Management consultant and educator Peter Drucker has many famous quotes attributed to him, but one of his most memorable by far is “culture eats strategy for breakfast, operational excellence for lunch, and everything else for dinner.” Nowhere is this more apparent than in cybersecurity. A recent survey showed that 30% of your employees think cybersecurity is not their responsibility – 30%! In other words, the perspective that “cybersecurity is an IT problem to solve” persists, despite evidence to the contrary. On this episode of WMD, I will be talking with Amy Omrod, CEO of Cygence, an Australia-based cybersecurity consulting firm providing mission-focused and intelligence-led services to enable clients to reduce risk, and deliver optimal outcomes. Amy explains the importance of building a security first culture to generate sustainable organizational change.

Take a look around. Work is no longer a place you go, but something you engage in. Industries have become cyborg – a physical, human, digital hybrid. This creates intense pressure to maintain the IT infrastructure that is the lifeblood of the cyborg organization. Cybersecurity personnel take on that responsibility, which requires 24/7/365 vigilance. Is it any wonder that cybersecurity people are experiencing burn out at unprecedented levels? Not only is the job demanding, but more and more, cybersecurity personnel are becoming personally liable when security fails. On this episode of WMD, Dr. Tamara Schwartz welcomes back Paul Davis,  Field CISO from JFrog to discuss building resilience in your cybersecurity workforce.

The 2017 NotPetya cyberattack exploited the software supply chain when malware was embedded in a routine update of the M.E. Docs software, an accounting software similar to Quicken, which is widely used in Ukraine. This past summer, Crowdstrikecustomers experienced problems when there was an error in a line of code. Although this was not a cyberattack, the impact of this error was widely felt, and both Crowdstrike and IT shops worked hard to provide a remedy as quickly as possible. These events highlight the importance of the software supply chain. On this episode of WMD, Dr. Tamara Schwartz talks with Paul Davis, Field CISO from JFrog, a software supply chain platform that brings together DevOps, DevSecOps, and MLOps to provide end-to-end visibility, security, and control for automating delivery of trusted releases. Paul explains the complexity of software development and the challenges of an open source software development ecosystem, highlighting how a capability like JFrog can bring peace of mind.

On Wednesday, September 25, 2024, WMD Host, Dr. Tamara Schwartz participated in a panel on Artificial Intelligence sponsored by the Kinsley School of Engineering, Sciences & Technology and the Graham School of Business at the York College of Pennsylvania. She was joined by YCP colleagues, Dr. James Norrie, Dean Zeller, and Devon Tolbert, and Sierra Magnotta, an AI & Machine Learning Applied Scientist at the ed-tech company Finetune. The AI Forum content was developed and moderated by YCP studentsMadison Furrow, Will Galasso, and Nevin Ferry from the Tech Insight Club. The 90-minute session was divided into three segments. In the last of three segments, the panelists discuss IoT, Robotics, and Augmented/Virtual/Mixed Reality and how these technologies converge with AI and one another to create enormous capability.

On Wednesday, September 25, 2024, WMD Host, Dr. Tamara Schwartz participated in a panel on Artificial Intelligence sponsored by the Kinsley School of Engineering, Sciences & Technology and the Graham School of Business at the York College of Pennsylvania. She was joined by YCP colleagues, Dr. James Norrie, Dean Zeller, and Devon Tolbert, and Sierra Magnotta, an AI & Machine Learning Applied Scientist at the ed-tech company Finetune. The AI Forum content was developed and moderated by YCP students Ian Burns, Kaitie Ciano, and Robert Lewis and from the Tech Insight Club. The 90-minute session was divided into three segments. In the second of three segments, the panelists discuss how AI will change industries and jobs. They also explore the ethical implications of some of these changes.

On Wednesday, September 25, 2024, WMD Host, Dr. Tamara Schwartz participated in a panel on Artificial Intelligence sponsored by the Kinsley School of Engineering, Sciences & Technology and the Graham School of Business at the York College of Pennsylvania. She was joined by YCP colleagues, Dr. James Norrie, Dean Zeller, and Devon Tolbert, and Sierra Magnotta, an AI & Machine Learning Applied Scientist at the ed-tech company Finetune. The AI Forum content was developed and moderated by YCP studentsCarlos Gomez and Neisha Pierre from the Tech Insight Club. The 90-minute session was divided into three segments. In the first of three segments, the panelists define AI and discuss some of the ethical questions that AI creates.

One of the most common expressions amongst cybersecurity practitioners is “there is no fix for stupid.” This statement is usually accompanied by a shake of the head, laughter, or maybe a shrug. Another version of this sentiment might be “show me something that is fool proof, and I’ll find you a bigger fool.” Inherent in these comments is a sense of derision for the person who was exploited by the latest cyber threat vector. But the members of your organization are also your customers, and these kinds of statements demonstrate a lack of respect for the customer. On this episode of WMD, Dr. Tamara Schwartz is joined by Ken Fanger, from On Technology Partners. Ken has a message to share: deriding the customer would not win a lot of support in most parts of an organization, so why is it acceptable in the world of IT?

Manufacturing has traditionally been subtractive. We start with a piece of material, and we subtract material by cutting it away until we have the object we are trying to create. 3D printing, also referred to as additive manufacturing, works in reverse. We begin with a digital representation of an object, and a machine adds filament material to the object one tiny layer at a time until we have created something physical from its digital design. On this episode of WMD, York College of Pennsylvania cybersecurity management student, Conner Everett flips the microphone and interviews his guest, Dr. Tamara Schwartz as they discuss how 3D printing is changing manufacturing and the potential disruptions to the manufacturing industry and supply chains.

At some point in time we have all dreamed of being someone else or somewhere else. When you read a fantasy book that felt so real, you wished you could go to that place. Or maybe you were watching a professional sporting event and imagined that it was you who was making that slam dunk, homerun, impossible goal, or touchdown. That time at your first job when you dropped something, the entire room looked at you, and you just wished the floor would open up so you could be anywhere else. Video games give us the opportunity to escape reality, and with the growth of extended reality technologies, escaping our reality can feel ever more real. On this episode of WMD, two of Dr. Schwartz’s students from the York College of Pennsylvania, Sebastian Suriel-Diaz and Chase Shelton discuss how virtual, augmented, and extended reality are changing the video game experience.

We live in an age of surveillance, but few of us pay attention to exactly how closely we are being tracked. Devices like the Ring doorbell, the Apple Watch, Google’s search engine, and the smartphone in your pocket provide location, imagery, voice, interest, and health data. Social media provides the same. Few people, if anyone, read the user agreements in detail to find out exactly how that user data is being monetized by the companies that build those devices and software. On this episode of WMD, Dr. Tamara Schwartz hands off the microphone to three cybersecurity management students here at the York College of Pennsylvania: Nevin Ferry, Jesse Bitzer, and Brooks Almond, as they head to campus to ask their fellow students about their privacy and whether or not they understand what’s in the user agreements for the social media apps they use.