To wrap up the 20th Annual Cybersecurity Awareness Month, we welcome back to the podcast Eric Goldstein, Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity for the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). He shares insights on the exciting new cybersecurity public awareness campaign just launched, “Secure Our World.” It features simple ways to protect yourself, your family, and your business from online threats.

In this episode, we talk with Megan Stifel, Chief Strategy Officer at the Institute for Security and Technology, about the changing threat of ransomware and the worldwide response. Megan shares insights from her broad background in cybersecurity policy, including her time at the U.S. Department of Justice and the Global Cyber Alliance. The discussion covers how ransomware has shifted from a business nuisance to a national security threat, leading to new government strategies such as sanctions, intelligence tools, and financial regulations. Megan also highlights the importance of fixing software vulnerabilities and using government procurement power to promote better security practices.

Joining us this week is Dr. David Bader, a Distinguished Professor and founder of the Department of Data Science in the Ying Wu College of Computing and Director of the Institute for Data Science at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He deep dives into the opportunity to democratize data science tools and the awesome free tool he and Mike Merrill spent the last several years building that can be found on the Bears-R-Us GitHub page open to the public.

This week we’re joined by Julia Fallon, Executive Director of the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) and she shines a light on the appeal of school systems to cyber attackers. (HINT: it is access to PII to open credit cards, mortgages, and more in the name of children that often is only detected many years later.) We also discuss the connection between schools and insurance companies, trends in how school systems are fortifying their security measures, the evolution of infosec to become a front office issue, and what schools can do to integrate cybersecurity into curriculums to both bolster security and lay a pathway for future cyber professionals.

In this special rerun episode, we feature our interview with Bill Evanina, the Founder and CEO of the Evanina Group and a former Director at the National Counterintelligence and Security Center Office of the Director of National Intelligence. As September marks Insider Threat Awareness Month, Bill Evanina will provide a comprehensive exploration of insider threats. He draws from his extensive experience in counterintelligence and security, offering insights into the definition of insider threats (including potential harm to oneself or others).

We pick back up with Joshua Corman, founder of grassroots organization I Am the Cavalry, for part two of our discussion. Josh shares insights from his many years on the healthcare cyber front lines. He provides both a captivating and sobering perspective on the state of healthcare security today.

We had so much to talk about with this week’s guest that we made it a two-part episode! Joining us this week, and next week, is Joshua Corman, Founder of grassroots organization I Am the Cavalry. Josh shares insights from his many years on the healthcare cyber front lines and provides both a captivating and sobering perspective on the state of healthcare security today.

We’re excited to welcome back to the podcast Sudhakar Ramakrishna, CEO at SolarWinds. When we first caught up with Sudhakar Ramakrishna it was several months into his tenure at the company managing through the Sunburst attack. We were so impressed with how he was helping navigate the company through this time we wanted to check in with him more than a year later for an update on how things are going.

This week on the podcast, we’re joined by Mark Montgomery, senior director of the FDD’s Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation and director of CSC 2.0.

After nearly 300 episodes we have had some of the most spectacular guests on the podcast! Every once in a while we like to bring back one of our favorite episodes from the archives because we really enjoyed the conversation and think our new listeners will as well. This week we chat on the complexities and opportunities smart cities can deliver in the US and around the globe with guest Chris Teale, reporter at Smart Cities Dive. He’s spent years meeting with government and community leaders on the growth of smart cities and shares thoughts on just how fluid defining what a smart city is today.