Presentations – Page 4 – Cyber Security Leadership

Presenting at SANS European Security Awareness Summit

It’s been a pleasure delivering a talk on the psychology of information security culture at the SANS European Security Awareness Summit 2016. It was the first time for me to attend and present at this event, I certainly hope it’s not going to be the last.

The summit has a great community feel to it and Lance Spitzner did a great job organising and bringing people together. It was an opportunity for me not only to share my knowledge, but also to learn from others during a number of interactive sessions and workshops. The participants were keen to share tips and tricks to improve security awareness in their companies, as well as sharing war stories of what worked and what didn’t.

It was humbling to find out that my book was quite popular in this community and I even managed to sign a couple of copies.

All speakers’ presentation slides (including from past and future events) can be accessed here.

Delivering a guest lecture at California State University, Long Beach

CSU Long Beach

I’ve been invited to talk to Masters students at the California State University, Long Beach about starting a career in cyber security. My guest lecture at the Fundamentals of Security class was well received. Here’s the feedback I received from the Professor:

Leron, thank you so much for talking to my students. We had a great session and everybody was feeling very energised afterwards. It always helps students to interact with industry practitioners and you did a fantastic job inspiring the class. I will be teaching this class next semester, too. Let’s keep in touch and see if you will be available to do a similar session with the next cohort. Again, thank you very much for your time – I wish we could have more time available to talk!

Talking to PhD students about cyber security

present I recently had the pleasure to help organise and host PhD students from Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), who spent a day at my company interacting with the team in order to gain industry insights.

This day-long event included presentations by the students, their lecturers, our partners and consultants.

During one of these presentations, I shared some of my own experiences as an information security consultant, in which I talked about my role and area of expertise. I also discussed current security challenges and provided some career advice.

Several round table discussions provided everybody with much needed food for thought. We covered topics like security monitoring, threat intelligence, information protection in digital health and the role of the C-suite.

We received positive responses from the professors – the students enjoyed the presentations and learned a lot from the interactions during the day.

Presenting on cyber security at UCL

The UCLU Technology Society invited me to deliver a talk on information security to UCL students. Together with my colleague, I discussed various aspects of information security focusing on both technical and non-technical topics.

We talked about Advanced Persistent Threats and common misconceptions people have about them. When referring to protection measures, I emphasised the importance of considering human aspects of security. I described typical causes of a poor security culture in companies, along with providing some recommendations on improving it.

I concluded the evening with a discussion on managing and communicating the necessary changes within the organisation and the skills required to successfully do that.

Training offshore teams

I just returned from my trip to Bangalore, India, where I was asked to deliver a series of training activities to the KPMG offshore teams. Spending a week there came with lots of wonderful insights.

First of all, India is a beautiful country. I didn’t really have a lot of time to travel around, but I still had a chance to visit the Bangalore Palace, drive up and down the Mahatma Gandhi Road, see the Parliament and many beautiful parks.

Moreover, apart from delivering training sessions myself, the local leadership organised a presentation for the UK team, where we were described the services they offer globally. I was impressed by the level of innovation and standardisation, which clearly demonstrate the rapid technological growth in India.

I’ve had a chance to work with some of the marvelous members of our offshore team before, and it was very valuable to finally meet them in person. I had an opportunity to interview a few people for a position in my programme and we are already on-boarding the successful candidate.

Not only I was able to share my knowledge and meet some lovely people, but I could enjoy a brief but wonderful taste of India and its warm hospitality. I’m sure the effectiveness of our communications and project work will increase substantially in going forward.

The Internet of Things

Imagine a fridge that can tell when the food inside it is going off, or an oven that can cook food automatically. A world of everyday items, all smart, all connected – that’s the Internet of Things.

But is this a force for good – or for evil? Do the sacrifices we’ll have to make in terms of privacy and security outweigh the potential benefits?

I shared my view in the KPMG SLAT video

Giving a talk on information security

I delivered a talk at the London Metropolitan University today where I was invited to share my story and participate in the university’s mentoring scheme. Although there were many students from different fields present, I focused on the computer science and information security area.

I elaborated on the possible and the transferable skills that young students can develop and apply during their undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. We also talked about job search, the general application process and the various career paths available to students in the information security and computer science areas.

Giving a lecture at the Royal Holloway University of London

I was invited by the RHUL Computing Society to give a lecture on human aspects of security.

After my presentation, I gave the students an exercise to help them understand the different perspectives on information security policies. As a result, they learned the importance of the role of information security in an organisation and it’s important enabling function.

It was really nice to get such an active participation on their behalf. After the talk we had an interesting conversations on current security research trends and opportunities.

Presenting at the ISACA London Chapter event

I shared some research findings with the ISACA London Chapter members at the November event. We discussed resolving conflicts between security compliance and human behaviour. The talk was followed by a panel discussion with other presenters, where I answered questions regarding human aspects of information security.

During the networking session after the presentation I’ve had many other interesting conversations with the participants. People were sharing their stories and experiences implementing and auditing security controls.

The video of the talk is available on the ISACA London Chapter website.

Discussing Ethical Hacking at the University of Bradford

I was invited to deliver a lecture on ethical hacking to the graduate students at the University of Bradford. We started off by discussing basic principles and approaches and concluded covering specific tools and techniques.

The students, with various backgrounds ranging from mobile application development, to communications and networks actively participated in the discussion. I was also very happy to share some case studies and real-world examples around vulnerability, threat and risk management.