Creating Connections: Be resilient.

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Here we go. We are starting to move through that phase of the pandemic that some of us worried would never come. The world is opening back up. Vaccines are more widely available. In-person things are starting to happen again. What does that mean for you? Will you be heading back into the office full-time? Will you be keeping your current remote work practices for a prolonged period maybe just to be safe? Will you instead adopt a sort of hybrid version of life as we've known it since March 2020 with some in-person and some remote work?

At the CyberWire, we are going for status quo. Go in if you need to, stay remote if you prefer, do a little of both if that flavor works better. For me, I'm mostly remote and frankly, that's how it's always been for me as my home is a bit far off from our office. I had little adjustment when things closed down except that I started seeing my family members and coworkers MORE often than I did in pre-Covid times. The CyberWire has bi-weekly team meetings and all hands meetings, some weekly focused meetings, online happy hours. It's crazy wonderful how we have been able to connect more than we did previously and we have gotten to know each other better than when we worked in close physical proximity to one another. We've added team members and babies and pets. It's been a period of growth all around for our team, and I am thankful for that.

The cybersecurity community has demonstrated real resiliency during this unprecedented time and we've all found ways to stay connected. I've attended several worthwhile virtual networking events and met so many women who are thriving in this time. There are also those of us who struggle and I'd just encourage you all to continue these practices we've adopted during the pandemic of checking in on one another, connecting virtually, finding time to support others who may not feel they are ready to jump back in with both feet.

Had some great experiences or attended worthwhile events that would interest our Women in Cyber community? We’d love to hear about them. Please email us and we may feature it in our next newsletter.

Misinformation risk and the security community.

By Priyanka Ranade, UMBC Ebiquity Lab

The cyber defenders’ battle against adversaries is an ever-growing challenge. As our technological landscape evolves, so does our attack surface. Although innovative technologies such as AI-based cyber defense systems benefit the security community, they can also be used for malicious intent. I wrote this paper to explore ways Artificial Intelligence technologies can be exploited, in hopes to eventually create more robust systems that defend against the weaknesses discovered in my experimentation. As a defender, it is important to fully understand the risks of a system, in order to protect it. For the women in cyber newsletter, this topic is especially important because understanding risk requires a diverse set of minds to brainstorm unique ways of identifying existing and potential vulnerabilities. Read the full article.

Let’s talk fake news.

By Kelsea Bond, The CyberWire

We’re all aware that it’s a consistently evolving issue in the world, and I’m sure we all know how to spot some misinformation and move on from it. However, according to a survey that the Reboot Foundation did, "less than 1% of the population actually applies true fact-checking techniques when they're reviewing articles” (Quoted by Helen Lee Bouygues in this episode of Hacking Humans). The authors of fake news can be cunning, designing their content to trigger an emotion and spread misinformation even further. Even if you are confident that you can detect and avoid fake news, we can all take a refresher on the importance of the problem and what we can do to avoid it. Because let’s face it, it’s not going away any time soon. Also consider helping educate your parents, grandparents, and children. Older readers have a much higher rate of amplifying fake news over younger people, and our children deserve to be armed with the proper knowledge to defend their impressionable minds from bad information.

With that, here are some common strategies that the Reboot Foundation outlines for fact-checking what you read. Something I’d add to this list: don’t use social media as a source for news.

1. Avoid relying on a single source of information. The best news consumers make a habit of corroborating information by checking it against other reliable sources. This is even true of information shared by someone you know, or that seems to come from a legitimate source.
2. Resist clicking on initial links. The best news consumers look at the landscape of search results before carefully deciding which paths to follow. Many websites are designed to get you to click on links automatically.
3. Familiarize yourself with common fake news tactics. Students in Finland’s media literacy programs explore how fake news leverages emotional reactions. The Bad News game covers five others: trolling, leveraging conspiracy theories, impersonating legitimate sources, discrediting critics, and polarizing their reader base. Often, fake news stories rely on doctored photos or videos; reverse image searching through Tineye or Google can help spot reused photos.
4. Make arguments more precise. Another way to combat fake news is to paraphrase or summarize the arguments being made. This helps reveal weaknesses between the purported evidence and the claims being made.
5. Recognize material designed to persuade. Media literacy programs also teach students to distinguish between paid advertisements and news sources trying to be as objective as possible. The online environment often blurs the distinction, making company press releases or clickbait articles seem like objective news.

First-ever US Cyber Games.

By Dawn White, Katzcy

A small, woman-owned business is spearheading the creation of the inaugural US Cyber Games program to recruit and train the first ever US Cyber Team that will compete at the first International Cyber Security Challenge (ICSC) this December in Athens, Greece. Jessica Gulick, CEO of Katzcy and Commissioner of US Cyber Games, recognizes the importance of enticing more people to consider a career in cybersecurity and improving diversity in the field. She is leading this unique program to accomplish both these goals. Gulick has spent more than 25 years in cyber security, and after obtaining her MBA launched Katzcy, a tech and cyber-focused marketing consulting company with a cyber gaming division called PlayCyber. In a recent article in Dark Reading magazine, Jess wrote about how Cyber as a Sports creates a collaborative method to attract and inspire the next generation of cyber professionals. Read Jessica's article here.

The Daily

Cecelia Marinier from RSA on the RSAC Innovation Sandbox.

Carole Theriault looks at NFTs.

Samantha Madrid of Juniper Networks on establishing automation and security integrations seamlessly.

Liza Mundy on her book "Code Girls - The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers Who Helped Win World War II".

Melissa Gaddis from TransUnion with results from their Global Consumer Pulse study.

Andrea Little Limbago from Interos on cyber related executive orders.

Carole Theriault warns of data privacy leaks in online home tours.

Aimee George Leery from Booz Allen on the challenging intersection of secure spaces and work from home. 

Carole Theriault wonders if the internet of things is becoming the internet of everything.

Andrea Little Limbago from Interos on bringing the private sector back into the defense equation.

Malek Ben Salem from Accenture looks at optimizing security scanning. 

Research Saturday

Erica Mitchell from Army Cyber Institute joins us to talk about their infrastructure resiliency research project called Jack Voltaic.

Career Notes

Dominique West: Security found me. [Strategy]

Baan Alsinawi: Trust ourselves and be courageous. [Compliance]

Margaret Cunningham: A people scientist with a technology focus. [Behavioral science]

CSO Perspectives

Ann Johnson, Microsoft’s Corporate VP on Security, Compliance, & Identity joins the conversation on New CISO responsibilities: supply chain.

Helen Patton, CISO for Duo Security’s Advisory joins the conversation on How to buy security products.

Dawn Cappelli, the Rockwell Automation's CISO joins the conversation on CxO professional development.

Caveat

Leeann Nicolo is a ransomware negotiation expert from Coalition who joins Dave to discuss how they determine to pay out a ransomware gang.

Rita Garry from Robbins, Salomon & Patt on how data privacy laws are failing US consumers and businesses.

Hacking Humans

Helen Lee Bouygues of the Reboot Foundation joins Dave to talk about social media’s effect within the misinformation ecosystem and how users can best fight fake news.

8th Layer Insights

Stephanie Paul joins the conversation on Unleashing Trojan Horses for the Mind.

Allie Wong & Samantha North join the conversation on The Battle for Truth: Disinformation, Misinformation, & Conspiracies.

Security Unlocked: CISO Series with Bret Arsenault

Amy Coleman joins the conversation on The Human Side of Hybrid Work.

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