Seidenberg celebrates Cybersecurity Awareness Month with stellar alumni panel

On Tuesday, October 19, 2021, the Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems at Pace University hosted an alumni panel dedicated to the topic of the month, cybersecurity.

Facilitated by faculty members Li-Chiou Chen and Darren Hayes, the panel comprised of four alumni who came together over Zoom to share their wisdom and expertise with current students.

Alumni panelists included:

    • Michael D’Angelo, Director of Forensics Operations practice at Driven
    • Pierre Jeppsson, Senior Associate at Ankura Consulting Group
    • Daniel Walker, Senior Intelligence Analyst, Homicide Bureau, Bronx District Attorney’s Office
    • Jasmine Washington, Computer Scientist, Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA)

Over the course of the hour long conversation, panelists discussed their current positions, how they got there, and what about their experience at Seidenberg helped prepare them for a career in cybersecurity.

The panel was recorded and will be released soon (we’ll update this post when it is). In the meantime, here are some quick answers to pressing questions Seidenberg faculty posed:

What’s the most significant cyber security problem right now in industry or in government?

Jasmine: Supply chain risk – being aware of what third parties you’re connected to and how they are secured . . . another trend is ransomware attacks. We see that really relevant relevant now that we’re doing telework and we’re working from home and we’re doing this education at home

Daniel: Phishing emails, because I know that is still prevalent today. I know a lot of you probably think, Oh, maybe it was done, five years ago, but no today it’s still happening. People are still clicking on links.

As a hiring manager, what do you look for in a candidate?

Michael: I want to find analysts or investigators that . . . maybe don’t know the full breadth of what’s out there and they want to get their feet wet. Even more, they want to be exposed – they want to delve into new topics and continue to learn . . . the ability to go outside of your comfort zone.

What advice do you have for interviewing?

Pierre: For me, It was just the conversations I was having. So, I did like three or four interviews . . . but I didn’t let them interrogate me. They asked me about my life, and I just told my story . . . there wasn’t enough time for them to go “so tell me about some-” you know . . . they hit you with those kind of gotcha interview questions. I was enthusiastic and I really thought a lot about what I would say. I even did some background work, like I went on the Anchor website and I looked at their mission statement and I looked at their their history and what their employees do in the matters that they’ve been involved in and it . . . painted a picture for who I might be talking to and once I knew who I was talking to I could just be myself. You tell them about yourself and and they go “Okay, this is a person I could see working here, somebody I would want to work with.”

The recording of the event will be available soon – we’ll share on Seidenberg social media as soon as it’s up!

Follow us on social media for updates!

Darren Hayes visits state-of-the-art forensics lab and police cyber crime center in Northern Ireland

In October 2016, our very own Dr. Darren Hayes was invited to visit two different forensics laboratories in Northern Ireland. Anthony Harbinson, Director of Safer Communities for the Northern Ireland Department of Justice and Former President of the ACCA, was kind enough to organize this fascinating, educational experience for Hayes. The visit included a tour of the new, state-of-the-art lab of Forensic Science Northern Ireland (FSNI), an Agency of the Department of Justice, based at Seapark, Carrickfergus, as well as a visit to the highly impressive Cyber Crime Center of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

Stan Brown, Executive Director, Forensic Science Northern Ireland (FSNI), and his outstanding team, provided Hayes with tremendous insight into some of the cutting-edge forensic analysis techniques implemented by FSNI. Hayes remarked, “Forensic Science Northern Ireland and the Department of Justice, with their significant financial investment, have not only signaled their intent to provide the people of Northern Ireland with a laboratory that they can feel proud of but they have also successfully raised the standard for other laboratories worldwide. Other agencies will certainly strive to emulate their extraordinary success. The lab operates with the utmost integrity, guided by strict protocols. FSNI have not only integrated the latest technology into their labs but have also considered the impact on the community and its employees, which is admirable. It was refreshing to see that employee input was critical to the development of a new lab to provide a safe, efficient and comfortable environment within which to operate. This level of planning rarely occurs elsewhere. Moreover, the new forensics lab was built to the highest European standards of sustainability to ensure that the facility was environmentally safe and responsible. Their accomplishments are inspiring”.

Another highlight of Dr. Hayes’ trip was a visit to PSNI’s Cyber Crime Center. Detective Constable Ian McClurg and his colleagues were kind enough to explain to Hayes some of the current cyber crimes that they investigate to ultimately ensure the safety of the Northern Ireland community. In a digital, inter-connected world, cyber crime has no borders. Hayes noted that the “PSNI has invested considerably and wisely in the latest technologies and employ some of the most technically-advanced investigators in the world. The personnel that I met possess the expertise that would be sought after by any organization worldwide. Their unwavering dedication to protecting the local community is highly commendable.”

Dr. Hayes said that “the warm hospitality of the people in Northern Ireland is world-renowned but this visit far surpassed my expectations and I greatly appreciate the time and consideration afforded by Mr. Harbinson and his colleagues.”​

Experts to talk Threat Intelligence at cybersecurity symposium

Dr. Darren Hayes

On Friday, October 30, 2015, we welcome a panel of renowned experts who will speak about threat intelligence to an audience of more than 100 students who are passionate about cyber security and digital forensics.

During the sold-out event, organized by Dr. Darren Hayes, the Director of the Seidenberg Cybersecurity Institute, we will hear from incredible speakers who will share their experiences across the field:

Joel Krauss, the Director of Strategic Information & Crisis Management for the International Rescue Committee, will be giving a talk called Human Intelligence: A Holistic Approach. This talk will focus on leveraging organic intelligence-gathering assets within one’s own organization in order to answer organizational risk information (ORI) priorities.

Ian Amit, Vice President at ZeroFox, will give a presentation titled Actionable Threat Intelligence. Ian’s talk will discuss how to create a customized, organization-specific threat intelligence feed, which in turn will be used to actively increase the security posture of the organization in a measurable way. 

Joshua Philipp, who is a National Security Reporter, China News, at Epoch Times, will be an explanation of the vast system behind Chinese economic espionage, and how it is carried out by military, civilian, government, business, and academic sectors in China. The talk is called Cyber and Beyond: The Inner Workings of Chinese Economic Espionage – quite the exciting title!

The final talk will be by Lenny Zeltser, Product Management Director, NCR Corp, with an Introduction to Malware Analysis. In this session, Lenny Zeltser demonstrates key aspects of this process, walking attendees through behavioral analysis of a real-world Windows malware specimen by using several free tools. He will demonstrate practical techniques in action and how malware analysis will help to triage the incident to assess key capabilities of the malicious software.

The event will take place from 12:15-5:30 at Lecture Hall North and promises to be an incredible afternoon of presentations, discussion, and learning.

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