Articles

Planet Cyber Sec is thrilled to announce its forthcoming invitation-only cybersecurity forum in the heart of Silicon Valley, Mountain View, California. This exclusive event is tailored for CIOs, CISOs, IT managers, and cybersecurity leaders, offering a unique opportunity to explore the latest trends, strategies, and solutions shaping the dynamic cybersecurity industry.

The forum will showcase distinguished expert speakers renowned for their extensive knowledge and experience in cybersecurity. Participants will gain valuable insights into emerging threats, risk management strategies, and best practices for fortifying their organizations’ digital defenses.

It is time to elect a few positions for the Silicon Valley Chapter ISSA board of directors.

Open positions in this cycle are:

• Events Director
• Secretary
• Education Director
• Webmaster
• President (prior board service requirements apply)

Send your nominations to [email protected].

Must be a member in good standing to apply.

CISSP Certification Preparation Course starting August 17

Gain the skills and knowledge needed to pass the CISSP exam in this intensive 10-week evening course offered by Silicon Valley ISSA.

Over the 10 sessions, our experienced coaches will guide you through all 8 CISSP domains, integrating:

• Real-world examples and scenario activities
• Group discussions on critical topics
• Knowledge checks and chapter quizzes
• Exam practice tests and tips

Everything is based on the latest CISSP exam outline and materials.

2023 SV-ISSA Board election has been concluded.

Results

• Vice President
  • Mike Skurko - reelected
• Membership Director
  • Willam Liu - newly elected
• Communications Director
  • Michelle Koblas - reelected
• Treasurer
  • Pavi Ramamurthy - newly elected

Congratulations to the new board members!

We are delighted to announce our first in person ISSA event at RSA since 2020…

This mixer will be hosted by the Silicon Valley ISSA, SF Bay ISSA and ISSA International.

HOXHUNT will be the sponsor of this exclusive cocktail and culinary event.

It’s been a long time since we’ve met with our friends in the cyber security community and we’ve selected an exceptional venue, Buena Vida (two blocks from Moscone) w an amazing menu and bespoke cocktails. You absolutely won’t want to miss this event and there’s a very limited number allowed so please register now!

Your chapter leadership is in search of a member or members in good standing with the chapter.

John Millican was a dear friend and influential member of the Bay Area Information Security Profession.

John was the past president for the Silicon Valley ISSA Chapter, as well as members of the San Francisco ISSA Chapter, Infragard, Office of the CIO, as well as other organizations. John was the first person to be certified by the SANS Institute in the assessment and implementation of the Council of CyberSecurity Twenty Critical Security Controls.

CLASS-LLC will provide a 20% discount to SV ISSA members to participate in any of their trainings. Primary courses are found in the EC-Council and IAPP offerings. You need to be an active SV ISSA member to qualify. Reach out to us directly for details and a discount code to use on their site. https://www.class-llc.com

Podcasts - CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast and Series - CISO Series. The CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast aims to enlighten and educate listeners on improving security buyer and seller relationships. Whether you’re a buyer, user, or seller of security products, this show is for you. At 30 minutes, this weekly program challenges the co-hosts, guests, and listeners to critique, share true stories, and reveal in hypothetical scenarios.

https://cisoseries.com/podcast/

The following positions are up for re-election:

• Vice President
• Director of Membership
• Director of Communications
• Treasurer

Key Dates

• January 15 - Establish nominating committee and solicit nominations
• February 19 - Nomination Committee announces nominations
• February 28 - Ballots are distributed
• March 20 - Election is closed
• No meeting in March, email announcements only.
• March 26 - Results are announced

To run for office, you must be:

• A member in good standing with ISSA International
• A member of the Silicon Valley Chapter

To nominate someone you also must also be a member in good standing with ISSA International and a member of the Silicon Valley Chapter. Self-nominations are allowed.

https://www.issa.org/page/issaconf_home

About the Conference Theme / #ISSAConf

Join us October 9-11, 2017 at the Sheraton Hotel & Marina in San Diego, California for solution oriented, proactive and innovative sessions focused on the Digital Danger Zone.

Each day, cyber threats become increasingly intricate and difficult to detect. Over the past year, we saw that with the rise of device connectivity came boundless opportunities for malicious hackers to attack device vulnerabilities. No cyber security professional can become an expert on these digital dangers without continued efforts to educate themselves on the industry’s latest trends and technologies.

Please RSVP at http://www.evite.com/event/03EBAFNMIE5HSYVLWEPHCU7PKZJQEM/rsvp.

Join us to celebrate the life, friendship and achievements of our friend, Becky. We are planning a casual evening befitting of Becky’s energy and passion for putting the right people together at the right time. Below is an agenda for the evening:

When: Friday, April 21 from 4:00 pm to 7:30

Where: 2055 Gateway Place San Jose, CA 95110

• 4:30 – 5:00 Welcome & Networking
• 5:00 – 6:00 Formal remarks, slideshow, and remarks from attendees (optional)*
• 6:00 – 7:30 Networking & Refreshments

For additional information, please see http://www.evite.com/event/03EBAFNMIE5HSYVLWEPHCU7PKZJQEM/rsvp.

The Silicon Valley Chapter of ISSA would like to extend a very warm thank you to SANS for inviting us to participate in their Bonus Sessions and allowing us to Piggyback on their event at the Crown Plaza Silicon Valley in Milpitas this week.

SANS has invited members of the Sillicon Valley Chapter of ISSA to participate in their SANS@Night bonus sessions during the first week of March. We have moved our chapter meeting to be held on Tuesday March 7th at 4pm to accomidate. The bonus session information is available at https://www.sans.org/event/san-jose-2017/bonus-sessions/ and our Chapter meeting details are /meetings/betting-cloud-and-winning.

If you’re a Silicon Valley ISSA member, please remember that we have several board positions coming up for elections and we welcome anyone who wants to join the board to submit a nomination. The positions open are Vice President; Treasurer; Communications Director; and Membership Director. If you’re interested, please send a profile with a current biography, photo, and brief description on what your goals for the role will be to [email protected].

Happening Now - CISSP Review Course

If you’re looking to get your CISSP certification, this class will help you prepare to take the exam.

Sign-up here, $50 - $85 https://sv-issa.org/training/2016-fall-cissp-review-course#

James Carr passed away on the morning of July 8, 2016, in his home at the side of his wife, Barbara. Surviving family include James Carr, Jr.,, Jennifer (Jeffery) Puente, Richard (Guin Ashley) Orberg, Susan (Josh) Guest and 8 grandchildren.

James served as a security analyst in the Army for 10 years during the Vietnam War era. He received the Bronze Star twice for his work in identifying enemy combatants by detecting patterns in the frequency of intercepted radio communication.

Machine learning is a powerful tool with many well-suited applications for malware detection, classification, and risk quantification. Despite its reputation as a “black box” component to an enterprise security solution, designing a robust machine learning model for malware detection is an involved process: its success hinges on understanding the problem you’re trying to solve, the underlying data you utilize, and most importantly, its limitations.

In this session, we analyze working models discuss the strengths, pitfalls, and high-level trade-offs of using machine learning for successful malware detection.

On March 2, 2016 during the RSA Conference, the Silicon Valley and SF ISSA Chapters will be hosting a Joint Happy Hour from 5 to 7 pm at the Novela located at 662 Mission Street, San Francisco. Our special guest will be Michael Aisenberg, Principal Cyber Security Counsel of THE MITRE Corporation. This event is sponsored by TrapX Security. If you plan to attend, RSVP to board at sv-issa dot org.

The following positions are up for re-election: President, Membership, Education, Recording, Events and Webmaster.

The key dates are:

• 1/19 – Nominations open
• 2/16 – Nominations close
• 2/23 – Elections open
• 3/8 – Elections close
• 3/15 – Certified results are announced

NEW LOCATION!!!

Cyphort 5451 Great America Pkwy, Santa Clara, CA 95054

The Silicon Valley chapter of the ISSA would like to extend a special thanks to Adobe and Maura Jones for sponsoring the location for our CISSP Review classes. We had a successful review class made possible by Maura, who is our primary contact at Adobe, a member and volunteer for this chapter. Your assistance and support is greatly appreciated.

We are excited to announce that the Silicon Valley Chapter’s Communication Director Sujeet Bambawale has published an article about Security, ISO27001, and NetApp’s “Enterprise Information Security Council”. The article is available on NetApp’s community website at http://community.netapp.com/t5/Technology/Folding-Security-into-NetApp-s-DNA/ba-p/102505. Be sure and check it out.

During the February 2015 Chapter meeting, the assembled membership and guests honored the memory and life long achievements of Dr Ned Chapin. Ned Chapin was a long time member and frequent attendee at Silicon Valley chapter meetings.

Dr. Ned Chapin was also a founding member of the Computer History Museum. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to that museum http://www.computerhistory.org/.

Dr. Ned Chapin passed away on December 27, 2014. He was born on the Olympic Peninsula and grew up living in various locations in Washington, Oregon, and California. After graduating from Eureka Senior High School in 1945, he attended Stanford University where he played percussion in the Symphony Orchestra. He received an MBA from the University of Chicago in 1949. He served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during the Korean War. Upon graduating with a doctorate from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1959, he moved to Menlo Park, California where he lived for the rest of his life. Although he worked at Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) for 10 years, for the bulk of his career he was an independent consultant operating InfoSci Inc. At age 60, he took a job as Professor, and later Professor Emeritus, of Information Systems in the California State University system.

The February 17th meeting will be held at another new location.

Please do not go to the Mountain View location, instead go to the De Anza College, Hinson Campus Center, Conference Room B. building at:

21250 Stevens Creek Blvd. Cupertino, CA 95014

Note: This may not be the location going forward

The Art of the Ask: How to Ask for – and Get – What You Want in Your Career

1-Hour Live Event: Monday, February 9, 2015

Start Time: 1:00 p.m. US-Pacific / 4:00 p.m. US-Eastern / 9:00 p.m. London

Brought to you exclusively by the ISSA Women in Security SIG.

Join the conversation! #ISSAWISSIG

Speaker: Lori Harmon - VP of Sales, Contrast Security

Description:

Although the CEO of Microsoft may disagree, your professional destiny is not best left up to fate or “karma.” How can your boss or anyone else know what you want if you don’t ask? And according to a Frost & Sullivan report, the area in which today’s information security professionals need to improve most is communication. Whether it is for a promotion, raise, flexible hours or something else, making it known to those that can help you realize your objective is key. In this webinar, Lori will give real life examples of various “asks” that were successful in her career, as well as provide recommendations on how women in information security can ask for – and get – what they want.

Announcing the release of the August Symantec Intelligence Report, which is publically available and can be shared with customers.

http://www.symantec.com/content/en/us/enterprise/other_resources/b-intelligence_report_08-2014.en-us.pdf

So far this year crypto-style ransomware has seen a 700 percent-plus increase. These file-encrypting versions of ransomware began the year comprising 1.2 percent of all ransomware detections, but now make up 31 percent at the end of August.

Over 31.5 million identities were reported exposed in August, from 12 incidents. The jump in exposed identities is due to a large breach in South Korea, comprising 27 million identities.

Symantec Security Response has released a whitepaper and blog detailing our investigation into an ongoing cyber-espionage campaign mainly targeting the energy sector. The group behind the campaign has been dubbed Dragonfly by Symantec and has already compromised several organizations for the purpose of spying. The group also has the ability to cause damage and disrupt energy supplies within affected countries.

Symantec uncovered many targets hit by Dragonfly including energy grid operators, major electricity generation firms, petroleum pipeline operators, and energy industry industrial equipment providers. Targets of this campaign were located in the United States, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, and Poland.

Study Details: Student Name: Rhonda Farrell Contact Data: [email protected] Method of Delivery: Email Time Required to Complete Study: 15-30 minutes Study Process: Email Rhonda for details, You will be assigned a unique study identifier. Participants will receive a set of PDFs which contain study materials, they fill them out, scan them, and return them via email Goal: Rhonda needs 100+ ISSA participants - by March 31,2014 Gift: One lucky study participant will win a $50.00 gift card to their favorite store or restaurant

Harry was a devoted dad and a wonderful friend who enriched the lives of those of us lucky enough to know him.

Many people have asked if they can make a donation to a charity in Harry’s name. If you would like to do this, we’ve established a special fund to help Harry’s son, Jason. Jason was living with his dad at the time of Harry’s death, and the family (and I’m sure Harry) would appreciate any assistance you can lend toward helping Jason get established in a new residence.