Access: Open

From the Summer 2016 Issue

Credentialing: Making a Better Navy and a Stronger Nation

Author(s):

Matthew Stern, CompTIA,

It’s no secret that the more central communications technology becomes in the day-to-day lives of individuals, enterprises, and governments, the more cybersecurity threats have begun to proliferate. Recent news of advanced persistent threats compromising everything from big-name enterprises to government networks has led to a need for verifiably skilled cybersecurity professionals across the entire computing … Read more

From the Spring 2016 Issue

Technology and the Tension between Security and Privacy

Author(s):

Connie Uthoff, Program Director, The George Washington University

At the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) Champions of Freedom event in June 2015, Apple CEO Tim Cook stated, “Like many of you, we at Apple reject the idea that our customers should have to make tradeoffs between privacy and security. We can and we must provide both in equal measure. We believe that people … Read more

From the Spring 2016 Issue

Automating Cybersecurity Using Software-Defined Networking

Author(s):

Chris Christou, , Booz | Allen | Hamilton

Michael Lundberg, , Booz | Allen | Hamilton

A key enabler of these malicious attacks is system and network misconfiguration, which remains a major cause of information technology (IT) infrastructure vulnerabilities.  Large-scale cyber-attacks continue to make headlines around the world. While data breaches can have catastrophic and costly consequences, hackers can also cause havoc by interrupting organization operations through distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. … Read more

From the Spring 2016 Issue

The Need for a Cybersecurity Neighborhood Watch

Author(s):

Rick Lipsey, Senior Strategic Cyber Lead, LMI

As crime rates rose in the early 1970s, Americans began coming together to improve the security of their neighborhoods. They established stronger communities, promoted pride, and built trust that brought members together to deter would-be criminals.  They exchanged ideas and best practices for securing their homes and protecting themselves. Collectively and individually, they developed a clearer … Read more

From the Winter 2016 Issue

How to Gain Allies and Infuence Your Services Team’s Success

Author(s):

Michelle Covert, Manager, Production Support SILA-C, Vertafore

The information security and customer service groups within an organization often make for odd bedfellows, due to the competing and often divergent goals between the two groups. Security teams’ goals are to protect and prevent the loss of customer data, information, proprietary code, or practices; services teams are focused on resolving customer-reported issues as quickly … Read more

From the Winter 2016 Issue

Cyber Literacy in the Age of Attacks

Author(s):

Dr. Jane A. LeClair, President, Washington Center for Cybersecurity Research & Development

Understanding personal computers’ hardware, operating systems, and applications is a good first step towards obtaining the knowledge and skill necessary for cyber literacy.  Much of the existing cybersecurity literature centers around defending the complex digital systems belonging to large corporations. Much less attention is paid to providing the average user with the basic knowledge and … Read more

From the Winter 2016 Issue

Rejecting Anonymity: Confronting the Internet’s Insecure Architecture

Author(s):

Adam Firestone, Editor-in-Chief , United States Cybersecurity Magazine

In @War: The Rise of the Military-Internet Complex, Shane Harris wrote:  The Internet offered a cloak of anonymity. Anyone could set up an e-mail address with a fake name using Google or Hotmail, which had millions of customers and kept their data in repositories located around the world. Those people were hard enough to find. … Read more

From the Fall 2015 Issue

“Hack-a-Shaq” or Hack Attack

Author(s):

Joseph Bowens, Sr. Signals Analyst, Visionist, Inc.

Shaquille O’Neal was easily one of the top 50 greatest NBA players, if not one of the greatest basketball players of all time. However, over his career, Shaq shot a paltry 0.527 free throw average. With this in mind, Dallas Mavericks coach Don Nelson orchestrated a plan during the 2008 playoffs to put Shaq on … Read more

From the Fall 2015 Issue

What Is Lurking in the IT Shadows?

Author(s):

Joel Dolisy, CTO and CIO, SolarWinds

Despite its ever-growing presence in federal agencies, shadow IT remains as difficult to define as it is to detect. Shadow IT generally refers to the trend of users adopting IT tools and solutions that are outside of the knowledge or control of the official IT department. For example, most IT departments provide email to employees, … Read more