2009 July « Dave Stelzl's Blog

Archive for July, 2009

Jul

Who are you dating? – new tactics in social engineering

Categories: Sound Bites

Just in from Tom, a friend and colleague from a recent Making Money with Security class…try this in your next pen test.

“One of the “old school” tactics that the organized crime figures use, says [Avivah Litan, an analyst at the Gartner Group], is going to the local watering holes and seducing young girls and finding out where they work. The mob’s tactic of dating new employees who work at companies that have access to customer data leads to Litan’s warning, ‘He’s not after your heart; he’s after your data.’ ”

“If the mafia considers that selling sensitive information is a legitimate line of business, then clearly the days of just amateurs committing breaches are well behind us,” Holland observes.

Read the article on cybercrime and organized crime, some of the unexpected tactics used in a recent data heist.

http://information-security-resources.com/2009/07/19/hes-not-after-your-heart-just-your-data/

Jul

Stuck at the influencer level?

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Categories: Opportunities
Tags: podcast, sales, technical, training

Getting stuck at the influencer level is common – that is where most sales are made. So how do you attract the attention of the decision maker? We’re in the midst of working through several very important concepts in my weekly podcast. In fact, there’s a new post today dealing exactly with this issue. Check it out at http://dstelzl.podbean.com/2009/07/17/value-propositions-part-ii-it-and-the-decision-making-process/

Jul

How often are your clients being attacked? Read on…

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Categories: Sound Bites
Tags: attack, information, sales, security, Sound Bites, training

More data is under attack than you realize…or at least your prospects realize. This study shows that corporations are under attack every day. But as with many of the breaches reported over the past year, it often takes companies a long time to discover the problem. This comes from SC Magazine, July 16, 2009. Learn the sound bites and use them.

92 percent of respondents said that their company’s data has been attacked in the past six months.
CEOs are often more confident about their organization’s ability to prevent data breaches than are other executives
CEOs are likely more optimistic about their organization’s struggle to protect data because they have passed off those responsibilities to others
Part of the disparity in perception also may arise because employees do not always give CEOs the whole story of what is going on with respect to data loss

Two take-aways from this study are: Most companies really are under attack whether they realize it or not, and senior management is usually the last to know, making it harder to get budget approval. Getting to the asset owners, people with liability, is a critical part of the security sales process. Without their support, IT will continue to say, “We’ve got it covered”. After all, their reputation is at stake.

Jul

Who’s the fool? The seller or the buyer….take a look.

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Categories: Marketing and Value Proposition
Tags: negotiation, price, sales, selling, training

Back from our 4th of July vacation and up in Boston today presenting the keynote at Courions national sales meeting – I came across this video sent from Steven, who attended a recent Making Money with Security Class. It’s worth taking a few notes from this for your next negotiation session…