I had the opportunity to hear from Keynote Speaker, Steven Chabinsky, Chief Risk Officer, CrowdStrike and former Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI’s Cyber Division. He presented on his experience working to deter cyber threats and provide real -world cases of how constant cyber war has fared on both fronts thus far.
It was interesting to hear from someone whose job it is to protect our country from cyber attacks. After hearing Steven Chanbinsky speak, I have come to two conclusions. First, it’s inevitable to get malware if you are not cautious. Second, I feel a lot less secure on the internet now. That’s not to say that we shouldn’t feel secure. What I’m saying is I now know how a sausage is made. I never realized the constant game of innovation that is played every day- how the people in the cyber security field are working tirelessly to stop “the bad guys” from sabotaging our infrastructure. In order to be a secure country, company, or individual you have to always be on high alert, knowing exactly what your opening and what sites you are going on. He showed some examples of the kind of chaos that can spread when a bad guy does get malware in an organization including the amount of information they can get or in one instance, actually causing a power plant to malfunction and shut down.
I’m glad I had the opportunity to attend the event, and I hope we are able to stay one step ahead of the game and combat online terrorism.