Fábio de Salles, Business Intelligence Engineer

Show Notes

This episode of SpiderBytes features Fábio de Salles from Brazil. Fábio works in business intelligence and has a strong background in security. Listen in to learn about how Fábio applies security and privacy best practices in his work as well as at home. 

What is SpiderBytes: the SpiderOak Podcast?

Online security and privacy aren't very sexy, but they are important. SpiderBytes is a podcast where normal people from many different fields discuss the tools and techniques they use to be more secure and maintain their privacy. Hosted by Adam Tervort. Guests from across the SpiderOak community.

Adam Tervort (00:04):
Hello world, and welcome back to the SpyderBytes podcast from SpiderOak. I am your host, Adam Tervort, and I'm wishing you a warm and happy November. We are finally in the last two months of the year, and I hope that this year has been a good one for you. We're really in a weird place in the world. And I hope that you've been able to have some good times recently, and that November will treat you well.

Adam Tervort (00:32):
Well today on SpyderBytes, I'm really excited to introduce you to a very interesting guy named Fabio from Brazil. He does some great things in his work and has some interesting insights into the importance of security across data analytics and business intelligence. So after these messages, we will hear from Fabio.

Adam Tervort (01:03):
This podcast is sponsored by SpiderOak. At SpiderOak we believe security is important, and it's our mission to secure the world's data. From secure data compartments for collaboration and data storage, to protecting your backups with end-to-end encryption, or even protecting communications in space, we want to be part of your plan to protect your most important data. Learn more at SpiderOak.com.

Adam Tervort (01:28):
Welcome back to another episode of SpyderBytes, I'm your host, Adam Tervort. And today I am excited to be joined by Fabio de Salles. Welcome Fabio.

Fábio de Salles (01:39):
Thank you very much, Adam.

Adam Tervort (01:41):
So tell us about yourself. Who are you? What do you do? Where are you located in the world?

Fábio de Salles (01:49):
Okay. Let's start from the largest one to the smallest one. I'm located in Brazil, Sao Paulo, southeastern state in lovely South America. I am a physicist. I'm 49 years old, have two sons, married, of course, still married. She's still enduring me. And I work as product manager in a government, a federal government agency, an information technology agency.

Adam Tervort (02:23):
So what's something interesting about you. Most people don't know?

Fábio de Salles (02:29):
Well, I'm from the business intelligence market. I've been 20 years in that area. And I had some work, some freelance jobs. I taught a little, I have written some books. And people usually, when they talk to me, they used to come out and say that I'm very organized. They look at my job, they look at the work I do and say, oh, this is so neat. How do you keep things so organized? And I smile, change the conversation, the subject. But in fact, what most people don't know about me is I'm obsessed with not losing things, not losing track of things. So I need to keep everything organized, so I've got to know what, where everything is. So it's in fact, a good use of bad manage.

Adam Tervort (03:24):
That's really fun. I wish I was a little bit more obsessive about things like that.

Fábio de Salles (03:29):
No, no, no. You don't know what you're talking about. It's not a good thing.

Adam Tervort (03:36):
So I'm curious, you said you're a physicist by training. So how does a physicist end up in information technology?

Fábio de Salles (03:45):
Well, that's a funny question. In fact, during my time in college, I had this scientific [inaudible 00:03:54] project with some teachers, some professors. And once upon a time one of them came up to me and said, "Look Fabio, we can see you are not going to make a good physicist." It broke my heart. "Why don't you go to computers? You are so natural with them. And you do such a great job dealing with computers, programing and all the like."

Fábio de Salles (04:20):
So after ending the college, I got my degree. I tried researching for some time. I tried to keep on the academic, the scholar level, but I got lured into the commercial side of life. I started working as a sales assistant, and then as a salesman, with high technology products, physics enabled products, to industries. I had some jobs with nuclear industries. So I got stranded to the usual life, to the normal life of a salesman and ended up dealing with a lot of things.

Fábio de Salles (05:07):
And when I once found business intelligence, working for the multinational, the international company SAS from South Carolina, North Carolina, I just can't remember. And it was my thing, I found my thing in life. So it was kind of accident, in fact.

Adam Tervort (05:30):
Well, that's a really interesting path to arrive there. And business intelligence, that's a really fascinating field, and one that's so important.

Fábio de Salles (05:40):
Yes. Yes. 20 years ago it was the start of the fashion, the start of the fed. People were still thinking, should I have a business intelligent project in my enterprise, in my company today? This is no more the case. You need to have it. You don't question it anymore.

Adam Tervort (05:59):
Yeah, yeah. Well, let's talk a little bit about security and privacy in terms of your work life. So what are the security or privacy problems that you consider in your work? And what are the tools or the strategies you use to deal with those problems?

Fábio de Salles (06:21):
Okay. So, to draw the thing. Working with business, that product means, or projects means. All the time I'm dealing with every data a company might have. So to be safe about the data is the first thing you have to care about. You cannot afford to, even the smallest risk of that data leaking in any way.

Fábio de Salles (06:54):
So, for a long time I had to work and how to [inaudible 00:06:58] person on premises with every project of their warehouses and business intelligence. People were very afraid, or very worried about having a remote worker to apply for some job. And that's how I, I really enjoy working from home. I do not need to be in-person anywhere to do my job well. So it was very difficult, let's say a decade ago, to have a remote job with business intelligence. And paramount, the word I was looking for, is security and data safety is paramount to business intelligence projects in general.

Fábio de Salles (07:44):
Today people call it data science and big data, and a lot of fancy words, but business intelligence sums it up. So there was no life outside, having the utmost maximum security with data. So I've been worried about it since day zero, in fact.

Adam Tervort (08:05):
And so ,in your in your day to day work, how do you, especially working remotely, how do you deal with that? What tools or software do you use you so that you can maintain security?

Fábio de Salles (08:21):
Yeah. Remote work has been enabled mostly by the pandemic taking a foot. And so there was no remote work. We had it very, whatever there was that they warehouse project it was always inside the customer network work, always inside the company. And there were no whatsoever, no option. But today, thanks to mostly VPNs and encryptions, security safety channels, there is a way to work with that.

Fábio de Salles (08:56):
On a side note, the selling point, I hope you don't mind I'm talking about this, but the selling point on SpiderOak product was just that, the zero knowledge policy you had. It was, probably today there is somebody else selling it. But at that time, I look in my account, I started using SpiderOak on January 1st, 2012. So at that time there was no match for this offer. So it appealed to me instantly. I was looking to change my cloud backup solution. I was leaving another one. I'm not telling, talking about them, I don't even know if they're still around.

Fábio de Salles (09:45):
But anyway, I found SpiderOak and fell in love because it was just the kind of security data where professional is look for all the time. That, no breach, no way to allow data for leaking.

Adam Tervort (10:07):
Well, you've been a SpiderOak customer for a long time, even longer than me, which is, I've one of the early day customer as well. But I think in the general business environment today, there's a lot more awareness that... The term that gets used a lot today is zero trust.

Fábio de Salles (10:29):
Zero trust.

Adam Tervort (10:30):
But you just have to assume that the network is hostile.

Fábio de Salles (10:36):
Yes, yes.

Adam Tervort (10:36):
And the infrastructure that you don't control can be hostile. And if you're not set up in such a way to address those security risks, your company can have problems down the road. It may not happen today or tomorrow, but it it's important to consider all those things.

Fábio de Salles (10:58):
Yes, yes. In fact, I believe, now getting to the interview you asked, I was, I've always worked with larger companies. So the company had that enterprise, always had some kind of thing, of department working to keep everybody safe. But on top of that, I always followed the protocols. I always looked for the most secure ways to operate. So there was really no big options, aside from either shutting you out of internet.

Fábio de Salles (11:36):
I had some problem at some point even to look up [inaudible 00:11:43], for instance. Or how do you call that one really famous, open stack, open... The site where people go to solve questions on IT and programming and all that? But I couldn't access it. A simple site look up, I couldn't do without going back to home or taking out a computer and find some open network to sit.

Fábio de Salles (12:12):
Because it was so I, I almost said a bad word, so much difficult to get to the internet. Protection was so high, so stringent, that there was really no way to get in outside from the inside and vice versa. So today with products, with [inaudible 00:12:36], or trust policy, let's say, it's much more easy. I'm working with the same company I was 10 years ago and the same stringency on data safety still applies. And they are now much more able to provided the security to me and to all remote employees, in fact.

Adam Tervort (12:58):
Yeah, yeah. And that's so important. There are so many companies that are on a hybrid model, or still on a remote model. So you have to be able to still do business, even when employees are working from home.

Fábio de Salles (13:13):
Yes. You cannot harm your business just to be safe. You've got to be a middle point.

Adam Tervort (13:21):
So in your personal life, tell me about some of the tools or the strategies you use to maintain your security and your privacy.

Fábio de Salles (13:32):
Okay. Everybody, we're four, four personal family. Two teenagers, my wife and me, so roughly half a dozen devices at home, four computers, a couple of tablets and smartphones. Everybody accesses the internet through, I do not know what the product ane the name in English, but it's a molding, a cable TV molding that enters into a router and a wifi, one of those Google things that wifi over the whole house, you can move along and the network follows you.

Adam Tervort (14:16):
Yeah. The mesh, mesh network.

Fábio de Salles (14:18):
Mesh, thank you, the mesh network. So I've configured, I personally configured all the access points, all the notes, the molding security, passwords. I made sure no port was left open to the internet.

Fábio de Salles (14:37):
But aside from that, I must, I told also my sons to not wander into any too dangerous websites. They love men's sites and anime stuff from Japan. So a lot of sites offering that kind of entertainment are really dangerous. And I must admonish them from time to time on not wandering into the dark places of the web. Aside from that everybody has anti-virus, firewalls, local firewalls.

Fábio de Salles (15:13):
And we have two backup options. We have local storage, a network attached storage as a lessee, cloud box, which is old by now, but still functional. And being a paranoid about safety and data preservation I had to have a cloud option, and Spider Oak came into this as this solution.

Fábio de Salles (15:41):
Once, sometimes I had to share data with peers in order to progress around the project. Most of the time people try, tend to use commercial solutions like Dropbox and even Google drives and the like. But when I had the choice, I do not know if I'm allowed to say it, but whenever I had the choice, I use SpiderOak sharing options, like the Hive. I not know, is it still called the Hive?

Adam Tervort (16:16):
Yes, it's still called Hive [crosstalk 00:16:16].

Fábio de Salles (16:16):
... Hive, so this is it. And especially when dealing with freelance projects, when I was the one tasked to make sure data would not leak. So see, I'm a big fan SpiderOak.

Adam Tervort (16:36):
Well, warms my heart.

Fábio de Salles (16:38):
It's easy to use, it's fast.

Adam Tervort (16:41):
So one of the things you touched on is something that I think about a lot. I have three kids at home also who love to do all the silly things on the internet that kids love to do. Your home network is such an important part of a security strategy. And making, you mentioned having all the ports closed, little things like that make a big difference. Because so many vulnerabilities come from just using default configurations and, or not updating routers, and things like that.

Fábio de Salles (17:18):
Really, really.

Adam Tervort (17:20):
Yeah. So kudos to you. Well done.

Fábio de Salles (17:24):
Thanks. So far it has worked. I once was like mailed with a LinkedIn, a LinkedIn account that happened, I believe in 1211, a big leakage. They went to the newspapers telling everybody be safe, change your passwords. That was the only one, real time when I got close to have something leaked, something exposed. But apart from that, so far I've been on the safe side and it's been working.

Adam Tervort (18:04):
That's great.

Fábio de Salles (18:05):
It's been.

Adam Tervort (18:06):
Well, to end, I love to hear people's favorite quotes. Do you have a favorite quote that you'd like to share with us?

Fábio de Salles (18:14):
Favorite quote, like something I use on a regular basis, like a slogan, something of that, like that?

Adam Tervort (18:26):
Yeah, sure.

Fábio de Salles (18:26):
Well, so no, I, being a Portuguese speaker, native speak, I have a lot of ones in Portuguese. But I believe in English, the two, I would say most, it's better be safe than sorry. And I found it really other dates, a stitch in time, saves nine. Is that the way you say it?

Adam Tervort (18:51):
That's right, yeah.

Fábio de Salles (18:53):
So better be safe than sorry, that's my motto most of the time when dealing with, every time I have to plan something.

Adam Tervort (19:02):
Yeah. Well, and you're very organized so-

Fábio de Salles (19:06):
Paranoid, it looks like I'm organized.

Adam Tervort (19:14):
Well, Fabio thank you so much. It's been great talking with you. I really appreciate all of the insights and the information that you shared with us today.

Fábio de Salles (19:25):
It was a pleasure, Adam. My pleasure, in fact. I've stated it already, but SpiderOak has been able to provide ease of mind for me, for my data, my computers. I'm always at rest, not worrying. If my computer goes goes crazy, it goes belly up, I know I can just log into another one, my SpiderOak content, and keep working as if nothing has happened. So I really, I have to thank you all for this.

Adam Tervort (19:59):
Well, thank you. It makes us so happy to hear things from happy customers. And, just so everybody out there knows, we did not pay Fabio anything for that, those nice things that he just said,.

Fábio de Salles (20:13):
No, they have a, let me tell this. I've purchased that one time woofer off a special account with a year payment. Being that year payment, I forgot about it. It was due in March or April, something. And my credit card got stolen once, I had to change it. And I forgot completely about SpiderOak.

Fábio de Salles (20:38):
And one day I'm uploading things, things stopped working. Oh boy, what's happening? And I got in touch with them, with you, SpiderOak. And they said, oh yeah, there's a billing problem. I thought, my God, I must have taken that to the moon, and I have to cancel it. [inaudible 00:21:00] no, no, no, just fix the credit card number, and we'll do it.

Fábio de Salles (21:06):
So, I was okay. No, no, how to say, big ticket? No ticket for being late, no service cancellation, no other [inaudible 00:21:20]? Just that, check it, change it, and it's okay? Yes, it's okay. Oh wow, thank you very much. I was really worried about not having it any more. I have a large bill to pay and, no, really easy, really peaceful people.

Adam Tervort (21:37):
Ah, well, I'm always happy [crosstalk 00:21:39].

Fábio de Salles (21:39):
If you did not really pay I am in debt to you, in fact.

Adam Tervort (21:43):
It's nice when things work, right?

Fábio de Salles (21:46):
Very nice, that's why I keep with you. It works, it works from day zero.

Adam Tervort (21:54):
Well, thank you. You've made my day Fabio. I appreciate it.

Fábio de Salles (21:58):
My pleasure, Adam. My pleasure. You're welcome.

Adam Tervort (22:01):
Well, that's it for this episode. Hang on for a few final messages and we'll be back later this week with another episode.

Adam Tervort (22:14):
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Adam Tervort (22:58):
Thanks again for listening. For all of us at SpiderOak, I'm Adam Tervort. We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please consider subscribing. If you're interested in joining us as a guest on SpiderBytes, send me an email at [e-mail]. We'd like to thank Mel Graves for our theme music, Earshot. We'd also like to extend a special thanks to our law firm, Dewey, Cheetham & Howe, our Marine Biologist: Frieda Wales, our Marine Forecaster: Windsor Cal, and our staffing agency: Click and Clack. Thanks everyone.