728: Lower Your Risk of Being Hacked, with Qasim Ijaz

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Apr 7, 2025

Qasim Ijaz, director of cybersecurity at a leading healthcare organization, shares vital insights into the growing threat of cyber attacks. He emphasizes the importance of multi-factor authentication, password managers, and the need to freeze credit reports to protect against identity theft. Ijaz highlights that leaders are key targets for hackers and advocates for preparing through incident response exercises. He also discusses the inevitability of AI use among employees and suggests integrating this reality into prevention strategies.

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INSIGHT

Password Reuse Vulnerability

Many people reuse passwords across websites, increasing vulnerability.
Hackers exploit data breaches from less secure sites to compromise other accounts.

ADVICE

Passphrase Advantage

Passphrases, longer than typical passwords, are exponentially harder to crack.
Their length and unpredictability enhance security compared to shorter, generated passwords.

ADVICE

Credit Freeze

Freeze your credit reports with Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion for free.
This prevents identity theft and fraudulent credit applications.

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Qasim Ijaz

Qasim Ijaz is the director of cybersecurity at a leading healthcare organization, overseeing detection, incident response, vulnerability management, purple teaming, and cybersecurity engineering. With a strong background in offensive security and risk management, he has helped organizations strengthen their defenses against evolving threats. He is also a dedicated educator, mentoring professionals and sharing his expertise at conferences such as BSides and Black Hat.

You don’t need to go far in the news these days to find out that another organization was hacked. Data breeches are a nightmare scenario for both leaders and the people they support. In this episode, Qasim and I explore what your team and you can do to be a bit more prepared.

Key Points

Use multi-factor authentication, passphrases, and a password manager.
Freeze your personal credit reports. Do this for free directly with Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.
Leaders in bigger roles (executives, CEOs, board members) are larger targets for hackers due to their access and also their ability to occasionally side-step organizational guidelines.
It’s the non-technical pieces of a cyber response that organizations are least prepared for.
Conduct incident response and disaster recovery tabletop exercises to uncover vulnerabilities before an attack.
Regardless of organizational policy, employees will use AI. The best prevention assumes the inevitability of human behavior and works with it to improve systems.

Resources Mentioned

Recommended password managers: 1Password, Apple password app, Proton Pass
Critical Security Controls by the Center for Internet Security
Resources for Small and Medium Businesses by the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency
2024 Data Breach Investigations Report by Verizon Business

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