Government Information Security Podcast

Robert Rodriguez thinks there are plenty of innovative ideas emanating from American entrepreneurs to secure information systems that those responsible for federal government cybersecurity haven't heard of.

Rodriguez is chairman of the Security Innovation Network, which was created to bridge the gap between Silicon Valley and the Beltway by encouraging collaboration between entrepreneurs and government on developing IT security solutions.

In an interview with GovInfoSecurity.com, Rodriguez spoke of the officials charged with securing government IT:

Rodriguez, in the interview conducted by GovInfoSecurity.com's Eric Chabrow, assesses the current relationship between business and government in tackling cybersecurity challenges and the efforts by the Security Innovation Network to facilitate that cooperation.

In an interview with GovInfoSecurity.com, Ross discusses the:

Ross was interviewed by GovInfoSecurity.com's Eric Chabrow.

The highly regarded NIST senior computer scientist and information security researcher serves as the institute's FISMA implementation project leader. He also supports the State Department in the international outreach program for information security and critical infrastructure protection. Ross previously served as the director of the National Information Assurance Partnership, a joint activity of NIST and the National Security Agency.

A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Ross served in a variety of leadership and technical positions during his 20-year career in the Army. While assigned to the National Security Agency, he received the Scientific Achievement Award for his work on an interagency national security project and was awarded the Defense Superior Service Medal upon his departure from the agency. He's a two-time recipient of the Federal 100 award for his leadership and technical contributions to critical information security projects affecting the federal government. During his military career, Ross served as a White House aide and as a senior technical advisor to the Department of the Army.

Ross is a graduate of the Program Management School at the Defense Systems Management College and holds a master and Ph.D. in computer science from the United States Naval Postgraduate School.

In an exclusive interview, Chambers discusses:

Chambers began his career in 1976 with the U.S. General Accounting Office, where he first became an internal auditor. He firmly established himself in government internal auditing and was named Worldwide Director of Internal Review for the United States Army in 1993. He later served as Deputy Inspector General for the United States Postal Service and Inspector General for The Tennessee Valley Authority. In 2001, Chambers joined The IIA staff as vice president, Learning Center. After a brief tenure as "acting president," he left The IIA in 2004 to join PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he most recently served as national practice leader, Internal Audit Advisory Services.

Throughout his career, Chambers has served on numerous boards and panels, including the U.S. President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency, the City of Orlando Florida Audit Board, and The IIA's Internal Audit Standards Board. He has served in various leadership roles at The IIA since 1994.

Alex Cox, a research consultant and principal analyst at the IT security firm NetWitness, discovered last month the Kneber botnet, a variant of the ZueS Trojan that he says has infested 75,000 systems in 2,500 corporate and governmental organizations worldwide. (See Botnet Strikes 2,500 Organizations Worldwide.)

In an interview, Cox describes:

• How the Kneber botnet works.

Cox was interviewed by Eric Chabrow, GovInfoSecurity.com managing editor.

But how do security leaders manage social media before all these new tools and technologies become unmanageable?

Jerry Mechling is a prominent author and lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School, and in an exclusive interview he discusses:

Mechling, Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, is Founder of the Leadership for a Networked World Program and the Harvard Policy Group on Network-Enabled Services and Government. He is also a Research Vice President of Gartner. His studies focus on the impacts of information and digital technologies on individual, organizational, and societal issues. He consults on these and other topics with public and private organizations locally and internationally. He is primary author of Eight Imperatives for Leaders in a Networked World, a series of policy papers.

A Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and a Board of Visitors Member of the National Defense University, he received the NASCIO National Technology Champion Award in 2005, and is a four-time winner of the Federal 100 Award. Dr. Mechling was formerly a Fellow of the Kennedy School Institute of Politics, served as an aide to the Mayor and Assistant Administrator of the New York City Environmental Protection Administration, and as Director of the Office of Management and Budget for the City of Boston.

In an interview, Kark discusses each principle, including:

Kark focuses on information security issues for clients of Forrester Research, a Cambridge, Mass.-based firm that offers consulting as well as research reports.

The hack on Gmail e-mail accounts of activists promoting human rights emanating from China is a reminder to government officials about the security and privacy threats cloud computing - Gmail is a cloud computing offering from Google - pose.

"It makes us more aware of some of the things we need to be doing as we need to do to be ready to go into cloud computing," David Matthews, Seattle deputy chief information security officer, said in an interview with GovInfoSecurity.com. "It was kind of a wake up call, in a way, for all of us to really think about this is (as) security as usual. We really need to pay attention to our security and our issues and be aware of what we're jumping into when we jump into cloud computing and be ready for it."

Matthews, who is a member of the American Bar Association's Science and Technology Committee, which has been conversing about the legal and privacy concerns of cloud computing the past few years, spoke with GovInfoSecurity.com's Eric Chabrow.

In the interview, Matthews also addressed the:

Further reading:

But where can security leaders find qualified forensics professionals? How can these professionals obtain the skills and expertise they need to be successful?

Rob Lee of Mandiant and SANS Institute discusses forensics careers, focusing on:

Lee, a director with Mandiant and curriculum lead for digital forensic training at SANS Institute, has more than 13 years experience in computer forensics, vulnerability and exploit discovery, intrusion detection/prevention, and incident response. Rob graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy and served in the U.S. Air Force as a founding member of the 609th Information Warfare Squadron, the first U.S. military operational unit focused on Information Operations. Later, he was a member of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations where he conducted computer crime investigations, incident response, and computer forensics. Prior to joining MANDIANT, he directly worked with a variety of government agencies in the law enforcement, Dept. of Defense, and intelligence communities where he was the technical lead for a vulnerability discovery and exploit development team, lead for a cyber forensics branch, and led a computer forensic and security software development team. Rob also coauthored the bestselling book, Know Your Enemy, 2nd Edition. Rob earned his MBA from Georgetown University. Finally, Rob was awarded the "Digital Forensic Examiner of the Year" from the Forensic 4Cast 2009 Awards.

Gartner's Avivah Litan shares her insights in an exclusive interview with Information Security Media Group's Linda McGlasson, discussing:

Litan has more than 30 years of experience in the IT industry and is a Gartner Research vice president and distinguished analyst. Her areas of expertise include financial fraud, authentication, access management, identity proofing, identity theft, fraud detection and prevention applications, as well as other areas of information security and risk. She also covers the security related to payment systems and PCI compliance.

The Director of Education, Training and Outreach at Carnegie Mellon University's CyLab, Dena discusses:

Dena oversees education, training and outreach for Carnegie Mellon CyLab, the university's cybersecurity research center. She leads the MySecureCyberspace initiative to raise "cyber awareness" in Internet users of all ages through a portal, game and curriculum. She guides the education initiatives of the NSF Situational Awareness for Everyone center, which explores ways to improve computer defenses by incorporating models of human, computer and attack interactions into the defenses themselves. Also through CyLab, she serves as Principle Investigator on two NSF-funded programs: the Scholarship for Service (SFS) program and the Information Assurance Capacity Building Program (IACBP). The SFS program provides full scholarships to highly qualified students pursuing studies in information assurance. The IACBP is an intensive summer program to help build information assurance education and research capacity at minority-serving colleges and universities.