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Patches Backups- & -Wired Homes on the Fritz

0:0032:19

Recorded March 2022. Regulations, deadlines, requirements and products discussed in this episode reflect that date and may have changed since. For where things stand today, see our current compliance guidance or ask us.

The episode in brief

What this episode covers

In this episode of Encrypted Ambition, Craig, Erin, Blake, and BJ explore what happens when updates, patches, and power go wrong in connected homes and businesses. BJ describes how an iPhone update left his smart home in a pile of rubble, forcing factory resets, unplugging devices from power, and careful reboot ordering to restore his mesh network.

Craig explains why the router should restart first, since it typically supplies DHCP addresses, and suggests disabling the provider's built-in wifi when running mesh equipment to avoid conflicts. Craig also describes nine types of power problems and argues that a true online UPS is needed to clean fluctuating electricity. On patching, Craig argues the right approach depends on the situation, recommending businesses test patches in isolated environments and always back up first, recalling a law firm whose system would not boot after patches were applied without backing up. The panel discusses redundancy, single points of failure, and incident response tabletop exercises. Blake urges treating cybersecurity like fight or flight and contacting security professionals immediately when an incident happens, while Erin stresses building security in from the start.

Worth remembering

Key takeaways

  1. Craig explains that reboot order matters because the router typically supplies DHCP, and other devices cannot get IP addresses until it is back online.
    “typically you're going to restart your router first because your router is most often supplying. What's called DHCP. And dishing out the IP addresses to all the other pieces or endpoints on the network.”
  2. Back up devices before applying patches so a failed update can be reverted quickly rather than forcing hours of troubleshooting.
    “So you always want to back up your device before applying any kind of patch in case the patch blows it up.”
  3. Craig recommends businesses keep a patch policy and test updates on isolated devices before rolling them out across the network.
    “then applied them in a little bit of an experimental or isolated lab type approach. So maybe if you have 50 devices on the network, maybe you test the patch to one of those devices in a controlled environment.”
  4. Craig says power entering homes and businesses fluctuates constantly, so a true online UPS is needed to clean and condition it.
    “the power That's coming into your house or your business. is constantly fluctuating.”
  5. Craig reduces single points of failure with multiple internet connections and devices, urging planning for when equipment stops working.
    “I make sure that I have multiple internet connections. I have multiple devices. I reduce my single points of failure.”
  6. Craig describes incident response tabletop exercises where stakeholders work through a ransomware scenario and actually execute their documented plan.
    “Here's the scenario we just got ransomware. What are we doing? What's the plan. What's the process. Show us your incident response plan, work, the plan, actually do the stuff that your plan is documenting.”
  7. Erin argues that building cybersecurity into core business processes from the start is far easier than retrofitting it after problems appear.
    “It is so much easier. To build it from the ground up. Than it is to retrofit it.”

The summary and takeaways were drafted with AI from the transcript below. Each takeaway is shown with the passage it comes from.

From the show notes

About this episode

In this episode, we discuss why patches sometimes blow stuff up, why backups are absolutely CRUCIAL to running a business, and how BJ's wired home almost turned into a wired nightmare!

Host : Craig Guests : BJ, Erin, and Blake

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Episode transcript

Select any timestamp to play from that moment. This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain errors, including in speaker names. The audio is the record.

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