(ISC)² Blog

Working with the U.S. Government: An Overview of the U.S. Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification

By Dustin Perkins, CISSP, Senior Governance, Risk and Compliance Consultant for the US Region of CyberCX. Cybersecurity has proven a growing interest and concern among both the private and public sectors and, for those contracted to do business with the U.S. Department of Defense, this is increasingly important with the protection of potentially sensitive information by those in the private sector. On the heels of Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), every government agency is hyper focused on developing a hardened level of cyber hygiene by which to mitigate as much risk as possible. The Department of Defense is fulfilling... Read more →

What It Takes to be a Cybersecurity Professional: The Non-Technical Skills You Need

Organizations around the world are being targeted – often from an unseen enemy. Cyberthreats are a plague on systems and data, and combatting them is costly and time-consuming. In order to defend against bad actors, organizations need the talent and skills on staff to detect and mitigate cyberthreats. This has led to massive opportunity in the field of cybersecurity. Research shows the global workforce needs a staggering influx of 2.7 million cybersecurity professionals to meet demand.1 Cybersecurity is a strong career choice for many reasons. It offers opportunities globally and in all industries. There are more than 50 career paths... Read more →

Latest Cyberthreats and Advisories - December 2, 2022

World Cup fraud, Chinese tech bans and a social media cyberstorm hit headlines this week. Here are the latest threats and advisories for the week of December 2, 2022. Threat Advisories and Alerts NCSC Urges Christmas Shoppers to be Vigilant As Christmas shopping kicks into gear, the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has launched a campaign releasing a series of secure online shopping articles to spread awareness about cybercrime this festive season. During this same time last year, thousands of holiday shoppers were scammed, resulting in £15.3m being stolen and victims losing on average £1,000 per person. Shoppers can... Read more →

Achieving Data Security and Analytics with AI - Member Recap from (ISC)² Security Congress 2022

A member recap of “Achieving Data Security and Analytics with AI” presented by Glendon Schmitz at (ISC)² Security Congress 2022. By Angus Chen, CISSP, CCSP, PMP, MBA Although “data is the new oil”, there are many problems with working on production data directly. Organizations encounter regulations to protect privacy such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The fine for violating GDPR is 17 million British Pounds or 4% annual global turnover. Amazon was charged with U.S. $887 million, WhatsApp U.S. $267 million and Marriott 18 million British Pounds for data breaches. The list goes on and on. Furthermore, organizations sharing... Read more →

(ISC)² Board of Directors Election Results

The following individuals were elected to the Board and will begin their three-year term in January 2023: Laurie-Anne Bourdain, CISSP – Belgium Edward Farrell, SSCP, CISSP – Australia Nalneesh Gaur, CISSP-ISSAP – United States Guy Ngambeket, CISSP – United Arab Emirates Yiannis Pavlosoglou, CISSP – Greece Congratulations to our directors! The election ran from November 1-14, 2022, and 4,717 (ISC)² certified members voted in the election and results were independently tabulated and verified by our third-party election facilitator and audited by an independent third-party. The (ISC)² Board of Directors is responsible for: Strategic direction, governance and oversight for (ISC)² Developing... Read more →

Are Deepfakes Really a Security Threat? - Member Recap from (ISC)² Security Congress 2022

A member recap of Dr. Thomas Scanlon’s session at (ISC)² Security Congress 2022 by Angus Chen, CISSP, CCSP, MBA, PMP. Dr. Scanlon started his talk by showing images of women and posing a question to the audience: Can you spot the fake person? See the image to left. To my surprise, none of them are a real person! These images are generated by an AI algorithm, generative adversarial network (GAN), source: https://thispersondoesnotexist.com. In my opinion, it is a little creepy. Several websites today use data-driven unconditional generative image modeling to create deepfake images such as https://thisxdoesnotexist.com. According to CISA, a... Read more →

Latest Cyberthreats and Advisories - November 18, 2022

Beware the BatLoader, the NSA calls for more memory-safe programming language use and ransomware causes more trouble in Australia….Here are the latest threats and advisories for the week of November 18, 2022. Threat Advisories and Alerts Researchers Sound Alarm on Dangerous BatLoader Malware Dropper A dangerous new malware loader with features for determining whether it's running on business or home computers has begun rapidly infecting systems worldwide over the past few months. Researchers at VMware Carbon Black claim the threat, dubbed BatLoader, is being used to distribute a variety of malware tools including a banking Trojan, an information stealer, and... Read more →

OT: The New Gold Mine for Hackers and How CDS Can Secure It

By Dr. Fulvio Arreghini, CSSLP, Head of International Sales at INFODAS GmbH. Fulvio is a CDR of the Italian Navy (reserve). He has an Master Degree in communication engineering and a PhD in Information engineering. During his active service in the Navy he’s been working mainly in the areas of Secure Tactical Communication and Command and Control systems, acting often also as security officer and risk manager. Since 2020 in the private sector, he joined Infodas at first as solution architect to later become head of international sales. Cyberattacks to operational technology (OT) are on the rise and the providers... Read more →

Build Your Network with (ISC)² and BUiLT

(ISC)² recently announced an expansion of its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiative through partnerships with several organizations around the world. “It’s no secret that the cybersecurity industry isn’t nearly as diverse as it should be,” said Dwan Jones, director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at (ISC)². “Our mission at (ISC)² is to not only enable individuals from all backgrounds to enter the cybersecurity industry but also to empower and equip them to excel in their positions and continuously grow in their careers.” BUiLT (Blacks United in Leading Technology) is one of the DEI partners, and along with (ISC)² will... Read more →

Real Talk with CCSPs an Interview with Matt Lee, CCSP

What do you get when you cross a teacher with an entrepreneur who also has a passion for cybersecurity? You get Matt Lee. Matt is the Senior Director of Security and Compliance at Pax8, where he is a force multiplier in the mission to empower Managed Service Providers (MSP) to continue to grow in their security knowledge and operability. We recently had a chance to speak with Matt about his experiences, and to offer some solid advice to those who are looking to enhance their cloud security. Q: Could you tell us a little about your background, and how you... Read more →