Kevin Thompson, Threat Analyst for FireEye, earlier worked as a cyber analyst for the CIA, covering Eastern Europe and Russia and briefing numerous government agencies on future potential incidents. His analytical work has been used in Presidential Daily Briefings and as a case study in multiple training classes. He now educates FireEye clients and partners on the latest cyber threats to infrastructure. Kevin’s address to Cyber Security Summit, 2016 Cyber Attacks by the Numbers, concisely reviewed the latest statistics and emerging trends: In 2015, the median duration before a hack was discovered was 146 days, down from 246 days a ...

Truman Center Policy Program Manager Dan Paltiel, a keynote speaker at Cyber Security Summit 2016, spoke on the current state of cyber defense in Cyber After 2016: Protecting Your Network in the New Political Environment. Earlier he was Program Coordinator and Research Assistant in the Strategic Technologies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where he worked on cybersecurity and technology policy issues. Dan lived in Amman, Jordan, where he studied Arabic and taught English. He holds a BA in History from Amherst College, and hails from New Haven, Connecticut. He is fluent in French and Arabic ...

Senior Product Manager Bob Stasio of IBM i2 Safer Planet was keynote speaker for Cyber Security Summit 2016. Prior to joining IBM, Mr. Stasio worked in threat intelligence programs at Bloomberg and global financial firms. He also has deep government experience having served at NSA’s Cyber Center, U.S. Cyber Command, U.S. Army’s Signals Intelligence Corps, the FAA, and NASA. Bob served as a U.S. Army officer, and is a recipient of numerous military awards, including the Bronze Star and Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal. He also is a Truman National Security Fellow, Brookings Institution Council on U.S. and Italy ...

Lt. Gen. (ret) Ronald Lee Burgess, Jr., who served as the 17th Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, was one of the keynote speakers at Cyber Security Summit 2016 in Minneapolis. As head of the Agency and a former Acting Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, Burgess served as a key player in the national security arena, called upon by the President, the Secretary of Defense, the Director of National Intelligence, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Congressional leaders for his opinions, advice and expertise. He is currently Senior Counsel for National Security Programs, Cyber Programs and ...

“Minnesota is adding tech jobs at the greatest rate of anywhere in the country,” declared Suzanne Spaulding, Under Secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) at the Department of Homeland Security, a keynote speaker at Cyber Security Summit 2016 in Minneapolis. The flip side of that coin with regard to cyber security, she noted, is that “vibrancy makes us an attractive target.” During her speech, Ms. Spaulding recited a litany of bad actors driven to wreak havoc: nation-states, cyber criminals, terrorists and political groups each are spurred on by their own motives. Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are among ...

In July, Verizon announced that it would acquire Yahoo’s Internet business for $4.8 billion. In September, Yahoo disclosed that a massive data breach had compromised 500 million user accounts.  The breach happened nearly two years ago, in late 2014.  Now, Verizon has stated publicly that it believes the breach has had a material impact on Yahoo.  Some have reported that the purchase price could be slashed by $1 billion.  Whatever the number turns out to be, the lesson is that cyber security impacts valuation. Cyber due diligence can help an acquiring company better understand the value of an acquisition target and ...

Amid mushrooming IoT device sales and attendant channel transaction growth, findings from a recent study raise serious concerns about just how effectively online businesses are able to safeguard their stakeholders’ digital identities. A White Paper titled "The Economics of Digital Identity" was published by The Economist and authored by a team of experts at the Economist Intelligence Unit. In it, they reviewed findings of a 2015 study that surveyed 201 senior executives in North America. Industries represented in the study were manufacturing, finance, IT and technology. Executive-respondents came from sample split between companies with annual revenues under $1 billion, and those with ...

Once they have breached a system, most hackers no longer need malware, according to a new study by LightCyber, a provider of Behavioral Attack Detection solutions. According to the company's Cyber Weapons Report 2016, 99 percent of post-intrusion cyberattack activities used standard networking, IT administration and other tools. "While malware was commonly used to initially compromise a host, once inside a network malicious actors did not typically utilize malware," the company said in a statement. "As an example, Angry IP Scanner, an IP address and port scanner, was the most common tool associated with attack behavior, followed closely by Nmap, ...

According to the CEO of Stealthcare, a Cleveland-based cyber security firm, the next major cyber security attack will likely be tied to the GOP Convention, although he believes it won’t come from hacktivitsts upset with Donald Trump but rather from a state-sponsored group. Jeremy Samide, CEO of Stealthcare, points to the recent attack on the Democratic National Committee that was apparently committed by a state-sponsored group. "It makes sense for these hackers to hit the Republican National Committee right before or during its showcase event," said Samide in a statement. "The ability of a hacktivist group to disrupt the Trump ...