Distilling the right blend of cyber security tools for your company is as much an art as distilling a fine American sipping whiskey from a pile of sugars, grains, and fruit. Everyday technology professionals are being asked to address fast-changing cyber threats and craft comprehensive security monitoring and management strategies into a solidly blended security posture just as a master blender does for spirits.
A Master Blender
A master blender is an individual who decides on the composition of blended spirits. For example, in the Scotch whiskey industry, master blenders choose which single malts and grain whiskeys are combined to make particular blended whiskey. An important objective is often to maintain consistency over time. A typical blend might be composed of 20 different whiskeys whose taste and price will vary over time, and, of course, it is possible that any one of them will go out of production. Consequently, it is sometimes necessary to replace whiskeys that go into the blend. Other responsibilities include checking the maturation of spirits.[1]
Just like the master blender, companies must apply a similar approach to developing a solid cyber security posture and choosing cyber security tools. In the context of managing cyber security organizations, directors and professionals must make decisions based on a combination of tools, security software, data, and industry information. Understanding individual aspects of your cyber security approach are not enough – a blended holistic approach that quantifies risk and considers the interaction of physical, virtual and human factors of security posture is what all masters are working towards. Once a solid cyber security framework is obtained, the work is not done; continually revisiting tools and testing environments, ensures defenses against ever-changing security threats.
On Thursday, November 30 VSS is hosting two master security blenders at the Sagamore Spirit Distillery in Baltimore, Maryland, to discuss cyber security tools. Joe Drissel of CyberESI and Bill Crawford of Information Insights will be sharing the latest insights and techniques for protecting your data and discovering how to manage your security mix to gain the ultimate cyber security advantage for your organization.
Meet the Masters (of Cyber Security Tools)
Joseph Drissel – Founder & CEO, CyberESI
Before founding CyberESI, Joseph was the Acting Section Chief of the Intrusions Section at the Defense Computer Forensics Laboratory (DCFL), the world’s largest accredited computer crime laboratory. In this capacity, Joseph and his team provided intrusion and malware analysis support to DoD entities, Federal Law Enforcement, the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force (NCIJTF) and the DoD-Defense Collaborative Information Sharing Environment (DCISE). As a certified DoD Forensic Examiner, Joseph engaged in 1,000+ intrusions cases.
In November of 2010, Joseph founded Cyber Engineering Services which provides patented incident response, intrusion/malware analysis, software and systems, training and cyber-related intelligence to its clients and the community at large. CyberESI personnel has backgrounds that include professionals from Federal Law Enforcement, the Intelligence Community and the Department of Defense. Employees have expertise in the fields of Network Security, Computer Forensics, Incident Response, Intrusions Analysis and Reverse Engineering Malware; all have extensive knowledge specific to Advanced Persistent Threat-related issues.
Bill Crawford – Principal and CEO, Information Insights, LLC
Recognizing the lack of service providers focusing on data security, Bill, along with a team of experts created Information Insights in March of 2010 with a narrow focus of helping customers understand their data, risk and protection landscape. Since then, Bill has worked with many of the Global 100 companies across multiple industries as they assess, redefine and implement strategies for protecting the “crown jewels” of their respective firms.
Bill works with industry leaders from IBM and various clients to tackle subjects ranging from “discovering your data assets” to “developing risk-based controls”, “managing insider threat” and building the “security data lake” as well as how to approach data warehousing and aggregation for security information. Leading, participating in and facilitating workshops and strategy sessions have given Bill unique insight into many of the challenges faced by today’s enterprises as they wrestle with the challenge of developing a data security strategy and having confidence in cyber security tools. Bill is always happy to share what insights he can since shared experiences often lead to innovation.
Please join us for an evening of peer networking, spirited tech talk, delicious food and private tours of one of Maryland’s best tasting new business ventures. Register now.
VSS presents Refine the Spirit of Cyber Security
Thursday, November 30, 2017 | 6pm – 9pm
Sagamore Spirit Distillery
301 East Cromwell Street
Baltimore, MD 21230