Creating Connections: Wrapping up the year.

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Happy holidays to all. It's hard to believe we're about to turn the corner on 2022, and soon will be looking at 2023 right in front of us! Wrapping up a year is always a time for reflection. 2022 did not disappoint. We were able to do many things that the previous years of the pandemic kept from us. I was so happy to gather with many of you in October at the CyberWire's 2022 Women in Cybersecurity event! Be sure when you are planning for your 2023 events, you put October 19, 2023 on the calendar to join us. We will definitely hold another panel like we did this year and are thinking of ways to expand the event. Share your suggestions!

The CyberWire itself has gone through many changes this year, we started the year with 3 women on our team and are finishing 2022 with 8! We just welcomed Milly Lardy to our ad operations team this month taking the percentage of women on our team to 40%! And, next month, our merger with the team at CyberVista will bring even more women to the team. I so look forward to working with the entire team to expand our news to knowledge network with their amazing workforce development tools. Follow along as our combined N2K Networks transforms and grows! And, a bonus, the CyberWire team will be lead by a woman, N2K President Simone Petrella!

My next milestone for women in cybersecurity is definitely March 8, 2023. International Women's Day and indeed, extending the celebration for the entire month of March. We've got some ideas for celebrating women in our industry all month long. Stay tuned. And while you are at it, you can check out some of the many amazing career journeys shared on our Career Notes podcast by women and men in our industry. Perhaps you will be inspired to share your story? We are always happy to hear from you! Drop me a line.

Cheers to an amazing 2023 to all! Thank you for your support of diversity, equity, and inclusion in cybersecurity and beyond.

We’d love to hear from you. Tweet us what you are are proud of from 2022 and what you are looking forward to in 2023 to @thecyberwire and use the hashtag #womenincyber.

How do you staff a SOC over the holidays?

By Lisa Tetrault, Vice President, Global Security Operations, Arctic Wolf 

The holiday season is a merry time for everyone. Preoccupied with gift-giving and decorating, it’s natural for people to let down their guard when hunting for great deals or responding to one-time requests from coworkers trying to plan their vacations. But threat actors don’t take time off, and as recent history has shown from Log4J and Kaseya attacks, attackers are poised to do the most damage when their targets are off celebrating outside the office. 

That’s why maintaining or hiring a fully staffed and prepared Security Operations Center can be critical for organizations trying to stay secure and prevent ill-timed breaches. But how can security leaders balance the need to require their staff to stay alert 24/7 with the social responsibilities that come with the holiday season? The answer, as it is in most situations in the cybersecurity industry, is to prepare well ahead of time for any possible scenario, no matter how far-fetched. Read the full article on the CyberWire. 

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 reply to this email to get started. 

Breaking the glass ceiling: My journey to close the leadership gap.

By Connie Stack, CEO, Next DLP

It’s no big secret – the cybersecurity industry has a gender disparity problem. According to (ISC)² Cybersecurity Workforce Study, women account for only 24% of the workforce. When it comes to the C-Suite, women fare even worse at a mere 11%. Compared to just a few years ago, these numbers represent a great improvement, but a lot of work still needs to be done.

As an industry that is positioned to expand significantly, it’s a business imperative that women play an integral role to help shape growth and culture. Why? Because diversity is good for business. According to McKinsey’s Diversity Matters, companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 15% more likely to have financial returns above their respective national medians. Read the full article on the CyberWire. 

Looking forward to the new year.

By Liz Irvin, Associate Producer, CyberWire

As the year comes to a close, I have been reflecting on starting here at the CyberWire back in March and some of the accomplishments I have been able to be a part of with this amazing team. We here at the CyberWire have had a big year, hosting the first ever Women in Cybersecurity Panel, which was an absolute treat to be a part of, and of course I have to brag just a little bit about how great the event itself was. We have merged with our friends over at CyberVista to create a new company, and we are all excited for the opportunity that holds! And then of course, just little projects I, myself, along with some of our amazing audio guys have helped me to create. I really can’t praise everyone here at the CyberWire enough for all the amazing work we have put out this year, and I hope you, as members of our audience, have been enjoying the content as much as I have. 

I never came from a cyber background or even have any experience, but I’ve found that in creating content for the past nine months, it is very hard to not learn a thing or two! The new year is coming up quicker than I could have ever imagined and I am so excited to start again, creating content, working on new projects, but I am also excited to open presents and be with my family and friends and eat some of the thousands of cookies my mother and I baked this past week and a half. I really hope everyone enjoys their holiday season with family, or friends or loved ones, and you are met with a bright and beautiful New Year. Happy holidays to all who celebrate and I will see you all in the new year!

A trip around the sun in cyber.

By Eliana White, Senior Digital Media Marketing Manager, CyberWire

I’ve officially been with the CyberWire for one whole year (woohoo)! Being a marketer in cybersecurity means that I don’t have to be a subject matter expert but I should be able to reach those that are. Though, it creates the unique opportunity to learn so much!

My biggest job is really understanding the “why”; why are these topics significant? Why should anyone care? In figuring out these “whys”, it’s not hard to believe that I learned a whole lot about different cybersecurity concepts. I found myself utilizing our CyberWire Glossary to define some of the key terms I was using on a regular basis in our messaging, and I realized that one day I didn’t need the glossary as much anymore because I had actually learned them!

I probably can’t explain the significance of concepts and topics like Zero Trust or Critical Infrastructure the way our CSO, Rick Howard can, but I’m happy for the knowledge that I’ve gained.

Looking ahead.

By Gina Johnson, Senior Sales and Ad Operations Specialist, CyberWire

As we wind down on 2022 and look ahead to 2023, I find that there are so many things that I am excited about. The CyberWire has grown, and with that growth comes exciting possibilities for our amazing company. I am eager to hit the ground running, meeting and working with our new colleagues, and watching how the CyberWire continues to forge ahead. 2022 brought a lot of personal and professional changes for me, all of them good, and I can’t wait to see what 2023 has in store for me, my family, and my colleagues. I wish all of our audience the very best as we say goodbye to this chapter and look ahead to the next, and hope this holiday season brings all of the magic and good things that you hope for. Here’s to the next chapter, cheers!

We close this year sharing a few favorites from the past month that we've heard around our studio.

12 Days of Malware.

Who doesn't like getting into the holiday mood, cybersecurity-style? Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the CyberWire and our friends! Enjoy our rendition of the 12 Days of Malware created by Dave Bittner and performed by Dave and friends: Rachel Tobac, Jayson Street, Ron Eddings & Chris Cochran, Ray [Redacted], Dinah Davis, Camille Stewart, Rick Howard, Michelle Dennedy, Jack Rhysider, Johannes Ullrich, and Charity Wright. Ba dum bum bum. Sing along if you are game! 

Hacking Humans Goes to the Movies.

On this limited series, Hacking Humans co-host Dave Bittner is joined by Rick Howard in this series where they view clips from their favorite movies and television shows with examples of the social engineering scams and schemes you hear Dave and co-host Joe Carrigan talk about on Hacking Humans. In this episode, Dave and Rick watch each of the selected scenes, describe the on-screen action for you, and then they deconstruct what they saw. Grab your bowl of popcorn and join us for some fantastic scams and frauds.

On this episode, Dave and Rick are joined once again by Tracy Maleeff, security researcher at the Krebs Stamos Group. You may also know Tracy on Twitter as infosecsherpa.

Links to this episode's clips if you'd like to follow along:

• Rick's clip from the movie Criminal
• Tracy's clip from the movie The Talented Mr. Ripley

The final episode of Hacking Humans Goes to the Movies (HHGTM) for 2022 will air on December 29th. It's called "Sisters, grifters, and shifters." Subscribers to the Hacking Humans and CyberWire Daily podcasts will get it in their podcast feeds. It features guest contributor Amanda Fennell. You can find Amanda on Twitter at @Chi_from_afar. HHGTM will be back in 2023!

Farewell to Security Sandbox podcast.

Speaking of Amanda Fennell, her podcast, Security Sandbox with the team at Relativity is wrapping up its run with this week's episode on the CyberWire network. Catch Amanda and friends and colleagues, Relativity’s Senior Director of Engineering, Matt Spurr, and Cyber Security Architect, Darian Lewis, as they take the sandbox goes back to where it all started – and where it will end – for an honest conversation on how they built the security program at Relativity: what went right, the mistakes they made, and – maybe most importantly – the lessons they learned along the way. We wish Amanda and team the best!

CyberWire Daily

Cecilia Seiden of TransUnion discusses their 2022 Consumer Holiday Shopping Report. 

Andrea Little Limbago from Interos on the implications of Albania cutting off diplomatic ties with Iran.

CyberWire space correspondent Maria Varmazis speaks with Brandon Bailey about Space Attack Research and Tactic Analysis matrix. 

Ann Johnson from Afternoon Cyber Tea speaks with Charles Blauner about the evolution of the CISO role. 

IDology's Christina Luttrell to discuss how consumers feel about digital identity, fraud, security and data privacy. 

Carole Theriault describes a UK food store chain that uses facial recognition technology to track those with criminal or antisocial behavior. 

Lisa Plaggemier from the National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA) on the launch of their Historically Black Colleges and Universities Career Program.

Microsoft’s Ann Johnson from Afternoon Cyber Tea speaks with Dr. Chenxi Wang from Rain Capital.

Giulia Porter of RoboKiller discusses their Mid-Year Report.

Career Notes

Jameeka Aaron, Chief Information Security Officer at Auth0, a product unit of Okta, sits down to share her story following two different paths that led her to where she is today. Jameeka has 20 years of IT and cybersecurity experience and has mitigated security risks at Nike, the U.S. Navy, and now Auth0. She joined the Navy not knowing what she wanted to do after high school and ended up becoming a Radioman, which is now titled IT. She shares her experiences of challenges she faced being the youngest, and the only woman, and the only woman of color in her group. She followed two different paths, getting an education as well as being in the Navy, and started her career at Lockheed Martin Mission Systems in San Diego. She eventually found her way to Auth0 in 2018. She says "I realized cybersecurity folks can do anything, everywhere. We're everywhere, we're in every industry and so I started to kind of say, I wanna work on programs that are fun for me." 

Caveat

Betsy Cooper, Director of the Aspen Tech Policy Hub sits down with Dave to discuss their recent research on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. 

CyberWire-X

Between the emergence of sophisticated nation-state actors, the rise of ransomware-as-a-service, the increasing attack surface remote work presents, and much more, organizations today contend with more complex risk than ever. A “Secure-by-Design” approach can secure software environments, development processes and products. That approach includes increasing training for employees, adopting zero trust, leveraging Red Teams, and creating a unique triple-build software development process. SolarWinds calls its version of this process the "Next-Generation Build System," and offers it as a model for secure software development that will make supply chain attacks more difficult. On this episode of CyberWire-X, host Rick Howard, N2K’s CSO, and CyberWire’s Chief Analyst and Senior Fellow, discusses software supply chain lessons learned from the SolarWinds attack of 2020 with Hash Table members Rick Doten, the CISO for Healthcare Enterprises and Centene, Steve Winterfeld, Akamai's Advisory CISO, and Dawn Cappelli, Director of OT-CERT at Dragos, and in the second half of the show, Rick speaks with our episode sponsor, SolarWinds, CISO Tim Brown.

Hacking Humans

Carole Theriault interviews DEFCON Black Badge holder Chris Kirsch from RunZero on the recent DEFCON 30 vishing competition. 

Giulia Porter, Vice President of RoboKiller, discusses their mid-year report on phone scams. 

Carole Theriault sits down to interview Dr. Jessica Barker from Cygenta to discuss the latest Instagram scams and how to avoid them. 

Afternoon Cyber Tea

Chenxi Wang, founder and general partner of Rain Capital, a seed-stage venture fund focused on Cybersecurity, joins Ann on this week's episode of Afternoon Cyber Tea. Dr. Wang, an outspoken advocate for women in tech, was named Women Investor of 2021 and 2019 by CyberRisk Alliance and Women Tech Founders and is a well-known cybersecurity operator, technologist, and thought leader. Ann and Dr. Wang discuss what is impacting current cyber investments, innovations that will shape the next 7-10 years, and the value of diversity, inclusion, and representation in cyber.

8th Layer Insights

Marta L. Tellado, President and CEO at Consumer Reports, discusses the digital moment we are in and what that means for consumers and the marketplace: the risks, dangers, traps, and also the places and paths that can lead to progress. They also discuss Marta's new book, Buyer Aware: Harnessing Our Consumer Power for a Safe, Fair, and Transparent Marketplace.

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