Cybertraps Podcast

All right.

Welcome to the cyber traps podcast.

We are here at the inch three
60 event, uh, in beautiful

Gonzaga and Spokane, Washington.

And, uh, today we have Pia Hollenberg.

Did I say that right?

Yeah.

You said that.

Okay.

Pia Hollenberg.

Um, so what she does is she is a,
um, is a recovering journalist.

She said, tell us a little
bit about what you do now.

I'm a cybersecurity writer.

Uh, and what that means is I basically
take my journalism skills and I apply

them to writing, uh, blog posts and
white papers and contributed articles

for, uh, executives who don't have
time to do it themselves, um, because

they're busy running a business, um, and
also for companies that have software

that, uh, They're struggling to explain
to people what it is that this thing

does, why should you really have it.

So I have, I can sort of translate
all the tech talk into something

that people want to read.

And one of my clients actually said that.

He said, well, you know, the
difference between you and all

the other people is that you write
stuff that people want to read.

Yeah, wow.

And wouldn't it be nice if
everybody looked at their websites

and ran them through that lens?

Because there's a lot of, um Yes,

there is a lot of junk, that is for sure.

That's a good way of putting it, yes.

Uh, so, what brings you
to an event like this?

Um, so, three years ago I started my
own, I started working for myself.

And, I was a journalist
for 20 years before that.

I had another job in between,
um, doing fundraising.

So I was basically always, uh,
surrounded by people and I thrive in it.

in a busy environment, like news rooms
are, well they used to be Um, yeah.

News rooms used to be,
oh, oh no, that's sad.

No, news rooms used to be loud and
kind of boisterous environments and

there's always people around you, you
can bounce ideas off your, uh, the

person next to you, that kind of thing.

And so, after I'd been on my own for about
a year, I started feeling kind of lonely.

and I thought I'm for sure the
only person who does anything

cyber security in Spokane.

There can't be anybody else because
the writing agency, Tree Iron

Company that I, I write for a lot,
they're based in San Francisco.

And so all the cyber
writing was somewhere else.

And I was like feeling lonely
in the Paulson building.

and then I met Heather Stratford and
I kinda got involved a little bit in

the cyber security, community here.

And I realized that there were all these
people and there were all these companies

that I didn't even know were here.

And I thought, okay, I better
start going to those conferences.

So, that's why I'm here.

And I just kind of shake hands
and take notes and, um, I'm

always looking for trends.

like they were just talking about cloud
security and so, uh, that's something

that I will You know, go home and write
up a few things just for myself, do a

little research, what else is going on.

I'm surprised to hear, um, working
from home being brought up again

as a, a, a cyber security issue.

Um, but I guess as long as we work from
home, There's bound to be some cyber

security issues, and so I, I keep, I
try to keep on top of, the trends, so

when I interview somebody for one of the
contributed articles I write, I can ask

the right questions, and I Don't just sit
there and go, Oh, so dude, what do you do?

Yeah.

What is this cyber thing
you're talking about?

Yeah, so when you were in
journalism, were you focused on

cyber security or is this a whole

new thing?

No, it's a whole new thing.

I covered basically a
lot of local journalism.

I was an editor a couple of times.

I covered politics,
elections, crime, anything.

You know, you can think about
that comes into a small newspaper.

The cyber thing happened because a
friend of mine was already getting

into the cyber writing business.

And she called me and she said, there's
this company, they really need a writer.

You need to call them.

You just, you could totally do this.

And I was like, no.

Are you kidding me?

Have you met me?

I mean, I'm not an engineer.

What are you talking about?

And she's like, no, call them.

They really need somebody.

And I was like, okay, pity hiring, right?

Because they, they need somebody.

Fill the seat.

But they hired me right away.

And that was a startup
company called Reciprocity.

Uh, that's who I, that was
my very first cyber client.

And so I wrote for them
for, uh, a couple of years.

bought up, as they all, they all position
themselves to get bought up, you know.

Um, so they got bought up, but then
I connected with, uh, Trier in San

Francisco, and through them I have, uh,
written for Mandiant, I've written for,

a start up, well they're not really
a start up anymore, they're actually

pretty kick ass, they're based in
Israel, they're called Cyber Sixkill,

and they are dark web threat hunters.

And they made the huge mistake of
giving me access to their portals.

No, I mean that in the kindest way.

They sorted out all the stuff I
told them I didn't want to see.

But I can, I can,
because they can do that.

They can just block all the, if you
don't want to see this, it's fine.

And so I learned so
much about the dark web.

And all the stuff that's going on there.

So let me ask you a question about that,
because normal people probably are not

really thinking about the dark web, except
that we know it exists in some, you know,

alternate place, and that's all good.

But tell us a little bit about
what you're seeing happening right

now with that, that we should be

aware of.

Well, I can tell you, um, my favorite, my
favorite statistic, or my favorite quote,

and this always blows people's mind.

The dark web is the third largest
economy in the world after the United

States and China Wow, so Just let that
sink in it's not a place for basement

dwelling nerds, you know what they sell
T shirts to each other or whatever.

It is a professional It's a separate
business environment, and the, uh,

companies that operate there, for instance
the ransomware companies, , They are

set up just like a legitimate business.

They have customer service, they
have packages you can purchase.

Would you like to target your
former employee, employer

with a ransomware attack?

We can set that up for you, sir.

It's 1, 000 in Bitcoin and in you go.

And I think, um, one of the things that
people don't understand, unless you are in

this business, is that we're way beyond.

The basement coder in a hoodie.

It's not about that anymore.

So, and then it's interesting to me
that, uh, whatever political conflicts,

a war we have in the rest of the
world is reflected on the dark web.

So, okay.

I'm biting.

Tell me a little bit more about that.

What do you mean?

Well, like the current crisis, for
instance, in Ukraine, um, hackers,

bloggers, the people who make a living
on the dark web, they take sides.

And then they start, they
launch their own attacks.

So, that's, without, that's, I
can probably say that without

getting into too much trouble,

right?

Yeah, it's interesting, we had a, a
previous guest on the podcast who worked

for the Navy as an intelligence officer,
and, and shared hints of that similar

kind of stuff, that, um, you know, that,
that's a very real aspect of war, that

we don't talk about in the news, and we
don't hear much about as normal folks,

uh, but That, that is really happening,

so.

It is really happening, If you look at
the typical threats to, let's say, any

internet user in the United States, they
come from China, they come from Russia.

The most of them come
from China and Russia.

Anyway, that was really interesting to me.

Yeah, fascinating.

I can easily go down a rabbit
hole, but I think this is good.

I

think we'll need to have
you on the show again.

I would love that.

And talk more about this.

I would love that.

So, Pia, how do people get in touch with
you and learn more about the work you do?

Um, the best way to get a
hold of me is via my email

address on my LinkedIn profile.

I have a strange name, Pia Hallenberg,
and my email is just my name.

It's PiaHallenberg at gmail.

com.

I have basically any sort of
social media because my name is

so odd you can easily find me.

Yeah, I hear you.

That's how it is with Jethro as well.

So, at Jethro Jones everywhere.

Yeah, Pia Thank you so much.

This is great getting to know
you and spend some time with you.

So, Thank you