To The Point - Cybersecurity

This week we dive into the hot topic of cyber insurance with Dr. Josephine Wolff, Associate Professor of Cybersecurity Policy at Tufts University The Fletcher School and author of the book "You'll See This Message When it is Too Late: The Legal and Economic Aftermath of Cybersecurity Breaches" (MIT Press 2018). We explore the dynamic industry of cyber insurance and key policy areas such as defining cyber war, the impact of the increase of ransomware the last two years (some stats put it at 150% increase!), and how to change security behaviors. She also shares insights on AI and the always looming theme of bias as well as the importance of always keeping a human in the loop. And, be sure to look out for her new book on cyber insurance with MIT Press coming out in August 2022.

Josephine Wolff - Associate Professor of Cybersecurity Policy at Tufts University's The Fletcher School

Josephine Wolff is an associate professor of cybersecurity policy and has been associated with The Fletcher School at Tufts University since 2019. Her research interests include international Internet governance, cyber-insurance, security responsibilities and liability of online intermediaries, government-funded programs for cybersecurity education and workforce development, and the legal, political, and economic consequences of cybersecurity incidents. Her book "You'll See This Message When It Is Too Late: The Legal and Economic Aftermath of Cybersecurity Breaches" was published by MIT Press in 2018. Her writing on cybersecurity has also appeared in Slate, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Wired. Prior to joining Fletcher, she was an assistant professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology and a fellow at the New America Cybersecurity Initiative and Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. She received received a Ph.D. in Engineering Systems and M.S. in Technology and Policy from MIT, and an A.B. in mathematics from Princeton. As a student, she also spent time at Microsoft, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the Department of Defense.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephine-wolff-1baa414b/

For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at https://www.forcepoint.com/govpodcast/e168

Forcepoint CEO Manny Rivelo joins the podcast this week to share perspective on what's security in 2022 and beyond. Did you know hacking is really big business – money from attacks is equivalent to the world's third largest economy, behind the U.S. and China. As hackers are innovating faster businesses are struggling to keep up. He shares insights on how the industry can help organizations can get past the conga line of security tools and moving at digital speed. And he shares perspective on the criticality of putting security at the center of design thinking and making security equal to connectivity, along with thoughts on hot topics today including the metaverse and Web3.

Manny Rivelo, CEO, Forcepoint

Manny Rivelo is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Forcepoint. As Forcepoint CEO, Rivelo drives the company's strategy to accelerate enterprise and government agency adoption of a modern approach to security that embraces the emerging Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) architecture. According to Gartner, more than 40 percent of enterprises will embrace SASE by 2024.

Rivelo brings to Forcepoint more than 30 years of experience across executive leadership, product management, customer support and sales functions with some of the world's leading security and information technology companies. Rivelo joined Forcepoint from global investment firm Francisco Partners Consulting where he served as Senior Operating Partner. Prior to Francisco Partners, he was Chief Customer Officer at Arista Networks, where he was responsible for the company's global sales and field marketing functions. Previously he also served as President & CEO of AppViewX, a low-code infrastructure automation provider.

Additional senior leadership roles included F5 Networks where he served as President and CEO as well as Executive Vice President, Security, Service Provider and Strategic Solutions responsible for launching and driving new market adjacencies in Security and Service Providers, Product Management, Marketing, and Business / Corporate Development. Prior to F5 Networks, Rivelo held various senior leadership roles at Cisco Systems including Senior Vice President of the Engineering and Operations group. While at Cisco, he oversaw roles in sales and multiple businesses, drove technical solution requirements for Cisco customers of all sizes and was responsible for operational excellence, standardization around processes and tools as well as enabling new business models.

Rivelo is currently a Director at Sandvine, Outdoorsy, WootCloud, Valtix and Fashwire. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology.

For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at https://www.forcepoint.com/govpodcast/e167

This week Noam Maital, CEO and Co-founder of Waycare Technologies, a subsidiary of Rekor, joins us to share insights on a topic we haven't yet covered on the podcast – shaping the future of city mobility. Imagine the significant amount of data aggregation and synthesis through AI critical in the management of our roadways, traffic flow and emergency response – that also helps power and draw data from many of the mobile and in-car maps we utilize today. Noam paints a picture of the data explosion coming the next few years as more and more smart and autonomous vehicles come online – expected to generate around 4TB of data daily – and the security of that data needs to be planned for today. And yes, the growing ransomware in traffic management threat we also discuss!

Noam Maital, Co-Founder and CEO, Waycare

Noam Maital is the CEO and a Co-Founder of Waycare Technologies. Prior to WayCare, Noam led global strategy projects in technology implementation, growth strategy, and financial due diligence. Noam holds a BSc, Summa Cum Laude, from Babson College with a dual degree in Economics and Strategic Management. Prior to his studies, Noam served as a First Sergeant in the Israeli Special Forces.

For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at https://www.forcepoint.com/govpodcast/e166

Welcome to the end of 2021 episode where Eric and Rachael recap highlights from guests throughout the year hitting on the key topics that dominated the headlines including Log4Shell, Sunburst, Colonial Pipeline, ransomware growth trends, the Biden Executive Order of May 12th, Zero Trust, and the many award-winning books published such as by NY Times' Nicole Perlroth, Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang. They also share a preview of 2022 topics to come including the cryptomining, the metaverse, Web3 and more.

For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at https://www.forcepoint.com/govpodcast/e165

Back from the archives! This week we're spotlighting one of our favorite episodes in Summer 2021 with The New York Times journalist Nicole Perlroth where she shares insights from her decade long research for her book "This is How They Tell Me the World Ends". (FORMERLY EPISODE 138) This week Nicole Perlroth, award-winning journalist for The New York Times and best-selling author of "This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends" joins the podcast to discuss her decade long journey covering cybersecurity and many terrifying discoveries navigating through the underbelly of the secretive cyberweapons market. She shares insights on the importance of making cyber understanding and awareness accessible to all audiences. And she details the many challenges governments and society face today as cyberattacks continue to ratchet up in scope of disruption and financial rewards with no consequences as we collectively wait for "the big event" that will be the forcing function to drive needed investment, global cooperation, and changed behaviors to truly take some of the advantage out of attackers' hands.

Nicole Perlroth, Journalist, Cybersecurity and Digital Espionage & Author "This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends" Nicole Perlroth covers cybersecurity and digital espionage for The New York Times. She has covered Russian hacks of nuclear plants, airports, and elections, North Korea's cyberattacks against movie studios, banks and hospitals, Iranian attacks on oil companies, banks and the Trump campaign and hundreds of Chinese cyberattacks, including a months-long hack of The Times. Her first book, "This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends," about the global cyber arms race, will publish in February 2021. The book, and several of her Times articles, have been optioned for television.

A Bay Area native, Ms. Perlroth is a guest lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a graduate of Princeton University and Stanford University.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicoleperlroth/

For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at https://www.forcepoint.com/govpodcast/e214

Dr. Richard Ford, Chief Technology Officer at Praetorian joins us on the podcast this week to share perspective on Log4Shell that's been making the headlines in recent weeks. He explains why this is the worst zero-day vulnerability the industry has seen in the last ten years, what makes it special and how Log4j's ubiquity in the java world will keep it around for a long time to come. He shares insights from the trenches on how to mitigate and warns why scanners are not proving reliable for catching everything. And he provide recommendations on how to get to ahead of the next zero day vulnerability lurking in the wings.

For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at https://www.forcepoint.com/govpodcast/e164

Joining us from the fantastic vista of Monaco is Mark Arena, CEO at Intel 471 – and he has a great story to tell about the origins of the company name! He also breaks down the ransomware threat over the last couple decades and how they have evolved with the availability of new, faster, better technology as well as a business acumen in creating affiliate programs and Ransomware-as-a-Service. And he shares insights on cryptomixing as yet another path ransomware gangs can utilize to anonymize their ransom bounties received. (HINT: this is more like money laundering of cryptocurrency) So many great insights in this episode – including the importance of boots on the ground - you don't want to miss it!Joining us from the fantastic vista of Monaco is Mark Arena, CEO at Intel 471 – and he has a great story to tell about the origins of the company name! He also breaks down the ransomware threat over the last couple decades and how they have evolved with the availability of new, faster, better technology as well as a business acumen in creating affiliate programs and Ransomware-as-a-Service. And he shares insights on cryptomixing as yet another path ransomware gangs can utilize to anonymize their ransom bounties received. (HINT: this is more like money laundering of cryptocurrency) So many great insights in this episode – including the importance of boots on the ground - you don't want to miss it!

For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at https://www.forcepoint.com/govpodcast/e163

This week Chris Krebs, founding partner of Krebs Stamos Group and the first Director of the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) joins the podcast this week. He shares insights on ransomware trend lines, policy discussions, and streamlining the government engagement process for the private sector. He also shares perspective on risk (HINT: you can manage it but not eliminate it), how we can't attack our way out of the cyber problem, the Information Assurance Directorate, why multi-factor authentication is critical (99% success rate!), and so much more. You don't want to miss this timely discussion on the future of security.

For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at https://www.forcepoint.com/govpodcast/e162

This week Dragos CEO and co-founder Rob Lee joins the podcast and breaks down the OT challenge that many businesses are facing today including a lack of clarity on who within the business owns OT and defining what acceptable OT risk means within the business. He also shares perspective on multi-factor authentication as one of the universal controls, the industry + geopolitical aspect of managing risk, and shifting the lens to think about the IP threat from the operator POV. And he shares insights on the Salt Water Project and what can happen when thinking through OT impact + the art of the possible.

For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at https://www.forcepoint.com/govpodcast/e161

This week we catch up with Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder of the think tank Silverado Policy Accelerator (SPA) and co-founder of Crowdstrike. He shares details on the newly launched Alperovitch Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies offering MA-PhD programs that intertwine cybersecurity and statecraft giving students the opportunity to study adversaries' unique motivations, capabilities and histories. We also discuss the key policy areas that SPA is focusing on including cyber trade and industrial security and eco-sec as we consider the impact and future of security. He also breaks down the CHIPS Act, why offensive strategies are important and their potential psychological impact on cyber gangs, and how cryptocurrency exchange sanctions could impact the financial incentive of ransomware gangs. On December 7th at 9:00 a.m. ET be sure to tune into SPA's moderated discussion, led by Alperovitch and a panel of lawmakers and policy experts discussing the national security challenges stemming from America's dependence on East Asia for semiconductor manufacturing. More details are at silverado.org/events.

For links and resources discussed in this episode, please visit our show notes at https://www.forcepoint.com/govpodcast/e160