changed,
and I'm like, why do I like mussels, but I can't
eat, you know, sea bass, whatever. The point
is... It's ocean fish for me that I like. It's
anything that's not on purpose. You don't like
freshwater fish? I don't like freshwater fish.
All right, fine. What about, like, shrimp and
stuff like that? Yeah, yeah, I can do it. As
long as it's not too fishy, you know? I understand.
And we were at... I took my wife and I to a fine
dining restaurant, and this table next to us
orders some sort of special, and it's a... Bro,
it's a fish. Like, its eyes are still... It's
head. And I'm watching her eat it, and I start...
You know? And my wife's like, She's doing that
stuff and I'm like, yeah, you know, I can't stop
and so you like switch chairs with her So whatever
I stopped looking my wife's food comes out She
had ordered the same thing as that right? But
the waitress sets it down and the head is cut
off and she goes miss. Just want to let you know
We saw the reaction of your husband. So we went
ahead and cut the head off the fish and I was
like Thank you. And also I am so fucking embarrassed
Wow, I didn't know anyone was watching me dry
heave but That's hilarious. Yeah, that's it.
She or my wife tell it She tells it better from
her point of view cuz I was oblivious go figure
I'm more concerned that I can't think of what
I did this week might be wild that Married to
you. I couldn't oh bud. She deserves something
Nobel Peace Talk to our guest. Yeah, Mike. Fuck
us. Fuck you. No, we are sponsored by ads. We're
sponsored. We're sponsored. We're sponsored by
ads on the go. Get ads on the go dot com. Shout
out. Zach, we love you. Zach is the man. So speaking
of good news, Mike's got some great news about
his business. He's got some little expansion
plans and new location plans. Tell us about it.
It's been crazy. Yes. Since the first time that
I talked with you guys back in February, you
know, we were. Getting going we were about to
close on our fourth year, you know, we're almost
on to five and everything's just been upwards
trajectory ever since then so Yeah, we're we're
gonna be opening up and moving into an office
space now instead of just everybody being You
know located across the country. I work for my
basement So we're gonna be down in the Inspire
hub downtown now. That's fantastic. You deserve
it. You are such a You're such a great person,
but you're so good at what you do. And for those
of you that don't know he's got a great show
called Hack Dissection, right here powered by
us, Growth Mode Content, which we're going to
shoot after today's episode. You work for Meltek
Solutions. That's your company. For those listening
or watching that maybe haven't checked you out
yet, what exactly is it that you and the company
do? We help companies assess their security by
emulating bad guys. So we get to pretend to be
the bad guys, try and break in. Then let them
know exactly how we did it so that they can protect
themselves I brag about you to friends all the
time when they ask about work And I'm like we
have these clients and you know we have some
realtors then we got this guy they hack into
shit You got to hear these stories. They've gone
into banks and stole gold bars. It's like real
-life movie It's like yeah, it's like oceans
11 real life, and I tell them horrible like I
don't give it justice your stories But I try
to convey them. It is really cool what you do.
I mean To be to get paid to not only do what
you're great at but to be like I get to just
like Pretend be a criminal and not get arrested.
That's the best part. That's the best part really
keeps me into it is Doing the quote -unquote
illegal things legally. Yeah, and you're helping
people Yeah, in fact even just this past week.
We were working with a financial institution
and they had just implemented all these changes
to their software. And the whole approach was,
hey, I'm somebody, I'm working to get a loan.
I'm going to log into your web application. I'm
going to fill out the paperwork. And so I was
pretending to be one of those customers. And
then I found out, you know, by tweaking a few
things and poking around a little bit, not only
was able to see all of that customer's information,
but every loan that's in the system, all the
banking information, all those things, which
was Pretty much their worst nightmare, right?
Those are the things that they were like, this
is by far the thing that we're most concerned
about. So we called them up. We let them know
exactly what they did. They had a fix deployed
that day. And then they said, oh, we're going
to go back and we're going to look through our
logs and see if anybody else has abused this
so we know if there's been any sort of compromise.
But they're like, this is exactly why we have
you, to catch these things before. So was it
like an injection thing? It was basically like
that. Yeah, I mean, not to get in too much detail
stuff, but they're using a special database software.
And there was just a way to get around the queries
that they had. So then we could arbitrarily decide
what we want to go after. Are most of your clients,
are they hiring you on the ground floor when
they're starting? Or is it usually? when they've
encountered some issues and then they want you
to test, when is usually the jump point for that?
It's across the board. For this financial institution,
we've been working with them for three years.
And then between last year and this year, they
had a big software change, a big update, which
necessitated that. This week, we're working with
a startup out on the West Coast. And they had
just started building up their platform and everything.
And they're getting some customers. And those
customers are like, hey, we want to make sure
your stuff's secure. So can you show us? And
they're like, well. Not yet, but we will find
somebody that can cut this stuff out and do that.
So we're working with them. And I mean, just
really across the board, we've been working with,
you know, huge Fortune 500s and little tiny startups.
It's just anything in between. So Mike, you kind
of made me think of something as you're talking
about these startups and things like this. As
you're doing these tests, is there a set of standards
or some sort of certification or something like
that that you provide to these folks that they
take to their investors and in the public and
say, you know, we've met this security standard?
I know there's a lot in the industry, but is
there anything in particular that, you know,
that you would do for a startup, that sort of
thing? It's really dependent on the industry
and things that they're in because different...
industries have different regulations and things
that they need to abide by. So we work within
the areas that we're authorized to do stuff for.
So for instance, for companies that take payment
information, credit cards, they have to abide
by PCI regulations, which means that you need
like a special assessor to do that. So we don't
do that assessment part, but we do the audit,
that security part, and then pass it to their
assessor to say like, yep, you're abiding by
all those regulations. When we're working with
folks like the startup or with other types of
companies, we basically just do our work against
different sorts of known methodologies. Like
for web apps, we use an open standard called
OWASP. For network types of testing, we use the
penetration test standard. So that's something
that everybody can look into and just understand,
hey, this is what we went through. This is the
rigor that they underwent, and here's the results.
And then typically, what we'll offer for those
customers is a letter of attestation that says,
hey, Here's who we are. Here's what we did. Here's
some general information about what we found.
And then essentially our feedback on where things
are at and whether or not they fix those things.
So they can give that to a customer and basically
say like, hey, this has been looked at by a third
party. And that hopefully makes their customers
happy to sign up. Yeah. One of the other things
that I know you do, because it's something we
partner on, is training, right? So a big part
of cybersecurity is as most folks might know
is just everyday people understanding what the
risks are and how to avoid them and things like
that. We at your local IT department, we've got
a number of IT clients who have those requirements
from various agencies and insurance providers
and things like that. And it's something that
we just believe in. So we started out, you know,
there's a number of different ways you can provide
this or check the box, so to speak, for a lot
of these companies. But it's kind of worthless,
right? A lot of it is cartoon videos that aren't
all that engaging that people sort of half listen
to. And again, it checks that box. But did they
even listen to anything? No. So we started thinking,
well, let's do some real sessions with real people.
And then also, let's just bring in some real
experts. So we've partnered with Maltech. And
they're able to deliver a live, in -person cybersecurity
training. on a variety of topics that people
actually pay attention to and appreciate, which
is the best part. I can't tell you how many of
those things are like, I gotta go on these trainings.
It's like a safety training if you work in construction
and things like that. This, they come out feeling
like they genuinely learned something. And the
best part is these tips and things like that
that you're providing folks aren't only of value
at work. You're telling about dangers and things
like that that everybody's facing in their everyday
life, protecting your finances and your... your
personal email accounts and things like that.
So first of all, I want to say thank you for
doing that. And just really tip my hat, because
our clients have been just overwhelmingly excited
and pleased with these things, which is never
something you hear about at training. Yeah, that's
the tough part, though, is it's hard to make
those things really engaging unless you have
that live element of it, and you're able to have
that back and forth. Capture some of those questions,
because not everybody's technical. The hard part
with that is the scaling side of it, right? Yeah,
that's why you see a lot of those cartoons or
those pre -recorded videos and things because
in order to hit a Thousand companies sure it's
very difficult But when you're working with like
local companies smaller organizations smaller
footprint like that like I think it's you end
up with a better result and I just want to give
a shout -out to Alan on our team for Handling
that because you've been just great at putting
that material together pulling in some real real
world resources and just presenting all that
to the folks at the organizations that you've
provided. I'm glad you said that because October
is Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Oh! Yeah. See?
I'm doing it. I'm making people aware of the
awareness. So, Mike, how can we, as non -maltech
solution employees... How do we get in on the
aware, like what do you do for cybersecurity
awareness month? What do we do? What do we, how
do we do it? How do we bring awareness? That's
like our thing, right? We got to have our own
month to let everybody know what we do. Yeah,
damn right. So yes, October cybersecurity awareness
month. So typically what you'll see is a lot
of organizations similar to Meltek just offering
up just advice and tips and just similar to like
we put on for Matt's customers there. Sure. Just
things that everyday people can. Keep top of
mind in order to protect themselves And as part
of that and in conjunction with you know us moving
into that new space downtown What we're doing
is we're working with Center state CEO and the
inspire folks to put on like a cyber security
awareness panel At their new facility well to
promote the facility and all the sweet like layout
and the whole place that they have there And
then also to just let anybody that's local Any
of those business owners, any of those folks
that really want to learn more, they can talk
to folks like myself and Brandon who we had on
last month on my podcast and then Paul the month
before. Like the three of us and a few others
are all going to be out there to just talk about
what we do, how companies can learn from that
and just really make it a more of an educational
experience. Not, you know, we're not pitching
what we're doing. It's just here's some things
that you can do to protect yourself, whether
it's in business, whether it's, you know, in
your personal life. And hopefully it just helps
folks out. And if they need more help, then obviously
they'll know where to go. But I love it. Yeah.
What's a basic thing that everybody who like
I have a laptop here. What's a basic thing that
everybody should have for basic protection? You
know, firewall. Is it Norton? Is it, you know,
we get inundated with these emails. And it gets
overwhelming, because you don't know if you're
fully protected. It's making me cringe. Exactly.
No, but that's why I'm asking. Help him out,
Mike. What's the everyday thing that everybody
should have? Honestly, if you're working on Windows,
Defender is going to be generally sufficient
enough for most people's use. The built -in Windows
Defender is going to be enough protection for
most folks. If you need to go above and beyond,
then there's some of those third -party things
like Norton or whatever. But they're really not
as Needed anymore because Microsoft's been staying
on top of that and I see that nodding his head
a little bit So, you know if you need to go further
than defenders where it's at then you can look
into you know, the additional Technologies to
like, you know watch for anomalies and all that
stuff But for folks at home, they're not gonna
see that and so defender that's that's built
into these You don't have to do anything don't
have to do anything and even at the corporate
level I'm gonna cancel my Norton subscription
Defender, and typically sometimes we'll beef
it up a little bit. So there's some additional
packages in the corporate level that give you
even more protections to Defender. So again,
we're still, that's still the basis. And then
we also provide some third party kind of endpoint
protection. But that's a tool that honestly monitors
Defender and still that becomes the best. And
I don't know why this didn't happen long, long
time ago, but. Microsoft finally figured out
that we need this and they baked it in. And for
that reason, I feel like is why it performs better
than every other. For years, we had to have these
anti viruses and these third party tools, and
they always caused more problems, it seems, than
they caught. Yeah, maybe once every two years,
they caught a virus and every other time they
bogged down your machine or they sure, you know,
or they just harassed you to renew it all day
long, you know, even if you did really, they
were a nightmare. And now we have a nice solution
out of the box. They probably were fielding so
much customer service bullshit over issues that
they're like, why don't we just bake this in
and get rid of the problem? Yeah, 100%. I mean,
that isn't too far from the truth for some of
those things. Like number one, going back to
the third party things, you have to give those
other technologies so much. permission into your
system in order for it to do its job, right?
It needs to be able to look at literally everything
that the computer is doing, which is a lot of
potential risk there if there's any sort of compromise
to that system or if there's anything that you
can find there. So Microsoft also has done a
good job at doing that. But it's also just like
from folks in the security industry that have
been hammering on like, hey, get your shit together.
Like you're doing this and it's not a secure
way to do it. And then they're just going to,
you know, here's the way that they can be abused.
And then eventually Microsoft will start implementing
these changes. And I don't remember exactly when
it was, but over the course of time, they finally
decided, like, they're going to be a little bit
more proactive on that and start building some
of this stuff in. And that really helped protect
people a lot better than, you know, just having
to go and find all this stuff separately. That's
awesome. So, Mike, I got to ask you, this is
going to get a little bit into the weeds for
some of our viewers, and I apologize for that.
But. For those that don't necessarily completely
understand, Mike and I, our roles in the technology
world are quite a bit different, right? I'm an
IT, I'm almost like your general physician where
Mike is like your brain surgeon, right? And not
me, Mike Lisi we're talking about. He is a very
much - I'm the guy in the waiting room of the
brain surgeon. I want to ask you your perspective
on CrowdStrike at this point. For those that
don't know, they are a very popular kind of third
party security provider, these tools. It's not
exactly safe to say that they're quite like Norton,
but for people to grasp their mind, corporate
level security tool, they're responsible for
the biggest technology outage in the history
of mankind. Was this that thing not long ago?
Their update broke everything to the point where,
yep, most devices had to be manually repaired.
guys in airports were climbing ladders to reset
computers. The airports, that's right. All kinds
of crazy things. I am of the opinion that that
was a deal breaker and I wouldn't ever put CrowdStrike
on a client's computer ever at this point. There's
other folks that believe, oh, you know, it's
just one mistake and they're still the best and
strongest provider and all these other things.
Do you think I'm crazy for being over it after
that one biggest mistake in the history of computing?
I don't think that you're entirely wrong, although
I think that CrowdStrike provides a really valuable
service to a lot of organizations. So whether
it's CrowdStrike or whether it's another company
that's doing it, you might run into the same
types of problems. So I think what companies
have to do is evaluate even that part into their
risk evaluation. They need to take into account,
hey, if we're going to rely on this other third
party, what do we do when shit hits the fan for
them. And they're down, or they take us down.
How are we going to deal with it? Because that's
never happened to that extent that we saw with
that incident. So I think it opened up some eyes
with it. But at the same time, I don't think
you're getting around it. You're going to have
to have something that, again, has that level
of access into the systems. And should it get
compromised, or should there be a failed update
or something like that? You're gonna have to
have a something in place that says like, how
do we how do we deal with this? I'm I'm totally
with you I'm just to me that was sort of the
deal breaker with that particular company, you
know and and not to You know Again, this is just
my opinion. I know a lot of folks that like I
said, they know they still love it I just the
way I look at it is There's never been a breach
in history that's caused this sort of damage.
So when our yeah, the only when our protection
You know is causing more damage than any bad
guy has to date Maybe I'm gonna somebody I'll
give you a consumer perspective because I have
no idea, you know about what you guys do, right?
Look, here's here's a simple way to put it I
remember in the 80s and 90s There was a rumor
that there was an employee that had got caught
peeing on all the chicken at the Purdue chicken
factory To this day, I won't eat Purdue chicken.
Wow, okay. So now apply it to CrowdStrike. I
mean, if I was in that world... They did pee
on everybody's computer. They basically peed
on everybody's computer. Yeah. So, I mean, that's
kind of a... I mean, from the guy who doesn't
know what you guys do with the ins and outs,
that's a PR nightmare because it's like Taco
Bell running out of ground beef. Like, that's
their one job, right? CrowdStrike is to protect
you. You had one job. You had one job. And they
not only failed, but it was at a monumental level
that you didn't even know was possible. I mean,
you know, there is also that if you look at the
eternal optimist, they'll never do that again.
True. I mean, at least we'd like to think that
they've put some protections in. So that sort
of catastrophe would never be possible. But again,
there sort of was supposed to be already. All
of their competitors have learned a lesson from
that, too. Like, hey, are we potentially susceptible
to the same type of issue? Hopefully, that makes
everybody a little bit safer in a little bit.
How does it even happen? It was a bad update.
Yeah. Bad update that automatically rolled out
to every system. And it compromises the machine
in such a way that it couldn't auto repair it.
So you had to manually go in and basically delete
the... It broke it good. But there was no hackers?
No, no. Oh, OK. It was not like an actual malicious
compromise. It was just enough. It's almost worse.
The software that's supposed to keep you safe
broke. I mean, in a way, it's kind of worse,
right? Because you're like, we did it. That's
the way I look at it. Again, this is why I wanted
to ask. I genuinely appreciate Mike's much more
reasoned professional security expert take on
this. Because it is a little more rational than
mine. Mine is a little bit more emotional. But
you know. But we love whoever asks. You'd be
the one dealing with all that for all of your
customers. You're going in and having to fix
all that stuff. It's hard not to be emotional.
Well, and also with something like that, a knock
on wood that no product we've used has ever caused
something like that. But the way our model works,
we don't charge by the hour or anything like
that. We're flat rate. People play a flat per
month. So we keep things in good order. So if
we had to do that and we had to touch every computer
of every client manually, I mean, this happened
a year ago, we'd still be doing it. I'm just
thinking to the PR team, like, well, how do you...
What's your first step in recovering from that?
I mean, that's bad. Well, first of all, they
all got raises. Yeah. Says the computer. All
right, guys. Mike, what else is happening in
the cybersecurity world that we should talk about?
Or, even better yet, what is coming up on the
Hack Dissection podcast that we should know about?
Well, yeah, we're going to be recording right
after this. We got Graham back in the office.
He's been out for a few months. Love Graham.
Basically staying busy, so wanted to make sure
we get him back in. He's already wired up in
our lobby out there. He is. He was wired up in
the parking lot when I pulled him. He's got his
crazy glasses. It's got the monitor display and
everything on there. He's doing some work, actually,
while we're doing this, trying to break in. Mike's
keeping him productive over here. Yeah, we're
going to peel back the curtains a little bit
and talk a little bit about what we do, some
of the attack paths that we do. when we're doing
these engagements for customers. And also how
we've flipped the script on some of those and
built some new services out for corporations
and companies that are looking to have that ongoing
insight as to what's affecting them. So one of
the things that we do a lot for every engagement
is scan the dark web for credentials. Anybody
that's dumping this stuff on the web, we have
access to all of these different Breach repositories
and all this breach data and all this stuff and
every time that we do an engagement with a customer
We're gonna go and scan that to see like hey
Do we have any credentials that we can use to
attack this company with nice? But that's only
a point in time right when we're doing that assessment
so one of the new things that we launched is
the ability to Keep an eye on this stuff all
the time and then proactively let customers know
like hey, there is a new breach here's the data
that was in there, it affects you, so here's
what you should do about it before something
might happen. That's great. We're gonna talk
about the offensive and defensive sides of those
paths. Before we go, I noticed, so you guys,
you're moving into the Inspire building place?
Pub, I think it's called, yeah. Which is great,
we talked about that, congrats. But you are hosting
a panel there, and then I wanted you to talk
about what you're doing for local businesses,
I think it's great. Yeah, so like I mentioned
a little bit earlier, we're going to get that
panel together for anybody basically in the community
that wants to learn a little bit about that stuff.
What's the date on that, buddy? To be determined.
We had one date in mind. It ended up having a
conflict, so we're working to finalize that.
It's going to be later in October, so we have
some time to promote it. And let everybody know
what I've yet to be to the new place yet what
I understand they have a big kind of theater
Meeting gathering space, and I remember the old
one at the Tech Garden was phenomenal What's
that room like what what's the new space? Oh,
it's it's beautiful. Yeah, they did such a phenomenal
job It's got just a huge open kind of theater
space, okay? two large projection projection
screens in there Right now, when I saw it last,
there's a bunch of desks and stuff, so you can
have seating there for training or things like
that. Cool. But I think the capacity is maybe
like 200, something like that for it. Oh, wow.
Nice. I think it's a little bit bigger than the
old one was. Yeah, and like I said, it's just
beautiful in there. That's awesome. Yeah, it's
going to be great. And then I'm hoping to...
do some regular community things in that space
to just talk about what we do, what businesses
can do, essentially what we do on the podcast
a little bit, just have some in -person meetings
and things for organizations. That's great. We
got a lot of mutual friends that are gonna be
your neighbors in the office space there, right?
I know, yeah, so many. I was there for the grand
opening back on the 19th and just running into
friends left and right and they're all like,
yeah, we got an office here too. So it's gonna
be... Just fun to run into them. That's great.
Just an irregular basis. I I started a business
well over a decade now in in the previous Tech
Garden and it's a really neat space and it's
really cool to see what they've done with it
and expanded it and I'm excited for you, man.
Well, thank you. I'm really looking forward to
having some actual office. Yes, you can meet
clients and it's not like let's go to coffee
shop, library, or something. It's like, hey,
come to my office. How many employees do you
have right now? How big is the company? Total
is seven employees, a mixture of full -time,
part -time, and then just some as -needed folks
that do it secondarily. But yeah, it's growing.
I might be needing to add to that team now just
based on where everything's at right now. We're
rooting for you, man. We love you. That's the
thing. The home office is convenient. but after
a while, like you said, it's nice to sort of
have a place to go and then leave. You know what
I mean? And if you want to just be done working
for the day, you can go, okay, I left the office
for the day and now I'm just home. It's not all
it's cracked up to be. That working from home
thing, we all love it, but there's a limit. You're
home a lot, and it sounds great, but it's nice
to just get out, go somewhere else. Fresh air
and other humans are nice once in a while. Yep.
Every now and then. The cybersecurity guy. Mike's
supposed to be hiding in his hoodie in the corner
somewhere. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's usually where
it is. I'm in the basement. But the thing I'm
not looking forward to is I've curated the background
in my office basement for all the Zoom calls
and everything. And now I've got to figure something
else out. See, that was my whole thing. It was
a place for more of my decor that I could get
out of the house and put it here. Yeah, yeah,
yeah. Oh, man. Anyway, our good friend, Mike
Lisi, Maltech Solutions is the name of the company.
Mike, what's the websites or the socials and
all that fun stuff? Maltechsolutions .com. Our
new product, like I said, Breach Monitor, that's
breachmonitor .app. Nice. You can find us on
LinkedIn. We're on X, not super active on that
one. Mostly on TikTok and stuff. We're doing
a lot of those shorts and everything, thanks
to Mike. Danny and you guys awesome taking care.
Yeah, absolutely In fact, I think Danny mentioned
we're gonna drop our latest episode today. Yes.
Nice Yeah, make sure you check out hack dissection
Mike's Amazing podcast. Absolutely. No shade
to anybody else. I just did it again. I'm a tech
guy. So take that with a grain It's the most
interesting. It's just so in juice currently
it really is because it's something that we all
have either encountered or are going to encounter
or we have a fear of encountering it because
the technologies a part of everyday life. I just
like listening or peeking in on the recording
session and hearing these guys go on about some
topic and seeing Mike's eyes behind the board
just be cross -eyed. Because I'm blown away.
Is this English? Are these words these men are
speaking? When Graham pulls out these fucking
gadgets, man, that are just, like, unlocking
doors with remotes and, like, walking by people
and they have these machines where you can scan
someone's bank card in their pocket. I mean,
it's just... Did you watch MacGyver when you
were a kid, Mike? I did. He was my idol, my literal
idol. I like MacGruber better. And all I could
ever think of is, you know, there was a couple
episodes. I remember one episode in particular,
this facility had the most high -tech, crazy
security system ever, and they wanted MacGyver
to be the guy who tested it to see if he could
break out, actually. With a paperclip and a piece
of bubble gum. Well, that was the thing. So he
shows up, but he doesn't have any tools. And
they're like, well, your guy doesn't have any
tools? Nope, that's why he's the best. And of
course he does get out of it. He always gets
out. These guys do that shit for a living. I
don't know, man. It's amazing. It's awesome.
What other job can you try something out and
not get in trouble? You know what I mean? He
gets to break in without any repercussions. Imagine
being a fire department being like, go set that
place on fire. We got to go, but I just want
to throw this last thing at you, Mike. Is it
true or false that back in the day, the way a
lot of folks got jobs, were sort of doing these
things, I want to say rogue. So they would go
and find a vulnerability just on their own, go
to the company and say, hey, I found this. Would
you like me to help you fix it? And in many cases,
the companies would be receptive, where today
they're angry and now they see that as nefarious.
You still have both sides of that. You have some
companies that just do not want to hear about
it. Even in instances where I've brought it up,
and I've been testing stuff for a customer, it's
like, oh, they're using this third party thing,
and it's got shitty security. And I go to them,
and they're like, oh, that's like an upgrade
to have the security stuff in there. It's just
not there. They're completely pushing back against
it and just not even interested. And then I've
had the other ones that are just like, oh, thank
you so much. Really appreciate it. We're going
to get these fixed. We'll let you know. Are people
as individuals still breaking me? breaking in
to the field by doing some of this sort of, I
don't know if you call it white hat, sort of
white hat type of stuff? Yes. The way that they
can do it now is through things called bug bounties,
where companies will basically say, hey, we're
going to not prosecute you if you... stay within
the scope that we've defined, and you let us
know everything that you come across. And in
fact, we'll pay you, too. So you can build up
essentially a resume of those types of findings
and then potentially get a job from that just
by being able to go through that way. I wouldn't
recommend just having that, just going after
it. Going after a random company. Yeah. And just
being like, hey, we found some stuff. Do you
want it? That's a good way to find yourself on
the other side of a lawsuit. So go the legal
route. Do bug bounties if you want to try this
stuff out. That's the advice of the day. I shouldn't
just break in someone's house and sit on their
couch and when they come downstairs be like,
your front door, not good. It's unlocked. But
go Bills. But go Bills. Yeah, wouldn't work.
I'm Matt. He's Mike. He's also Mike. Thank you
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