About Emilio Salabarria: Emilio Salabarria is a highly accomplished expert in emergency management and cybersecurity. He's been serving as the Deputy Senior Executive Advisor at Cyber Florida since July 2022. Emilio brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the table when it comes to cybersecurity education, research, training and development, public policies, cybersecurity-related technologies, and critical infrastructure support. He's got some serious experience under his belt too - having previously worked at Tampa Electric Company, the Tampa Port Authority, and The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation. Emilio's career began in 1985 as a firefighter, and he worked his way up to Division Fire Chief of Special Operations at Tampa Fire Rescue. During his time there, Emilio played a key role in the planning of major events such as the Gasparilla Parades, the 2012 Republican National Convention, and Super Bowl 43. Emilio's got a wealth of experience and education to draw on, and he's making a real impact in the fields of emergency management and cybersecurity.

In this episode, Aaron and Emilio Salabarria discuss:

• Risk assessment programs for securing Florida’s critical infrastructure 
• The importance of participating in cybersecurity risk assessments and having a plan for the implementation of recommendations
• Helping small counties prevent a cyber 9/11 by training and assessing them through tabletop exercises and the CSET tool
• The potential impact of a comprehensive cybersecurity assessment tool for improving organizational resilience and preparedness

Key Takeaways:

• Florida is assessing the cybersecurity risks of its public and private entities in 16 sectors to identify weaknesses and provide solutions to enhance preparedness against cyberattacks.
• Participating in cybersecurity risk assessments, such as CSET, is crucial for Florida's critical infrastructure to identify risks and develop effective cybersecurity strategies, and is a low-friction and easy process.
• Tabletop exercises are useful for cybersecurity training, but small counties with understaffed IT departments need more support to participate in them and prevent cyber attacks.
• Completing the CSET tool for cybersecurity assessments to at least 90% can lead to benefits for participating organizations, regardless of whether they answer all questions, and the results from the program in Florida could be applicable to other states and industries.

"What we're trying to do here at Cyber Florida, we're trying to prevent a cyber 9/11. That's what we want to avoid, and that's the reason for the risk assessment, the training, and the report to the state to see what they will do." — Emilio Salabarria

Connect with Emilio Salabarria: 

Website: https://cyberflorida.org/

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilio-f-salabarria-ms-cim-1816334/ and https://www.linkedin.com/company/cyberflorida/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CyberSecurityFL

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cybersecurityfl/

CyberSecureFlorida Initiative: https://cyberflorida.org/cybersecureflorida/

Florida Cybersecurity Grant Program: https://digital.fl.gov/cybersecurity/

Connect with Aaron:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronccrow

Learn more about Industrial Defender:

Website: https://www.industrialdefender.com/podcast 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/industrial-defender-inc/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/iDefend_ICS

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@industrialdefender7120

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.