Creating Connections: Setting your mark for 2021.

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Welcome to the first issue of Creating Connections for 2021. I'm a planner. At the beginning of each year, I think about the plans I am making both professionally and personally and start to chart out how I'd like to get to the marks that we as a leadership team at the CyberWire set or I set for myself. Those marks could be goals I hope the CyberWire can achieve in terms of audience, attendees or even launches of new podcasts. Personally, I am not a resolution maker. I don't keep to them, so why set myself up for that disappointment? If you are one who can set those resolutions and keep that new or changed habit going, I'm in awe of you. As we all know from living through 2020 and its myriad of challenges and changes, all of the planning in the world can't guarantee success and we will need to stay (or become) flexible so we can pivot to rise to those challenges while still chasing those goals.

We are looking forward to a year of growth here at the CyberWire. January 19th is actually the 5th anniversary of the CyberWire Daily Podcast's public launch. Since then, we've launched a dozen new podcasts and several new newsletters including this one! We have a new podcast coming that our team describes below. The first episode will be a good one if you are thinking of pivoting to a new position in 2021. Please consider tuning in and sharing it with colleagues and friends in the industry.

I hope 2021 gives you the opportunities you desire to fulfill your plans, dreams, resolutions, you name it. Go for that position you've had your eye on, take on a new certification, start a local chapter of a group that means so much to you, volunteer to be a mentor to share your experiences and expertise with a younger version of yourself. Need a little inspiration on the mentoring option? Check out the CyberWire's Career Notes podcasts and listen to the professionals we feature as we ask all of our interviewees for the advice they'd give to those interested in entering our industry. They give great ideas on how you can make a difference. Feeling like you'd like to share your career journey with our audience? Add that to the list of marks you'd like to make for 2021 and email us. We are happy to talk more with you about it. In fact, our team welcomes your ideas for podcast interviews, thought leadership pieces for this newsletter such as Marcelle Lee's story below, research you've done, and maybe even things we haven't thought about. Send us your ideas.

A final note: The CyberWire team is always interested in your safety and to that end, and with a little fun in mind, we created our Anti-Malwear line. Anti-Malwear is personal security that keeps away the bad, and does a little good. Our latest piece of Anti-Malwear are masks to protect you and keep the bad out. In honor of the Daily Podcast's 5th anniversary, the first five readers who share our latest issue on social media and encourage followers to check it out and subscribe will get your own personal piece of Anti-Malwear. Just email the link to your post along with your mailing address to get your mask.

Read a good article relating to Women in Cyber recently? We’d love to hear about it! Please email us with the link and we may feature it in our next newsletter.

A day in the life of a security researcher.

By Marcelle Lee, Senior Security Researcher and Emerging Threats Lead, Secureworks. Follow her on Twitter @marcellelee.

What is security research? For me, it is the perpetual hunt to identify malicious cyber activity and threat actors. Sometimes I refer to it as collecting all the shiny cyber things. Either way, security research is a fabulous role because you can focus on areas that interest you. My focus is on cybercrime and emerging threats but the possible topics are broad and virtually endless. In my expanded article, I will cover the tactics, techniques, and procedures” (TTPs) I use and will also share some of the recent research on threat actor campaigns and activity that I am currently working on in my role as a senior security researcher. Read the full article.

Would you like to be featured in a future issue of the Creating Connections newsletter? We are currently accepting submissions for pieces written by women, about women, and information on women in cyber related events. Simply email us to get started. 

Jonna Mendez: Highlights from her CyberWire podcast interviews.

By Jennifer Eiben, The CyberWire

Jonna Mendez is a woman of many faces, literally. She was the CIA's Chief of Disguise and even attended a meeting in the Oval Office with President George H.W. Bush in a full mask. In her interview on the CyberWire's social engineering-focused podcast, Hacking Humans, she describes to host Dave Bittner how there was a photographer in the Oval Office that day. Here is an excerpt of Jonna's recollection of the meeting and the photographer and her photo from that day:

Jonna Mendez: [00:36:38] So I'm holding it (the mask) up in the air so he (President George HW Bush) can see that it's like a feather. It's lighter than air. And there's a photographer in the room. I think with a lot of these meetings, they're always in there. So I hear her going, you know, (imitating camera). She's walking around and taking pictures. I was the first one to brief the president. I was the first one to leave. So I went out into the secretary's office. That dog that they had - Millie and her puppies - they were out there. So I was playing with the puppies. And the photographer came out. And she came over and said, what was that? What did you do? And I said, I can't tell you. It's classified. 

Dave Bittner: [00:37:18] (Laughter). 

Jonna Mendez: [00:37:19] So I get this look. I said, but you photographed it, you know? It's there. It took 10 years for me to get the picture. And after 10 years, they sent me the picture, and they have - I'm holding the mask up in the air. That's the one they chose to send me. And they airbrushed the mask out. So I have a picture here in my office at home of me sitting in front of the President of the United States with my hand in the air... 

Dave Bittner: [00:37:48] Holding nothing. 

Jonna Mendez: [00:37:49] ...Holding nothing. 

You can listen to that full interview here. Jonna has had such an interesting and varied career. She started working in Europe in the financial sector and eventually moved into working for the US Government. She discusses it in great detail in that interview with Dave. In addition, Jonna appeared on our Daily Podcast where she discussed her latest book, "The Moscow Rules," that she co-wrote along her late husband Tony Mendez. The book describes some of the cat-and-mouse games played between U.S. and Russian intelligence agencies throughout the Cold War. You can listen to that interview with Dave here. I recommend the book. I was fortunate to meet Jonna at our 6th Annual Women in Cyber Security reception at the International Spy Museum where she signed my copy of the book! Jonna is a Founding Board Member and member of the Advisory Board at the International Spy Museum. You can find stories of Jonna's and husband Tony's CIA experiences in the Covert Action area of the Spy Museum's exhibits.

I hope these glimpses into two interviews with one woman who worked in disguise and code enlighten you to the depth of the CyberWire's podcast guests. If you have ideas for future guests, please share them with us by emailing us.

Coming soon...Women in cybersecurity podcasts.

The CyberWire staff

The CyberWire values diversity in the cybersecurity industry, its programming, guests, and audience. Since 2014, the CyberWire has welcomed women working in any aspect of the cybersecurity industry across the employment spectrum from students to senior level executives to its annual Women in Cyber Security reception. In 2020, with the pandemic raging, many in-person events were not held including the CyberWire's popular networking event. To augment our programming, the CyberWire is launching a special podcast and virtual event series. The Creating Connections podcast series will be held as live online webcast events with the audio components released as podcasts. Curated panels of women will discuss topics important to women in the field and the cybersecurity industry as a whole. Our first of the series is launching in early February focusing on women working the cleared environment with sponsor Northrop Grumman and facilitator Kathleen Smith from ClearedJobs.net. Stay tuned...will be announcing the event date on social media soon. Should your company be interested in learning more about this podcast series and highlighting your work in diversity, contact us. We look forward to sharing these podcasts with you!

Betsy Carmelite from Booz Allen with insights from their 2021 Cyber Threat Trends Report on the Daily Podcast and she continues here on the Daily Podcast.

Nina Jankowicz from Wilson Center on her new book - How to Lose the Information War - Russia, Fake News, and the Future of Conflict on the Daily Podcast and how a pandemic is a perfect environment for disinformation to thrive on Caveat. 

Ann Johnson, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President of Cybersecurity Business Development, talks about her experience and career story on Career Notes.

Carey O’Connor Kolaja from AU10TIX on fraud in the financial services and payment industry, and how organizations are using emerging technical solutions to help combat it on Hacking Humans.

Selena Larson of Dragos, Inc. joins us on Research Saturday to discuss their research into how the manufacturing sector is increasingly a target for adversaries.

Michelle Litteken from Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP on an unexpected cybersecurity compliance rule that is forcing government contractors to act quickly.

Andrea Little Limbago from Interos on democracies aligning against global techno-dictators on the Daily Podcast, and hear about her career journey as Computational Social Scientist at Interos on Career Notes.

Jessi Marcoff from Privitar on trend toward Chief People Officers on the Daily Podcast.

Rebecca McKeown, an independent Chartered Psychologist with experience researching and evaluating learning and development across the Ministry of Defence, joins Carole Theriault on Hacking Humans to discuss the psychology of cyber response.

Alyssa Miller joins us on Research Saturday to talk about Synk's Advertising Software Development Kit (SDK): serving up more than just in-app ads and logging sensitive data.

Jennifer Strong, host of the new MIT Technology Review podcast, "In Machines We Trust," on Caveat.

Ellen Sundra, Vice President of Global Systems Engineering at Forescout, shares the story of her career path on Career Notes.

Zan Vautrinot, Air Force Major General (retired), Board Director Wells Fargo, Battelle, and City of Hope, shares her expertise as a member of the Hash Table on CSO Perspectives (a CyberWire Pro podcast).

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