About Me on James Jardine

AI: Could you or should you?

Tue, 07 Jul 2026 06:49:15 +0000

What can you do with AI?

That is the question that so many companies and individuals have been asking over the past year. Companies are directing their employees to find every way possible to use AI. Annual goals and strategies are focused on AI implementations.

Fake Breach Reports: Serious or Silly?

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 13:59:59 +0000

There was an interesting report that recently came out regarding fake data breach reports being submitted to the Main Data Breach Reporting Portal. The fake reports were focused on VRChat and Discord. According to the reports (article linked below), a user was able to submit a breach notification to the portal of a company they are not a part of. It might not seem like a big deal, but the more I think about it, the more I consider different risks and costs for the companies at hand. In addition, there is a potential risk for a sophisticated social engineering attack from this. Let’s talk about it.

Internet Search is Changing – Is it for the better?

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 05:51:02 +0000

Have you noticed how internet search is changing?
As long as I can remember, search worked by feeding it a few keywords or a question and it would return back thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of results. These results were prioritized by custom algorithms that take in multiple factors to prioritize them to direct you to a website for more information.
This is what most of us think of when we refer to “Googling” something. It is akin to the idea of going into a library and asking the librarian where to find a specific section of books. It didn’t lead to any direct answers, just a pointer to shelves full of books that we would then spend time searching through to find the answer we wanted.

Does “Research” Terminology Reduce Adoption Rates?

Fri, 12 Feb 2016 13:16:37 +0000

What is your reaction to this tweet?

Why the @US_FDA & @iamthecavalry are pushing medical device makers to OK security research: https://t.co/s7wv8MuU82 pic.twitter.com/BTMFjSlzTU

— CSMPasscode (@CSMPasscode) February 10, 2016

Security Budget: How Much vs. How it is Used

Tue, 15 Dec 2015 08:12:22 +0000

I recently saw an article on Forbes that identified some of the major banks and how much money they will be spending on cybersecurity . We are talking about companies like Wells Fargo, Citibank, J.P. Morgan Chase. We are talking about budgets starting around $250 Million a year for cybersecurity. That is a big budget.

EMV Chip cards: Overview

Mon, 21 Sep 2015 06:35:54 +0000

When you shop at a store with a credit card it is typically done by swiping your card to conduct the transaction. The swiping action allows the credit card terminal to read your credit card number off of a magnetic strip on the back of the card. The downside to the magnetic strip technology is that it is very easy and cheap for the bad guys to reproduce. A common way for the bad actor to get your credit card number is to use a skimmer, a small device that goes over the normal reading mechanism, to steal the data. Once this is done, they can then create a new card with the same information and then attempt to use it at a store.

Versioning the SDLC to Indicate Security Level

Wed, 09 Sep 2015 20:09:58 +0000

I recently saw a tweet that mentioned how trending SecDevOps is becoming. For those that don’t know, that is the “secure” devops, or shall I say devops with security injected. It really got me thinking about not only devops, but also the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). We keep saying security can’t be bolted on and that it needs to be built in, yet we keep bolting it on.

Hacking Cars: Taken Seriously?

Tue, 21 Jul 2015 19:06:32 +0000

Turn on an ad for new vehicles and you are bound to see how connected they are to our lives. Gone are the days when your vehicle is just a stand alone product. Now we are seeing cars that have internet connectivity. We are moving past the simple satellite radio or GPS systems and becoming connected to a lot of data. Security folks have been talking about vehicle security for a while now and a few researchers have been focusing on showing how serious the security of these vehicles is.

Ashley Madison site breached

Mon, 20 Jul 2015 22:28:32 +0000

If you are keeping up with the news you have probably already heard about the breach of the adult site known as Ashley Madison. Here is a link to one of the articles about it: http://money.cnn.com/2015/07/20/technology/ashley-madison-hack/index.html . Like the breach at Adult Friend Finder (http://money.cnn.com/2015/05/22/technology/adult-friendfinder-hacked/ ) a few months ago, this type of incident is a little different than the usual breach. This breach is less about identity information (although at the root has a lot to do with it), financial information, or even health information. The focus of this type of site/service is on secrecy and discreetness. It is about sharing sensitive information about an individual’s private life.

Adult FriendFinder Hack: ID Theft is NOT the Only Game in Town

Mon, 25 May 2015 18:45:18 +0000

When a breach occurs that shares our personal information we immediately think about identity theft and credit card fraud. More recently we are seeing more health information compromised as well, but the Adult FriendFinder breach changes that focus. The hack still revolves around personal information, but with the exception of the username/password, it does not include social security numbers or credit card numbers. Rather, this breach is focused on a persons sexual preferences or desires.

Hacking Airplanes…Lets Think About This

Mon, 18 May 2015 07:15:03 +0000

Recent news of airplane security and the did or didn’t someone take control of an airplane during a flight is scattered across the web. There are lots of opinions on whether or not the inflight entertainment systems and the airplane control systems are connected or not. I haven’t tested an airline system, so I can’t say for sure, and it may be different depending on the type of plane. One glaring issue here is we don’t know and there are a lot of people that don’t know either, while acting as if they do know. Is airplane security a concern? Of course it is, what security isn’t a concern? What is the right approach to having it tested?

What Happens When All SSNs are Breached

Thu, 19 Mar 2015 18:28:32 +0000

Visit any news site or social media outlet and you are bound to see news of some new company getting breached. It is a lot of what we talk about these days. Whether it is passwords, credit card information, health information or social security numbers, if it is breached it is headline news. With the exception of those trying to scam the system and get a quick payday, it is getting to the point where most people outside of the information security industry just write it off and don’t give it much thought.

Winning and Infosec: The largest CTF Ever?

Sat, 24 Jan 2015 19:51:05 +0000

You have heard it over and over from the “offensive” side of information security:

QA and Security Pt. 2: Software Testers

Wed, 10 Sep 2014 13:57:09 +0000

Lets start by discussing the type of QA that tests software to ensure it is working as designed. These are the bug finders of the QA world. The process starts by a developer creating some functional code and then deploying it to an environment specific to the QA team. The QA team then uses its knowledge of how the application is supposed to function and determines if it is performing properly. Any bugs identified get filed and sent back for remediation (hopefully).

QA and Security Pt. 1: What QA Are You Talking About?

Wed, 10 Sep 2014 10:15:17 +0000

There has been a lot of chatter recently regarding QA and the role it plays in security testing. Hashing this out over Twitter with 140 characters per post just makes things more confusing. While I think that Twitter helps start some of the most important discussions, there is a need for other mediums to expand on the topic. In this series of posts, I want to take the opportunity to bring up some of these topics and hopefully expand on then a little bit. We all have our opinions and we will certainly not all agree on everything, however these are conversations we need to have.

When Breaches Get Personal

Thu, 04 Sep 2014 22:03:06 +0000

Unless you have been living under a rock, you have probably heard about the breach of privacy against some celebrities who had some indecent images stolen. It is easy to get caught up in the hoopla that surrounds this latest intrusion due to the racy images that were stolen, but there is a bigger question around all of this. Lets pull away those top layers and see what the deal is.

Breaches Happen: Call to Action

Sun, 31 Aug 2014 09:49:42 +0000

I loaded up Twitter this morning and was bombarded with even more reports of companies getting breached. Latest on the radar include the likes of JPMorgan Chase and some Dairy Queen locations. I won’t even attempt to guess at the number of breaches that have occurred already this year, but at what point to companies sit down and decide to look at their own network and systems?

1.2 Billion Passwords… Password Best Practices Again

Wed, 06 Aug 2014 13:28:01 +0000

There is a lot of talk about the recent discovery of what appears to be about 1.2 billion username and passwords stolen. I haven’t seen the list, so I can’t confirm that, but let’s assume it is accurate. Is this something we should be panicking about?

Danger of USB Devices

Fri, 01 Aug 2014 16:45:14 +0000

There has been lots of news recently regarding a flaw in USB devices that could lead to an unwanted attack. USB stands for Universal Serial Bus and is often associated with thumb drives used to store data. There are many other uses for USB devices, such as your mouse and keyboard. There are even monitors that connect via USB.

Ebay Password Breach

Wed, 21 May 2014 22:35:30 +0000

Ebay announced today that the had usernames, encrypted passwords, phone numbers, email address, physical address and date of birth stolen during a recent breach. The key here is encrypted passwords, which hopefully means strong security. That is just an assumption though. It is not uncommon by any stretch to see a large company suffering from a breach that includes user credentials. We often overlook the idea that credentials are actually very valuable. We spend so much time focusing on social security numbers, credit card numbers, and HIPAA data that we forget about the basics. Those keys that protect the rest of all of that data.

Windows XP: End of Life

Tue, 13 May 2014 19:35:49 +0000

On April 8, 2014 Microsoft ended support for Windows XP after a great 12 year run. When you really think about it, 12 years is a really long time in the technology world for an operating system to survive. Other systems are seen being updated every few years which makes sense due to the ever changing capabilities of technology. There has been a history of the consistent cycle from the Windows operating system of great versions followed by what some would say are flops. When you find something that works for you, you tend to stick with it. I still have computers with Windows XP loaded on them because they just work. However, there are some precautions I must take to try and protect myself. Fortunately, the machine is really just a test machine and not my main computer.

Articles

Thu, 27 Feb 2014 09:31:06 +0000

Eight Ways to Create Stronger Passwords and Protect Your Accounts – IT Business Edge

Target Breach: Monitor Your Financial Transactions

Mon, 23 Dec 2013 15:15:00 +0000

On December 18, 2013 news broke that Target had suffered a security breach and in upwards of 40 million credit cards may have been impacted between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15. This information included the customer name, credit or debit card number, the card’s expiration date and the CVV code. This incident does not affect purchases made online and does not include every purchaser during that time frame. Here is a link to the notice from Target to its customers (https://corporate.target.com/discover/article/Important-Notice-Unauthorized-access-to-payment-ca)

Projects

Wed, 27 Nov 2013 14:29:18 +0000

Podcasts

The following are a list of podcasts that I host or co-host

Presentations and Videos

Wed, 27 Nov 2013 14:24:08 +0000

Webcasts

InfoSecurity Magazine – Achieving Secure Defense in Depth

SANS Pen Test Summit

Mon, 11 Nov 2013 13:44:08 +0000

I was just recently in Washington D.C. where I attended and presented at the SANS Pen Test Summit. For those that have not had the chance to attend these events, they are two days of presentations and panels from well-known security experts. SANS has done a great job of presenting a great environment to bring together many different subjects all within the topic of Information Security.

Resume

Mon, 11 Nov 2013 13:34:51 +0000

To download this file as PDF, click here

James Jardine

Jacksonville, FL
Phone: 904-638-5431 E-Mail: james@jardinesoftware.com
http://www.jardinesoftware.com
https://www.developsec.com

Portfolio

Tue, 05 Nov 2013 15:30:26 +0000

Articles

Presentations and Videos

Projects