Trusted CI Webinar: Ransomware: Threats & Mitigations, June 27th @11am EST

This event was originally scheduled to occur on May 23rd and has been rescheduled to June 27th.

REN-ISAC's Sarah Bigham and Krysten Stevens will be presenting the talk, Ransomware: Threats & Mitigations, on Monday June 27th at 11am (Eastern).

Please register here.

The education industry has unceremoniously emerged as the second most common target for ransomware. It continues to evolve in how it is used as a fund-raiser for criminal organizations and how the technology works, to keep its victims guessing as to defense and eradication. Institutions face the difficult challenge of preserving academic freedom, easy access to information, and open collaboration while defending from threat actors who exploit these same characteristics. This presentation will focus on the current threats and provide guidance on protecting against ransomware attacks.

Speaker Bios:

Sarah Bigham: joined the REN-ISAC in March 2014. As Lead Security Analyst, her day-to-day responsibilities include managing the REN-ISAC Blended Threat  Workshops, working closely with the National Council of ISACs (NCI), FBI, DHS, and other state and federal peers to stay abreast of new and emerging threats, as well as special projects, and  member relations. Before coming to the REN-ISAC, Sarah worked at Harvard University as a Systems Support Specialist focusing on campus-wide Identity & Access Management (IdM) and HIPAA compliance for Harvard University Health Services. Prior to that, Sarah was a defense contractor at the United States Naval Academy where she focused on user and desktop support across the Yard for all faculty, staff, and midshipmen. Sarah holds an Associate of Applied Science in Computer Network Management from Anne Arundel Community College (Annapolis, MD) and a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems Management from University of Maryland Global Campus. 

Krysten Stevens joined REN-ISAC as Director of Technical Operations in 2020. She has a background in IT security analysis and cyber threat intelligence from Purdue University, where she used her leadership and expertise to train other security analysts, create security awareness programs, and develop threat intelligence strategies on an organizational level. Krysten graduated from Purdue University Global with an MS Cybersecurity Management in 2020, and she holds CISSP and GCTI certifications. When not at work, Krysten enjoys spending time with her husband, two children, five cats, and two golden retrievers (who refuse to retrieve).

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Join Trusted CI's announcements mailing list for information about upcoming events. To submit topics or requests to present, see our call for presentations. Archived presentations are available on our site under "Past Events."

Trusted CI Webinar Jan 27th at 11am ET: REN-ISAC for Research Facilities/Projects with Kim Milford

Indiana University's Kim Milford is presenting a talk on the REN-ISAC, The Research and Education Networks Information Sharing and Analysis Center, on January 27th at 11am (Eastern).

Please register here. Be sure to check spam/junk folder for registration confirmation email.

The Research and Education Networks Information Sharing and Analysis Center (REN-ISAC) serves members within the higher education and research community by promoting cybersecurity operational protection and response. 

REN-ISAC membership is not just for university security officers! REN-ISAC has multiple membership communities that are applicable to research facilities. Kim will discuss the benefits of REN-ISAC membership that are applicable to research facility/project representatives and will solicit feedback from webinar attendees on future service offerings. 

For example, the REN-ISAC members benefit from Security Event System (SES) threat intelligence and other automated data collection and sharing tools to enable informed decisions about threats and events, as well as peer assessment services to improve the institution’s overall security posture. The REN-ISAC offers members daily cybersecurity news situational awareness, alerts and advisories, analysis reports of cybersecurity threats and mitigation, and an active, interested community of subject matter experts who provide feedback on practices and standards. The REN-ISAC also fosters professional training and development through monthly webinars, regional workshops, and an aggregate purchasing program with the SANS Institute.

Kim Milford serves as Executive Director of the REN-ISAC, working with research and education institutions, partners, and sponsors to provide services and information that allow member institutions to better defend technical environments from cyberthreats. Ms. Milford oversees administration and operations for the REN-ISAC. Ms. Milford served in several roles leading strategic IT initiatives since 2007 at Indiana University. As Chief Privacy Officer, she coordinated privacy-related efforts, chaired the Committee of Data Stewards, and directed the work of the University Information Policy Office and IU's IT incident response team. Prior to joining Indiana University, Ms. Milford worked as Information Security Officer at the University of Rochester. As Information Security Manager at University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1998 - 2005, she assisted in establishing the university's information security department and co-led in the development of an annual security conference. Ms. Milford provides cybersecurity expertise and presentations at national and regional conferences, seminars and consortia, as well as taught courses on Internet security and authored/co-authored many articles on the subject. Ms. Milford has a B.S. in Accounting from Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri and a J.D. from John Marshall Law School in Chicago, Illinois.

Join Trusted CI's announcements mailing list for information about upcoming events. To submit topics or requests to present, see our call for presentations. Archived presentations are available on our site under "Past Events."

CTSC’s Situational Awareness Expanding Collaborations

In an attempt to improve on the security alert service CTSC offers, the Situational Awareness (SA) group within CTSC has recently expanded its monitoring streams and collaborations to include Open Science Grid (OSG) and the European Grid Infrastructure’s Software Vulnerability Group (EGI: SVG). These entities join CTSC’s current collaborations with REN-ISAC and XSEDE in mutually sharing advisories. The immediate benefit of this effort is that CTSC and its collaborators have increased their monitoring channels, enabling a larger window to survey for potential threats to science cyberinfrastructure. This improvement in shared knowledge will better position us, as well as our new partners, to pass on the important alerts to our communities.

To register for CTSC SA advisories, see https://trustedci.org/situational-awareness.

If you're a member of a trust community that would like to share alerts with CTSC, please contact us at alerts@trustedci.org.