From the Summer 2016 Issue

Colorado Springs: Cyber Hub of the West

Author(s):

Dr. Patrick J. Laverty, Senior Cybersecurity Engineer, TASC, An Engility Company

It seems like every conversation I have these days is centered on the growth of cybersecurity and the opportunities that growth presents in Colorado Springs. The city is quickly becoming a hub of cyber activities in our nation, and has an opportunity to play a vital role in the shaping of cyber policy and to … Read more

From the Summer 2016 Issue

Counterterrorism Tradecraft in Advanced Persistent Threat Mitigation

Author(s):

Joe Malik, CEO, Consolidated Research Group

Revisiting the Cyber Kill Chain The Cyber Kill Chain is considered a benchmark for cyberintrusion detection. It is functionally analogous to the Terrorism Kill Chain in all but one respect.1 Intrusions are now a much broader problem class than they were when the Cyber Kill Chain was developed. However, if hackers tend to use trend-focused … Read more

From the Summer 2016 Issue

Cyber Intelligence: Mind Mining

Author(s):

Dr. Alenka Brown, President , McClure, Brown & Associates LLC

Dr. Joe McClure VanHoozer, Founder, McClure, Brown & Associates LLC

All cyber operations begin with humans. We are rule-bound, predictable creatures who consistently exhibit sense-based indicative patterns in everything we do. It is humans who build the “culture of computers, information technology, and virtual reality” of today’s interactions.1 These patterns are evident in our daily interactions with others, in the technology we build, and in … Read more

From the Summer 2016 Issue

A New PC Cybersecurity and Ownership Paradigm

Author(s):

Allen Shay, Founder, CyberSpa LLC

Windows PCs have now been around for over 30 years, and Microsoft’s operating system still holds a nearly 90% share of the desktop and laptop ecosystem worldwide.1 While PC unit sales are on the decline, utilization is not. People are simply keeping their computers longer.2 There are several factors contributing to the desire on the … Read more

From the Summer 2016 Issue

ISRAEL’S CYBER ECOSYSTEM

Author(s):

Staff Writer, , United States Cybersecurity Magazine

Even before Dan Senor and Saul Singer’s country profile in their bestseller Start-Up Nation, Israel wrote the book on startups, literally.  While ranked a mere 154th in country size, Israel is reinventing itself yet again. Combining the perfect storm of armies of STEM graduates, waves of skilled immigrants, mandatory military service, and good old-fashioned chutzpah, … Read more

From the Summer 2016 Issue

Perimeter Defense: The Reverse Proxy

Author(s):

Michael Ryan, CEO, South River Technologies

Nearly all businesses protect vital internal assets by means of a firewall: a software- or hardware-based solution that sits between the corporate LAN and the external internet. These firewalls are designed to limit, regulate, and monitor traffic that passes between the public internet and the private corporate LAN. Unfortunately, as hacking techniques get more sophisticated, … Read more

From the Summer 2016 Issue

Danger within the Walls

Author(s):

Robert Lord, Co-Founder, Protenus, Inc.

Healthcare suffers more breaches than any other field, with 90 percent of organizations having suffered at least one data breach in the past two years,1 and nearly half, or 45 percent, having more than five data breaches in the same period.2 Despite experiencing its worst year in history, with over 111 million records breached in … Read more

From the Summer 2016 Issue

Identity and Access Management: The Quiet Disruption in Security Engineering

Author(s):

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

We are on the cusp of a revolution in information security engineering. Even a cursory glance at the security technoscape shows a shift away from perimeter-based defenses and their electronic ramparts, bastions, and moats, toward mechanisms that automatically regulate access to data resources and processing functionality in real time. This is consistent with and reflective … Read more

From the Summer 2016 Issue

Eyes on the Inside: Combating the Insider Threat

Author(s):

Amanda Fortner, Managing Editor, United States Cybersecurity Magazine

Jim Mazotas would never forget the call. His company was doing a vulnerability audit for a medium-sized university which suspected its admins of misconduct. The work had started on a Friday, and would continue for the entire weekend; he got the call on Sunday night. “[My team] said, ‘You need to come over here,’” Mazotas … Read more

From the Summer 2016 Issue

Cyber Hygiene: Not Just a Buzzword

Author(s):

Evan Dornbush, Co-Founder and CEO, Point3 Security, Inc.

On That Day, Everything Changed When Target Corporation was breached in 2013, leading to the loss of over 110 million customer records, it was following industry best practices to ensure that corporate assets were properly protected. It employed internal security practitioners. It outsourced niche services such as penetration testing and malware analysis to specialists. Its … Read more