(ISC)² Blog

Honoring the Fellows of (ISC)²

(ISC)² recently honored two additions to the distinguished group of Fellows of (ISC)². This recognition is designated upon elite cybersecurity professionals who have made outstanding contributions over the course of their careers to the profession and industry at large. John McCumber, director of cybersecurity advocacy in North America for (ISC)², is a past Fellow and presented the honor to two outstanding and deserving individuals this year at Security Congress in New Orleans during the Information Security Leadership Awards ceremony. The first Fellow honored was Dr. Ronald Ross. His area of focus has been systems security engineering and risk management. He... Read more →

Highlights From Security Congress 2018 – And What to Look Forward To

New Orleans jazz band welcomes attendees to the city and declares (ISC)2 Security Congress 2018 open By David Shearer, CISSP, (ISC)² CEO When I made the decision two years ago to transform the annual (ISC)2 Security Congress into an independent event, I knew it would be a huge undertaking for our team, but I also understood the passion of our member base and that we had enough interest to support this evolution. After returning from the 2018 Congress held in New Orleans just a few weeks ago (from October 8-10) I am reaffirmed that it was the right move. Our... Read more →

#ISC2Congress Recap

This year’s (ISC)² Security Congress event took place at the New Orleans Marriott in Louisiana October 8-10, 2018, with nearly 2,000 cybersecurity professionals in attendance to share best practices, learn new skills and explore solutions to top challenges facing the profession. With keynote addresses from Congressman Cedric Richmond, Jane McGonigal, Theresa Payton and Dr. Jessica Barker, Security Congress featured more than 100 educational breakout sessions on a dozen security tracks, including cloud security; critical infrastructure; cybercrime; governance, regulation and compliance; incident response and forensics; identity access management; privacy; professional development; research; software assurance and application security; and cyber threats. Top... Read more →

LIVE FROM #ISC2CONGRESS: Blockchain - The Future of Cybersecurity?

The future of cybersecurity was the subject of lively discussion during a session on blockchain’s potential to revolutionize how data is protected. The session was part of the 2018 (ISC)2 Security Congress, taking place this week in New Orleans. The Blockchain session’s presenters, Nitin Uttreja and Ashish Dwivedi, who are both cybersecurity engineers for CA Technologies, argued that blockchain provides effective, reliable ways to secure cloud storage and the Internet of Things (IoT), and to manage identities and passwords. But not everyone in attendance was buying it. Questions arose as to whether networks still have to be secured in conjunction... Read more →

LIVE FROM #ISC2CONGRESS: Should You Get Cyber Insurance?

About three thirds (76%) of companies currently have cyber insurance, but less than a third of them (32%) get policies that cover all risks, according to two representatives from insurer RLI Corp. who spoke during this week’s (ISC)2 Security Congress 2018 in New Orleans. While having a cyber policy is always a good idea, there is a fair amount of complexity that makes it difficult to determine how much coverage you need. Often third parties such as cloud providers are involved, creating coverage nuances that companies must be aware of when taking out a policy. Beyond that, companies often don’t... Read more →

LIVE FROM #ISC2CONGRESS: Theresa Payton - Stop Blaming the User

Stop saying humans are the weakest link in security. That was the main message delivered by former White House CIO Theresa Payton during her keynote at (ISC)2’s Congress 2018, taking place this week in New Orleans. “The technology is the weakest link. The human is at risk. We have to change how we think about this in our industry,” said Payton, who is now president and CEO of Fortalice Solutions, and stars in the CBS show “Hunted.” Even though cybersecurity teams implement various measures, follow rules and frameworks, and complete compliance checklists, breaches still occur, she said. That’s because technology... Read more →

LIVE FROM #ISC2CONGRESS: Crossing a Border? Assume You’ll Be Searched

Privacy is one of the greatest challenges of the digital age. Who has the right to access an individual’s personal data and when? That’s the question at the heart of a series of court cases regarding search and seizure of mobile phones at U.S. border crossings. Currently border agents are allowed to access and search metadata, including the origin, time and date of phone calls, without a search warrant. However, true data typically requires a warrant, according to Scott M. Giordano, vice president of data protection at Spirion, a data management software provider. He addressed the topic to a packed... Read more →

LIVE FROM #ISC2CONGRESS: The Challenge of Securing Industrial Environments

Securing critical industrial infrastructure systems in manufacturing, distribution and product-handling environments is a major challenge. The main reason we haven’t seen a spectacular attack on one these systems is because it’s hard to pull off. But organizations in oil and gas, chemicals, utilities and a whole host of other industries need to take steps to protect their critical infrastructure, lest they fall victim to an attack by a nation-state, hacktivists or even insiders, according to a panel of security experts who spoke during the (ISC)2 Congress 2018, taking place this week in New Orleans. The panel was moderated by James... Read more →

LIVE FROM #ISC2CONGRESS: How to Stop Phishing: Patch the Users

Since humans are the number one target for cyber attacks, organizations need to implement strategies that teach users how to identify and avoid risks. Security awareness may well be the most important role of cybersecurity teams. That was the message delivered by Theresa Frommel, acting deputy CISO for the State of Missouri, at a breakout session of the (ISC)2’s Congress 2018, taking place this week in New Orleans. Repeating a suggestion from an attendee at her session, Frommel said it makes sense that users need to be “patched,” much like software systems have to be patched regularly to remove security... Read more →

LIVE FROM #ISC2Congress: Making Cybersecurity Cool to Close the Skills Gap

The cybersecurity workforce skills gap is hampering the nation’s ability to combat cyber threats that target our way of life, economy and national security interests, according to U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA), who serves on the House Committee on Homeland Security. Delivering the first keynote at the 2018 (ISC)2 Security Congress, taking place this week in New Orleans, the Congressman said more work is needed at the federal, state and local levels, as well as in the private sector, to address the problem of cybersecurity and the skills gap. “We need a robust cybersecurity workforce,” Richmond said, citing a government... Read more →

Censor Robots: Using AI to Redact Confidential Information

(ISC)²’s two-day UK Secure Summit brings multi-subject sessions from hands-on practical workshops to keynotes and panel discussions, featuring local and international industry experts to maximise the learning experience and CPE opportunities. Serving the entire (ISC)² EMEA professional community, the Summit offers a wealth of educational value, networking opportunities, and a community forum for likeminded professionals, all of which are FREE to (ISC)² members & (ISC)² Chapter members. Read on for insights from one of our popular Secure Summit UK sessions: (ISC)² 2018 Secure Summit UK saw Richard Hudson, Principal IT Consultant at msg systems, reveal how dramatic advances in Artificial... Read more →

Blockchain in Security. Lessons Learned from Nation State Experience

(ISC)²’s two-day UK Secure Summit brings multi-subject sessions from hands-on practical workshops to keynotes and panel discussions, featuring local and international industry experts to maximise the learning experience and CPE opportunities. Serving the entire (ISC)² EMEA professional community, the Summit offers a wealth of educational value, networking opportunities, and a community forum for likeminded professionals, all of which are FREE to (ISC)² members & (ISC)² Chapter members. Read on for insights from one of our popular Secure Summit UK sessions: (ISC)² 2018 Secure Summit UK saw Joseph Carson, CSS at Thycotic, reveal the fascinating story behind Estonia’s journey towards becoming... Read more →

(ISC)² London Chapter: Developing Education Framework

By James Packer (ISC)² London Chapter President I’m very much looking forward to moderating the diversity panel at the Secure Summit in September. The topic of skills and diversity in the industry is a deep passion of mine as I feel we need to continue to be a forward looking industry, carefully considering the demands of the current age of technology and the trends of technology consumption amongst the next generation. As President of the (ISC)2 London Chapter, this is an area of focus for us as a Chapter; we are currently developing our Education Framework, which is a strategy... Read more →

Why is gender an issue in Cyber Security, and what can be done to redress the balance?

By Steve Mair Senior Cyber Security Consultant, PGI On 18th June 2018, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) made an announcement to the effect that PGI are going to run a 10 to 12 week training programme for women with little or no cyber security background. Candidates will be employed from the outset of training, moving straight into a guaranteed job on completion with a leading employer within the sector. This programme is called Women in Cyber and currently PGI have had over 160 expressions of interest from women around the UK. At the forthcoming (ISC)² Secure Summit,... Read more →

Making Cyber Threats Big Data Manageable

By Adrian Winckles Director of Cyber Security, Networking and Big Data Research Group, Anglia Ruskin University Whilst figures differ depending on which report you read, Gartner estimates the average time between a breach and detection to be about 285 days. By this time, an attacker has long gone. With all the security products in an enterprise network today, why is this still so long? One reason maybe because threat detection is a big data problem. Particularly for network traffic based solutions. A handful of probes, or mirror ports, across a high-speed enterprise network and you could be capturing Terabytes of... Read more →

5 Ways to Get the Most Out of Security Congress

Security Congress is less than three months away! This year’s biggest and best cybersecurity conference will be held in New Orleans, Louisiana from October 8-10. Attending this year’s event can earn you as many as 46 CPEs for the year. To make sure you get the most out of #ISC2Congress, here are five things to do before you get to NOLA: Register for workshops Reserved seating workshops are new to Security Congress this year. We will have five workshops available throughout the conference that require a registration. If you’ve already signed up for Security Congress, great! You can login to... Read more →

Chapter Spotlight: London

The (ISC)² London chapter received its official (ISC)² Charter on March 16, 2018, after completing the chartering process and attending the (ISC)² Secure Summit UK earlier this spring. The London Chapter’s president, James Packer, outlined the chapter’s goals at the Secure Summit UK event, which included plans for hosting the chapter’s own events, forming industry partnerships, and spawning beneficial initiatives such as in education and healthcare. As a result of the Chapter’s presence at the Summit, over 50 people signed up to become a member of the Chapter. This is a record number of people who have ever signed up... Read more →

Chapter Spotlight: Hawaii

Like many chapters, the (ISC)² Hawaii Chapter has had challenges with officer vacancies, legal registration, and low attendance at events over the past three years that the chapter has held its official charter. In early 2018, the new officer board took over and began to plan events to get the information security professionals in the area together to better connect, educate, inspire, and secure the communities of Hawaii. While the chapter has held its official charter with (ISC)², the chapter has been somewhat dis-engaged from the local community. The new chapter officers have made it their mission to re-invigorate the... Read more →

Make a lasting impact while in New Orleans during (ISC)² Security Congress

Data breaches are happening far too often. Stories about personal information being compromised are part of the daily news cycle. But even after the fact, many people are still not taking internet safety seriously. Let’s not forget that human error causes 90 percent of security incidents. Training employees about cybersecurity is essential but educating younger generations from the moment they gain access to the internet, should be a priority. This year, at (ISC)² Security Congress in New Orleans, cyber, information, software and infrastructure security professionals will learn about cyber safety education thanks to the Center for Cyber Safety and Education,... Read more →

Chapter Spotlight: SSDC

On May 7th and 8th, (ISC)² hosted its annual Secure Summit D.C. (SSDC) cybersecurity conference. (ISC)² Secure Summit DC evolved from (ISC)² CyberSecureGov to assemble the best minds in cybersecurity for two days of insightful discussions, workshops and best-practices sharing. Three local (ISC)² Chapters were represented at the event: Quantico Chapter, National Capital Region (NCR) Chapter, and the NOVA Chartering Chapter. The chapters each hosted a table at the event, where 850+ attendees were able to ask questions, learn more about the (ISC)² Chapter Program, and even express interest in joining a local chapter. The (ISC)² National Capital Region (NCR)... Read more →