(ISC)² Blog

Being the Fly on the Wall: The latest observations from the (ISC)² Member’s GDPR Task Force

By Yves Le Roux, CISSP, CISM, Co-Chair, Europe, Middle East and Africa Advisory Council (EAC) Recently our GDPR Task Force has found that despite efforts to prepare for the incoming regulation, many practitioners are finding that there is actually a lot more to do than originally anticipated, and are still in “discovery mode” about what data they hold. Data being fragmented and contained within individual business units means that knowing where data sets reside and mapping their flow is proving challenging. Businesses have just realised the mammoth task ahead of them Many businesses are still stuck in the initial stages... Read more →

(ISC)² ISLA Winners from Around the World

This month marked the opening of nominations for the first-ever (ISC)² EMEA ISLA, allowing you to nominate fellow information security and management professionals throughout the private and public sectors across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The nomination categories are: Senior Information Security Professional, Information Security Practitioner, Up-and-Coming Information Security and Woman Information Security Professional. Nominations must be put forward by a colleague, so we hope that many of you will feel inspired to put forward your professional peers. We do appreciate that nominating someone may seem like a daunting task, or you may be unsure whether who you have... Read more →

SSCP Spotlight: Jae H. Moon

Name: Jae H. Moon Title: Sr. Systems (Linux/IA) Engineer Employer: Cray, Inc. Location: Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A. Degree: Master’s degree in Information Systems (emphasis on information security) Years in IT: 16+ Years in information security: 10+ Cybersecurity certifications: CompTIA Security +, SSCP How did you decide upon a career in cybersecurity? I had the opportunity to work as a summer intern at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois for the Department of Defense. I also worked as a Unix System Administrator for AT&T (after graduating from college) which focused heavily on implementing various information security principles and practices to... Read more →

How can we make the cybersecurity profession agile?

Two of the most pressing cybersecurity tasks of our time are the need to dramatically grow the size of the workforce, and to create one that is agile enough to keep up with the shifting sands of today’s business landscape. Infosec Europe’s keynote panel session “Building an Agile Security Team for the Future,” chaired by (ISC)²s EMEA managing director Adrian Davis, saw leading frontline professionals from travel search giants Skyscanner, to transport operator Network Rail and the UK government, discuss how these challenges might be addressed. The first key insight was that an agile cybersecurity team cannot have fixed, traditional... Read more →

Looking for cybersecurity job? Healthcare is hiring!

While the projected 1.8 million cybersecurity workforce gap is a staggering number, the Global Information Security Workforce Study did reveal which sectors are most aggressively looking to address this talent shortfall. Healthcare, retail and manufacturing top the list of industries looking to increase their cybersecurity workforce by more than 20% over the next year. Healthcare, in particular, is aiming for a 39% increase. It’s not surprising that they’re leading the charge to staff up, as Privacy Rights Clearninghouse reports that there were 223 known breaches to healthcare organizations in the United States in 2016 - and another 46 disclosed so... Read more →

Recognize the Best in Cybersecurity: Guide for (ISC)² EMEA ISLA Nominators

Nominations are open for the first-ever (ISC)² EMEA Information Security leadership Awards (ISLA) to recognize the achievements of your fellow cyber, information, software and infrastructure security professionals across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This is a great opportunity to showcase the outstanding work and remarkable contributions the profession is making despite the challenges and widening skills gap we face. The 2017 Global Information Security Workforce Study confirms more than two thirds of the region’s hiring managers are looking to expand their teams in the next 12 months, and about half are struggling to find qualified talent for their roles.... Read more →

Security Headlines: Malware, Malware, Malware

From malware built to disrupt our critical infrastructure to front-line cyber soldiers, here are some of the top security headlines from the week of June 12: The malware cometh. The “nightmare” malware has been attacking power plants in Europe, causing blackouts and Daily Beast reports that U.S. companies have been warned. “I’m a Mac.” “You still might be in trouble.” That’s what security researchers are saying to Bleeping Computer after two new strains of Mac malware have been offered through the Dark Web over the last few weeks. Is the cloud really safer? Help Net Security found that most IT... Read more →

Continuing the Conversation: Spearphishing

If you’ve attended any of our (ISC)² ThinkTank Webinars (and we hope you have!) you know that moderator Brandon Dunlap shares your questions with panelists to answer during the session. While we can’t get to all questions, we’d like to address a few more here on our blog. Last week’s webinar was “The Human Target – The Tip of the Spear is Aimed at You”, with panelists Ira Winkler, president of Secret Mentem, Sylvester Gray, security product specialist at Sophos and Johnny Deutsch, senior manager, advanced security center at Ernst & Young, LLP. Thank you to our panelists for sharing... Read more →

CCSP Spotlight: Haruhiko Kurita

Name: Haruhiko Kurita Title: Senior Security Consultant Employer: NetOne Systems Location: Tokyo, Japan Degree: Master of Science, Physics Years in IT: 24 Years in cybersecurity: 21 Cybersecurity certifications: CISSP, CCSP, CISA, PCI DSS QSA How did you decide upon a career in cybersecurity? My career in cybersecurity started around 1995, when the internet was becoming popular here in Japan. My first product was HSM (Hardware Security Module) and I was interested in cryptography, as technology was very attractive to me. After three mergers, the company (Tandem) became bigger and I covered various parts of security, like F/W, antivirus, identity management,... Read more →

Security Headlines: #InfoSec17 Edition

Infosecurity Europe took over London this week with “everyone and everything you need to know about information security.” Here are the headlines from the event that caught our eye this week: Are you ready for GDPR? With just under a year to go until implementation, SC Magazine UK asked the question “Can you purchase your way to GDPR compliance?” Short answer: No. No you can’t. No surprise here. In a room full of security pros, the U.K. government’s approach to encryption was a point of discussion following the recent terror attacks in the country. As expected, there were strong opinions... Read more →

What we learned from this month’s European GISWS report

What is the GISWS? Since its first release in 2004, the biennial (ISC)²® Global Information Security Workforce Study (GISWS) has been gauging the opinions of information security professionals; and in turn, providing detailed insights into the important trends and opportunities within this increasingly crucial profession. This year, the study conducted its largest-ever global survey of cybersecurity professionals, with over 19,000 individuals taking part (3,694 of which hailing from Europe), further allowing it to ascertain an even clearer and progressively more complete profile of the information security workforce; with stronger understandings of areas and issues such as pay scales, skills gaps,... Read more →

SSCP Spotlight: Aoba Mari

Name: Aoba Mari Title: Security Analyst Employer: LAC / JSOC (Japan Security Operation Center) Location: Tokyo, Japan Degree: Bachelor’s Degree in International Policy Years in IT: 5 years Years in information security: 5 years Cybersecurity certifications: SSCP How did you decide upon a career in cybersecurity? Among the various fields in the IT industry, information security is the fastest growing and at the same time, I think there is a high demand for rare technical skills. For me, more than anything, that’s the biggest reason why I think it’s a very interesting field. I was involved in forensic analysis, and... Read more →

Weekly Security Headlines: Still Crying and Fireball

A holiday week in the U.S. and U.K. means five days worth of headlines in four business days. Here’s what we saw this week… Wanna move on from WannaCry? Not so fast, my friend. BitSight looks at the global impact of the ransomware that spread two weeks ago and found that the ransom collected is only around $100,000. Dark Reading reports on cyber criminals attacking each other on the dark web. Can’t we all just get along? No, apparently not. The price of a breach is high. Bitdefender looks at the Ponemon Institute’s study of the impact on stock prices.... Read more →

Earn CPEs with Bug Bounty

Since 2013, (ISC)² has been a partner of Bugcrowd, running a public bug bounty program and offering CPE credits to our members. Bugcrowd is a leading provider of crowdsourced security and bug bounty programs, connecting organizations with more than 50,000 independent security researchers to identify vulnerabilities. As an (ISC)² member, you can participate in Bugcrowd’s bug bounty programs in exchange for CPE credits. We encourage you to participate in this program to continue honing your security skills, and to apply those skills to help inspire a safe and secure cyber world. To participate, Sign up as a Bugcrowd researcher at... Read more →