FAQs About Practive Security Services
Through the course of conversations and online engagements I am often asked if I have thought of providing certain knowledge or services, or if a particular scenario is something I can help with. To help keep all Practive Security Customers and Supporters aware of all that we offer, this FAQ article contains a collection of recently asked questions and their answers. From this summary, I also hope you can see how Practive Security provides value in areas you may not be aware of including the following:
Personal help with security and privacy issues
Guided response and recovery plans for security issues
Interviews, research, special protects, collaboration, and expert advice
Education and consulting for Professionals and Business leaders
Custom engagements for groups
Please know that custom services and engagements are supported based on my availability and schedule. I review all requests among all work and support what fits in with the ethos of the business, my personal competency, and my availability.
For quick reference, you can find summaries of what we offer and how to sign up using the links below:
For Individuals and Families: https://www.practivesecurity.com/essentials
For Businesses and Professionals: https://www.practivesecurity.com/pro
For Supporters and to Sign Up: https://www.practivesecurity.com/signup
Personal Help with Security Issues
Over this summer, several individuals reached out to us via referrals from friends asking for help dealing with cyber security issues that they were in the midst of experiencing. I also visited a local computer repair shop in my town and asked them if they offer services to help individuals with security or privacy issues. The operator of the local shop told me, “no,” and I have since learned that this seems to be common. When it comes to cyber security, you’re on your own.
My answer to this question is, “yes I can help you with personal security issues.”
I offer my experiences to you as a trusted advisor and leave the device control, your data, and your privacy in your hands. I bring forward decades of work in threat detection and incident response to help you investigate, understand, contain, eradicate, and recover from the issue you are dealing with.
This summer, I have helped individuals with malware on their devices, I have helped others recover from online accounts being taken over, and advised how to recover from a stolen device that was being used by the thief.
For each of these incidents, I provided a custom-tailored response plan to help the individuals involved navigate the issue, address the causes, and move to a stronger posture of security after-the-fact. And all our Essentials Members benefit from the lessons learned from these incidents, as I also create sanitized reports and distribute them to all Practive Security Members as Threat Advisories.
If you need help with a security issue, you can contact us through the Practive Security website (contact form). I will arrange a phone-based triage meeting, typically lasting 15 minutes, to establish a basic understanding of what is going on. If I believe I can help, then I will propose we continue with the investigation and development of a response and recovery plan for your situation. If I have articles or content that already provides the guidance you need, then I may refer you to that material and standby if you need further help.
Our basic rate for personal consulting like this is $75 / hour, billed in one-hour increments. Existing Practive Security customers receive a discount on our consulting rate.
W also provide custom strategic guidance for parents or individuals if you have a unique scenario and would like our advice for handling it. The following article was written specifically to help two individuals who each asked the same underlying question:
https://practivesecurity.substack.com/p/faq-what-do-i-do-if-my-child-already
Self-Guided Response Plans
In addition to directly advising you on personal security issues, we also have a library of articles that are ready to help you guide yourself through handling a security incident. We are always expanding our library of content, but already in our Personal Security page we have articles that cover:
What to do after a data breach (when you are informed that your data has been stolen).
How to respond to an account takeover (when your email or another online account is hacked and being used by an attacker).
Privacy lockdown (clearing the Internet of your exposures if you suspect your personal security is at risk).
Response plans for specific threats (contained within published threat advisories) which have included: a phone-based credit theft scam, malware on Android devices (multiple examples), password theft and account take over (email and social media), financial fraud via unauthorized account access.
Soon we will be adding three additional response plans:
How to respond to a (general) malware infection
What to do if your device is stolen
Responding to cyber stalking
But more important than responding to a threat, is being prepared ahead of time and preventing an incident from happening in the first place. That is what most of our content, as well as our book Practive Security 101, is designed for.
Interviews, Research, Special Projects, Collaboration, and Expert Advice
Yes, we do all this! Here’s an example:
In recent months several supporters of Practive Security have contacted me with questions about online security and privacy and asking for help with exploring and understanding deeper issues related to online technology. I have helped to review new apps and products, interpret security incidents in the news, review legal policies & drafts of legislation, interpret the outcomes of the Meta legal settlement, interpret the implications of new technologies, review guidance provided by other organizations, assess changes to social media privacy policies, and to share my analysis and expertise to larger audiences through interviews and livestreams. I’m honored to support all of this. Specific examples of my work in this regard has included:
Analysis and commentary of the OpenAI / Hugging Face incident
Interpreting the state of online security in light of AI-automated attacks
Consulting on legal policy and draft legislative frameworks
Reviewing Meta’s changing privacy policies and data collection practices
With over 26 years of experience in the Cyber Security domain at the very peak of the industry itself, it’s likely I can support you in your work.
If you need a trusted advisor to help you research or interpret a topic of interest to you personally or in service to your larger work, I would be honored to help.
Practive Security Essentials Members can always submit questions that I will prioritize and answer, but we are also happy to silently or publicly support the projects and work of others as a consultant, contributor, cyber security expert, or as an advisor. Let me know what you need, and I will work with you on building an engagement model.
Professional Consulting for Businesses or Organizations
See: https://www.practivesecurity.com/pro
Recently a supporter shared with me a concern that academic settings (universities, business schools etc.) are not including any education or preparation regarding online threats, privacy, and safety for individuals who are self-employed or lead small businesses and private organizations. In other words, cyber security is absent from academic programs meant to help individuals form and run businesses. This is also something we are trying to help with.
Related to this, I have also been asked by current IT Professionals working for private businesses, if I would be willing to advise them personally to help them in their daily work.
Our Practive Security Pro / Business Essentials Membership and Business Consulting services are aimed at helping anyone in a professional or organizational context. Just as is the case for our Essentials Membership, we have a library of articles already published that has been written for Professionals. And we hope to help any professional context from the smallest to the largest.
In fact, one of our most comprehensive guides available today is our “Essentials for Building a Security Program,” which is part of our ongoing Pillars of Cyber Securityseries. This guide was written to serve anyone who needs to build programmatic defenses or assess the layers of their existing program for their business or organization, whether that be a small entity or the largest of enterprises.
When writing this guide, I assumed the role of being an advisor to individuals at various organizations of various sizes and put to paper exactly what I would do if I was planning your cyber security defenses. I also tried to keep in mind someone who is self-employed or runs a small organization and wants to review their security through a more professional lens. You can use this guide as a form of self-guided professional services engagement, to help you assess your own program or learn what you need to consider that may be missing.
I also hope to make this into an online seminar or class soon.
The table of contents for this guide includes:
Understanding Your Threat Profile - Identifying Your Attack Vectors - Identifying Risks to Your Organization - Building A Security Strategy – Understanding Your Business Context - External Requirements - Performing a Risk Assessment - Identifying Key Risk Management Strategies - Defining Your Security Mission - Essential Security Policies - Essential Capabilities - Essential Protection Coverage - Essential Practices - Implementation Plan - Organizing for the Work - Staffing Plans - Measuring Success - More Considerations.
Additionally, we have available for professional and business contexts our “Pillars of Information / Cyber Security“ series of articles and guides which are meant to bring you the very best of our 2.5 decades of experience. In this series we focus on mindset, strategies, and lessons we have learned through practicing cyber security. So far this (expanding) series includes:
Essentials for Building a Security Program
Starting a Career in Cyber Security
Strategic Knowledge
The Mission of Cyber Security
Vulnerability Management & Response
Compliance Matters and You’re Doing it Wrong
The Roots of the Security Operations Center
Cyber Security as a Moral Endeavor
An Ethical Framework for AI
Security Orchestration and Automation
Company Culture and Cyber Security
Cloud Threat Strategies
Busting the Myth of 24x7 Detection & Response
The Theory of the AI Powered SOC
Threat Hunting Simplified
and more!
I write these articles as an attempt to share the lessons I have learned working in cyber security at the enterprise and national defense levels. My goal is to cut through the noise and help you focus on what you really need and what actually works.
Custom Engagements for Groups
Another question I often receive is, “do I offer custom seminars or workshops for private groups?” The answer is, yes.
This summer, the Johnston family took to the road and attended a conference designed for private homeschool families in California. We created a custom workshop designed specifically for that community and for the purpose of that event. Here’s a recap of the event:
https://practivesecurity.substack.com/p/reflections-from-chea-2026
In addition, we have several seminars available online right now that have been pre-recorded and provide you with presentations and supporting materials. You can find these on our website and sign-up directly here: https://www.practivesecurity.com/signup
We are also in the process of arranging a live in-person seminar and workshop for parents that will be delivered this fall in San Diego County.
But regardless of these examples, if you have a topic that fits within our ecosystem of knowledge and experience, and you would like us to build a seminar, presentation, or workshop for your community, business, group, or family, we would be happy to craft an engagement for you.
Sign Up Today
For more information about any of these topics, head over to our website, PractiveSecurity.com. If we don’t answer your questions with content that is already shared, please fill out a contact form and we will be in touch.