Guys, welcome back to Good News York. We are
live and in person at the Syracuse Winter Fair.
Mike's fixing his teeth. I just ate. Delicious.
Yeah, what'd you have? I remember I had it last
year. Oh god, I'm going to screw it up. Is it
Jiwoo's? I had a Korean ramen bowl. Nice. Unbelievable.
That's what I had last year when I was here.
So good. So good. I've had so far three quarters
of a beef on wick. Why only three quarters? Because
we had the interview with Mike. Fair. I think
that's my spot right after we're done. To be
fair, I was trying real hard not to eat it in
one, you know. Mike, you're more important to
us than beef on whack. I hope that means a lot.
I like knowing where I rank. Yeah, yeah. Well,
you rank way above beef on whack. For those following
along, I'm Matt Major, that's Mike Rindisi, and
this is one of our returning champions, Mike
Lisi. Who was also one of our first guests last
year, correct? It's been a year. It is. And it's
very different now being behind the mic now versus
a year ago where I was just like, you know, losing
my mind and my head. You know what, Mark O'Donnell,
who was here earlier, we were talking about the
same thing and Mike was commenting on just the
progression now of all of our creators, really.
You've got that under your belt. Even, you know,
folks like yourself who really just took to it
like nothing from the beginning. But still, you
just get that progression. You figure things
out and it becomes easier and less stressful.
I think it's the biggest thing, right? You don't
overthink it as much. Exactly. You just kind
of go with it and just let it go. Just see what
happens. What's the worst that's going to happen,
right? You're going to piss your ass off for
a few minutes and everybody's going to forget
it when they scroll to the next video. Exactly.
100%. That's the right mindset, man. I appreciate
that you got that. For those who don't know,
Mike is the host of the Hack Dissection podcast
that we make here at Clickstream Studios. One
of our most, I want to say, kind of our breakout
success. And I think a lot of it just lends itself
because, you know, the cyber security topics
that you talk about, the pen testing, things
like that, are really just home base for the
internet. So I think the second we put that out
there, people have jumped on it. But people from
all over, people in your networks all over the
world have seen your content. Yeah, yeah, it
was really weird the first time that I had somebody
just Send me a message on X or on discord or
wherever be like hey, you're you're showing up
on my feet Just out of nowhere like what the
heck's going on and that was a weird feeling
because I had never really done a lot of content
recording anything like that and Yeah, now it's
been great to reach out to more folks and they
love sharing those stories Well, it's one of
those things also that I think speaks to the
fact that not only you but your guests your team
members that you bring on You guys really know
your stuff. Yeah, and this isn't this isn't one
of those, you know fluff shows you guys really
get into the weeds of your profession and The
profession seems to really respect it. You actually
got ranked in a industry publication, right?
Yeah, we got ranked in the top cyber security
podcast So we're number five out of the top ten,
which is great It's awesome and a really close
friend of mine had the number one and number
three spots. So Wow I'm bringing them on one
of the upcoming episodes maybe to help us 100%.
Edge up a little bit more. That's great. Mike,
for those who don't know, can you just talk a
little bit about your business and the topics
that are also in the podcast? Yeah, we specialize
in cybersecurity. So our whole mission is to
help organizations identify their risks, physical,
digital, whatever it may be, and just try and
help them. become a little bit more secure because
it affects everybody no matter what you're doing
these days the cyber security realm is impacting
you professionally personally just across the
board so there's there's a lot of opportunity
to help people and that's what we like there
is and it's it's so interesting and that's one
of the things I think is why your podcast is
so interesting is because you and your guys get
on there and tell us some of the real real life
in the trenches stories of and vulnerabilities
that you've discovered that companies were kind
of living with, and all kinds of things like
that. What's interesting to me is always, for
those who don't know, I've got a background in
IT. We kind of act as that general practitioner,
right? When you think about it in the medical
model, we're the first people you see. We know
the guidelines. We know how to keep people safe
from basic things and make sure you're doing
basic things. But it gets so much more in depth.
And I always look at it like you guys are the
heart surgeons. It's time to refer somebody who
specializes in this. That's what Mike and his
team do. Talk a little bit about that penetration
testing piece, because I think that's something
that people don't necessarily understand in cybersecurity.
And also, I think it's kind of one of the most
interesting parts. Yeah, and think of it like
this. When you're looking to secure something,
say your house, one of the things that you might
do is just figure out hey what's what's the best
practices that I should take into consideration
so maybe it's like a door locks or door alarms
or whatever and that's where most organizations
start they they implement these things and they
say hey like we're we're doing good but then
the next step is how do we know those alarms
never go off those locks are never tested are
they actually working for you so one of the things
that we do is once those organizations have those
foundational elements in place We'll come in
and basically say like, hey, we're going to try
and break in. We're going to see what trips,
what works, what doesn't work. And if we notice
anything, we're going to identify that, help
point that out, and give you some ideas on what
you can do to recommend improving that and closing
off those gaps. That's incredible. So we get
to be the bad guys without going to jail. Yeah.
To me, that's the most fun part. Oh, that's great.
Especially when you talk about, so we did an
episode or two of your show where we talked about
physical. because a lot of we talk about cyber
security we're thinking programs and the internet
things of that nature but you get into testing
the security system of the building even right?
Sure yeah because it all kind of overlaps in
different ways so the physical space is just
as important as the digital space if you are
expecting people to stay out or to have processes
or procedures or whatever to make sure that only
the people that should be there are there That's
another area where you could get some evaluation
done and it overlaps with our realm because you
have those things like physical locks, digital
locks, just the spaces themselves, cameras, readers,
all that stuff and we can actually help evaluate
those things and come up with some ideas that
you might not have thought of. That's so much
fun. I always think back, and this might be dating
myself, but the old original MacGyver show. Hell
yeah! There was more than one episode where that
was kind of MacGyver's task, was to test this
very high -tech system. You got a paperclip and
a pen, get out of here! I always thought that
was the coolest part. You guys get to do that
stuff for a living. I will say, you know... Danny
Tripodi, one of the members of our team who's
running the board right now, we produce the podcast
at Clickstream Studios, including yours. And
I am genuine when I say I have to catch myself
sometimes. Because I'm supposed to be switching
cameras, where I am so into what you guys, and
I have no idea what you're talking, it sounds
like a foreign language sometimes, but it's so
interesting that I'm like, oh right, I gotta
work. I think that's what I love about... what
you do and about the podcast is that it's such
a niche thing and such a thing that is interesting
to people that aren't in that world that I think
that's why you're getting picked up by these
third -party websites that are ranking them and
then other other people that live in that world
because it's such a unique niche and I'm just
so impressed by it and I think that's why you
know we've had so many interesting clips because
you want to hear about this stuff it's it's really
really interesting yeah well think about it like
Like, true crime stuff. Like, that's really engaging
because you're getting kind of this look into
a realm that you're probably not going to really
encounter or you don't want to encounter. And
then you're getting to get some of those stories
from somebody that's doing that. So again, we're
emulating the criminals. We're getting to learn
how they act and replicate some of those things.
And there's some curiosity behind that, regardless
of what you're doing. And I think that's really
what's led to that success. We always talk about
heroes, you know. military vets, or people in
the military, police officers, firemen, paramedics.
Honestly, if you really think about it, you guys
are kind of unsung heroes. You're protecting
us on the internet. The internet is, I mean,
it's the world now. So, I mean, you guys are
really doing things that are so important to
society, and I appreciate it. I mean, it's a
huge field. I'm lucky to be part of it, and just
happy that it's not going anywhere. It's certainly
not. Mike, along those lines, you know, what's
very interesting is, as we both know, cybersecurity
starts at like the lowest level, right? The everyday
person, the everyday user at a company, or even
people at home, what are a couple of the most
misunderstood or the best bits of advice that
you could offer just an everyday person, whether
they're thinking about what they're doing at
work or at home? Well, it's always important
for anybody in the organization to just understand
some of those foundational elements, you know,
just knowing what the expectations are of the
organization. But really my philosophy on that
is that they should be aware of it, but they
shouldn't be responsible for that necessarily.
Like there's other people in the organization
that are really in charge of enforcing that security
and making sure that it's working. So like putting
all that pressure onto like HR or the finance
people is really... because they're trying to
get through their day they're trying to just
get their jobs done and if they miss click on
something like that shouldn't be that should
be allowed and then the safeguard should be in
place to take action when that happens because
you can't expect everybody to be 100 % diligent
all the time so that's what we try and help with
it's just like hey you know don't yell it at
the HR person that doesn't understand cell phones
or anything like that because They're gonna mess
up. It's just human nature. I mess up. Everybody
does. So the action is, okay, let's assume that
they're gonna mess up. What's the fallout that's
gonna come from that? And what can you do to
prevent that or at least mitigate it as much
as possible? And how can we help? added another
layer of danger now in your field. Is it something
that you guys were always prepared for? You knew
it was kind of coming. I mean, it's been around
longer than people think. Or is it now you guys
are trying to train and keep up with that? Because
now all these new scams are happening using AI.
It's both, right? So on the attacker's side,
on the actual criminal side, what we're seeing
is fully or almost fully AI -driven ransomware
campaigns and compromises and just things that
are running autonomously with very minimal human
interaction. So that's problematic because now
you have less resources that are needed from
a threat actor's perspective to compromise an
organization. Now at the same time, we're using
it on our benefit too, right? So I just had an
engagement this past week where I was able to
identify and compromise a web application in
less than an hour and fully take it over with
the assistance of AI. So As much as it's helping
the criminals, it's helping us too. And it's
just going to be that constant game of who's
taking better advantage of it. Well said. Mike,
what are you seeing most commonly? You know,
people for years you worry about, I'm going to
get hacked and people are going to break in and
things like that. What is the intention of these
folks when they come after these American companies
in reality these days? It really depends on the
organization itself. so in some cases they're
just going after essentially the systems on the
network themselves just locking them up completely
and basically holding them hostage and saying
like hey we locked all this down if you want
it back you got to pay us and there's two options
that you can take from that point you can pay
them and hopefully they're legitimate and they're
going to unlock all your stuff or you have plans
and procedures in place that are like hey we've
prepared for this like screw off we're just going
to restore all of our things we're back up and
running and then we'll look into this and see
how we can take further steps to prevent that
in the future but for like the general public
you're looking at typical invoice scams right
they want your money in some form whether that's
gift cards whether that's like crypto of some
sort just whatever the case may be they'll take
the money however they can get it so you'll see
a lot of fake invoices, a lot of, hey, we're
gonna make this, you know, you made this purchase
from Apple, if you didn't do this, call us at
this number. And it's never a number that's actually
Apple or actually PayPal. So those are the things
to really work out for and think about it a little
bit more closely before diving in. That's incredible.
I had a buddy, he's a mechanic. He was a professional
motocross driver, for lack of a better term.
He used to tell me stories where he would go
and get his car worked on, and they'd try to
scam him, and he'd be like, guys, nice try. You're
the wrong guy. Has that ever happened to you
where someone tried to hack you or take advantage
of you in the digital world, and you're like,
buddy? And you got any cool stories like that?
Oh, let me see which ones I could talk about.
Oh, so there's, which ones? Which ones? I like
having fun with that from time to time. I don't
take it too far. There's actually a... some people
out there that have content, and they just call
up the scammers, and just try to wait as much
time as possible. So I do that from time to time.
I'll just message them back. What I see lately
is people reaching out for job opportunities.
They're like, oh, message me on WhatsApp, and
we'll talk about the app, and I'll do that. We'll
chat, and they'll send me through all these loops,
and I'll just essentially waste their time with
it. So I just have fun with that, but I don't
actually attack back or do any of those things.
Are there red flags you can tell, like Matt said,
the everyday people? I know it's a very broad
question because there's so many different scams,
but like, for example, I know that once they
start asking you, can you go down and buy some
gift cards, that's a red flag. Are there some
more that maybe are off the radar that people
should listen for? Largely, if they're trying
to redirect you from one communication channel
to another, that's a big red flag, right? They're
saying like, hey, here's something through email
now call me or here's something through email
and and text this number like they're trying
to get from from one channel to another and that's
always great something to be aware of if they're
trying to do that because if you're like when
i work with matt right he does a lot of it stuff
for us he's communicating with them it's always
the same thing i hit them up on the ticket they
hit me up on email it's a back and forth in that
same medium they're never like hey Well, text
me on this other platform that nobody can monitor,
and then we'll look into your security issue.
Like, that's not a thing. At least that's not
a legitimate thing that you should be more conscious
of. That's wild. Great answer. Mike Lisi, Hack
Dissection podcast. Really a great one to listen
to. Such a cool thing. Before we let you go and
let you enjoy the fair here, I want to talk about
a little bit because we're growing, we're expanding,
we're opening a new place downtown. And so are
you. Yeah. Tell us a little bit about your new
office space. Yeah. So we're coming up on five
years of being in business. So hitting that,
you know, that big, I don't know, milestone,
I guess, from a business perspective. And through
the networking that we've done, we got an opportunity
to join the folks over at the Inspire Innovation
Hub. Nice. And we opened up an office over there
to... help all the startups there and just kind
of have some presence downtown. So yeah, we're
loving it. It's getting me out of the basement
a little bit here. Even though our teams, you
know, all around the country, it's nice to have,
you know, something a little bit more legitimate
for the business operations. I think that's very
interesting because a lot of people, you know,
go back and forth and especially in your industry.
We talk about long before the pandemic or any
of that. I've always said as technical guys,
programmers, IT, cybersecurity, we were the remote
workers. 20 years ago. That's right. Nobody even
thrashed that concept, right? So that's always
kind of been the way a lot of these professionals
work, especially in your industry. So to see
you kind of go, hey, let me get a commercial
space, a little more traditional thing, I think
is interesting. I see it more as just adding
some legitimacy to the operations, right? If
somebody's looking up. The company, they're like,
oh, where are these guys located? Anything like
that. It's like going to a residential address.
That's kind of weird. So it's more just of, hey,
we have an establishment. We have this place
downtown. We're with all these other organizations.
It also helps a lot in the networking side, right?
I'm not interacting with a lot of business owners
out of my basement day to day. So opportunities
there that I really didn't think about before
I was a business owner, right? No, I think that's
great. And I think that's a great point. I did
the same thing when I started. The IT business,
we could very well operate out of our respective
homes very easily, but for the same reason, for
that legitimacy of we were a real business and
you could come meet me in an office. And that
was huge for our business, honestly. I think
it was well worth the money that I maybe didn't
need this back at the time, but definitely paid
off. Glad to see you do that. And a little programming
note, Good News York will be touring the Inspire
Innovation Hub coming up this week. So pay attention
for those episodes. We'll pop in. We'll give
you the full layout. It's a pretty neat space
from what was formerly the Tech Garden years
ago. Yeah, they did a lot of great work there.
What day are you guys going to be there? I want
to say Tuesday. Tuesday? OK. I can look if you
want. But yeah, we'll hunt you around. I'm just
curious so I can try and be there and say hi
when you guys are out. Yeah, no, that would be
great. It is Tuesday, yeah. All right, perfect.
So, Mike, before we let you go, give us the plugs,
the website, stuff like that where people can
find you. Yeah, so a couple things that we have
going on. Obviously, the podcast, if you're interested
in some of those stories, some things from the
industry, that's hacked a section. You can find
it across all the platforms. These guys take
care of it for me, so I love that. Meltek Solutions
for all your cybersecurity needs. MeltekSolutions
.com. And then we have some additional services
for like dark web monitoring, that type of thing.
And that's a service called Breach Monitor. That's
at breachmonitor .app. And yeah, you can find
us at any of those things. Awesome. Or downtown.
Mike Lisi, super cybersecurity expert based right
here in town. You don't have to go to Austin
or Silicon Valley to get real technical professionals,
which I think is something that's pretty awesome.
And Mike, thanks for joining us. Thanks for everything.
Thank you. We love you. Hey, guys. I appreciate
being back, you know, a year later. It's just
really cool to have that come first full circle
again and do this again. So I'm hoping next year
we'll do back here at the fair. Bigger and better
yet. So let's see what's going on. And with that,
we'll take a break, but we'll be back with more
from the Syracuse Winter Fair in just a moment.