Ep. 2: Hacked by Russians and how Metis saved us
When an ecommerce server with unencrypted credit cards is compromised, the ensuing crisis demands a unique response. And yes, we were hacked by Russians - really.
Scroll down the page and you'll find a choice selection of clips for you to sample if you're not sure about committing to a full episode yet. 🎧 In the meantime...
Storytime topics for today:
- The voicemail that started it all - Patrick's server administrator alerting him to the hack.
- Patrick's decision of whether or not to report the hack. Did the hackers even know what they'd gotten into?
- How the practical knowledge of Metis can help you navigate a challenge where it's not clear what's the best thing to do.
- Who and what is Metis?
- Hesiod quote that Patrick references @7:11
- How techne differs from Metis.
- Steven Hickman quote that Patrick reads @10:31
- Do you take your pain early or defer it to later?
- James C. Scott's description of Metis.
- Patrick's approach that got Wells Fargo's Vice President to come alongside and help him, instead of fighting him.
- Risk of millions upon millions of dollars of fines potentially cascading down onto Patrick's company.
- A security bulletin that helped convey how Patrick's company was the best possible source of information to discovering the truth of what happened. To VISA, Wells Fargo, Discover, Patrick's customers, etc.
- Patrick's security advocate, Security Metrics.
- Cunning Intelligence in Greek Culture by Jean-Pierre Vernant and Marcel Detienne
- Does Metis compound?
- Technical debt and how it hurt us.
- Metis being utilized by Odysseus in The Odyssey.
- Poem by Navajo or Diné woman named Woman Stands Shining or Pat McCabe referenced by Patrick @34:30
- The painful reckoning of realizing you'd chosen the short-term growth instead of long-term resiliency.
- How'd it end? What were Discover's Vice President's final words on the matter?
- Missing out on competing with Shopify and WordPress and MailChimp.
easier business clip sample plate 👩🏼🍳 👨🏻🍳
Try it before you commit...
Story Clip: Wells Fargo compliance fines or nah? 😳
Story Clip: there aren't best practices for when you're hacked
More interesting highlights...
The crux of the issue, what led to our being hacked. Some of the factors include things like not being choosy enough about the features Patrick was attempting to accomplish. Also folding to the short-term pressure of client requests, and choosing to accumulate technical debt instead of focusing and narrowing the vision as he developed the software.
David Perell and his perspective on #hustleculture. His Northstar podcast and Write of Passage podcast. Also, his writing school.
Hustle culture is a form of laziness.
— David Perell (@david_perell) October 11, 2021
Even if people who embrace hustle culture are hard-working doers, they tend to be lazy thinkers.
When you can't prioritize, you have to hustle.
How many hustlers would benefit from slowing down and plotting an intelligent strategy instead?
Abigail relates lessons she drew from David Perell's newsletters to the circumstance that led to the hack.
Part of making business easier entails hustling AFTER pausing to determine the right direction, pruning what's actually not important, and THEN executing.
How Patrick draws his business lessons out of a five-minute Jiu Jitsu match.
How the approach of Wrestling vs. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu reflects Patrick's changing approach to business over the last decade.
Steven Hickman quote that Patrick reads @52:53 about Aristotle.
Book Recommendation:
Rafa - a semi-autobiography about Rafael Nadal. Abi's favorite takeaway: using your accumulated knowledge when you're never going to encounter the same situation twice.