Introductions

Welcome everyone to Cyber Ninja's blog focused on innovation and new cybersecurity technologies that are emerging in the field. I am currently enrolled at Colorado Technical University (CTU) attending a Futuring and Innovations class as part of my Doctor of Computer Science in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance. This class has encouraged me to start a blog to discuss innovation with other professionals and enthusiasts in the field.One excerpt from Garfinkel (2012) that has always resonated with me is when he describes cybersecurity as the only field to have the possibility of an active, malicious adversary at the heart of the issues. This adversarial aspect of cybersecurity brings the need for not only innovation in technology, but social strategic aspects of innovation as well.

I want to start things off with an introduction and explain my background and my current involvement in the field. As I recently mentioned, I am a student at CTU in my first year of the DCS program. My dissertation topic is currently under construction, but it is leaning heavily toward a research effort to explore the growing cybersecurity issues and breaches amidst the increase in cybersecurity guidance such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Cybersecurity framework and other special publications. Outside of my academic endeavors, I have worked as an IT professional for over 13 years. This work started as a network and cryptographic technician with the U.S. Air Force when I was 18. A majority of my career has been spent as a network engineer, but cybersecurity has always been a part of the job. Throughout the four years in the military and the following federal contractor work, I was able to serve as an Information System Security Officer for some very rewarding missions in the Department of Defense. Currently, I have the honor of serving in my position as the Information System Security Manager for a very exciting network in the Department of Energy. My passion and dedication for communications and the security of that capability have provided a fulfilling career thus far, and I’m excited to see what the next 30 years has in store for the field.

As the title of the blog “Tomorrow’s Cybersecurity Challenges Today” denotes is that we need to think about tomorrow’s cybersecurity problems. For anyone who works as a professional in the field, it is easy to get caught up in the constant requirements and problems of today. The number of expectations of a cybersecurity professional, and more so with cybersecurity managers and executives, are continually growing. The problems of the future will require innovation to prepare for the threats that loom in the horizon properly. This blog will be focusing on those innovations and issues looming on the horizon.

References:

Garfinkel, S. L. (2012). The Cybersecurity Risk. Communications of the ACM, 55(6), 29-32. doi:10.1145/2184319.2184330