Merritt College Cybersecurity Career Day, Nov. 2

Instructor Panel Announced: Teaching Students Cybersecurity Skills Required for the Future

To ensure an excellent cybersecurity program at your business or organization, you
must have top talent. And with more focus than ever around security in a digital world, an IT talent gap looms on the horizon as industry works to recruit top candidates to fill a fast-growing number of security roles.

On Nov. 2, Merritt College will host its Cybersecurity Career Day in Oakland, Calif. By melding thought leadership panels and candidate networking, this event will help business leaders understand the future cybersecurity landscape and connect to students preparing to enter the workforce. I am particularly excited about the Instructor panel that has just been announced, which will focus on teaching cybersecurity skills for the future.

• Tim Mather, PatternX
• Brian Zaugg, Authentic8
• Omer Ayfer, Ayfer Network LLC
• Beverly Brooks, Adjunct Instructor at Merritt College

This instructor-led panel will be crucially important as it will explore the areas of concern that business and organization IT leaders face to staff for cybersecurity in a shrinking pool of talent. And talent is what makes this cybersecurity program special. Learn more about the program.

The Career Day event underscores the important role IT and cybersecurity experts will play in the global economy moving forward with panelists sharing unique insights based on years of real-world experience. While there is no cost to attend, space is limited. If you’d like to reserve a spot, please email your name, company name and contact information to info@ciseeducationfund.com.

Mark Egan

Career Showcase – Meet and Hire the Future of Cybersecurity Friday, March 23 at Merritt College in Oakland

With an increasing number of cyber security threats and an estimated 1M security positions open today, the tech world is facing a crisis.  To address these issues, the Consortium of Information Systems Executives (CISE) CIO group has worked with Merritt College in Oakland to develop and launch a fully accredited two-year degree program https://cisesecurity.com/

Summary of program is below:

• The CISE program at Merritt College is the only California community college that offers an Associate Degree in Information Security.
• Our success was recently showcased when students from our program recently placed 4^th in the Gold Bracket (highest level) against over 175 schools in the annual national Cyber League competition.
• Courses designed and co-taught by security industry experts from leading San Francisco Bay Area companies
• Program includes “hands on” labs to develop student’s technical security skills
• Internships with San Francisco Bay Area companies to work in information security field while students study for their degree
• Class projects include forensics of a pharmaceutical organization that suffered a security breach, securing systems on Amazon Web Services, and developing Information Security strategies

Agenda: 9:00-3:00

• Welcome and introductions
• CISO Panel on how to address our security staffing crisis
• Keynote Speaker: Congressmen Ro Khanna from Silicon Valley
• Merritt Faculty panel on information security skills required for staff in the future
• Merritt Student panel on putting together winning team at NCL completion
• Meet students from program

Action

You will get a chance to meet our students and talk with them firsthand about the training and solutions they would bring to your company.  We are focused on placing these students with leading Silicon Valley and Bay area companies where they can apply their knowledge and training around cybersecurity.  Please participate to demonstrate that your company is a great place for cyber security professionals to begin their career, your commitment to improving diversity in the workplace and to support our local community. Please contact info@ciseeducationfund.com to register for the event.

Mark Egan

Merritt College Comes In Fourth Competing In Its Third Year At National Cyber League

This year our Merritt College Information Security students competed in their third year at the National Cyber League, coming in fourth place among 175 schools entered in the competition. Over the last three years, our students have been participating in this competition in consecutively more challenging levels, moving from bronze, to silver, and now competing this year at the gold level. We’re very proud of our team, beating out all these other schools, and these victories attest to the power of our program and the skill sets these students have to offer.

As a recap, the CISE Security Program at Merritt College  is a fully accredited two-year degree program that is the result of a partnership with Merritt  College and the Consortium of Information Systems Executives (CISE). The program is a huge win in working to solve the cybersecurity crisis and has the support of Congressman Ro Khanna. Our objective is to place graduated (and soon-to-be-graduated) students within companies in the Silicon Valley. We’re looking for companies that are progressive and innovative in their approach to solving the cybersecurity issue.

We have students available for full-time and internship positions.

Please contact me and I will put you in  touch with students.

Mark Egan

 

 

 

Secure Innovation

I recently hosted a panel on the topic of Information Security and framed our discussion around the concept of Secure Innovation. Information Security is often viewed as a roadblock to innovation and an obstruction to moving quickly in a highly competitive environment. The panel focused on how to foster innovation and leverage security as a competitive advantage, and provided strategies that can be quickly implemented to achieve the overall goal of secure innovation.

Each panelist provided openings statements on their experience with innovation that required a high level of security and privacy, and led to pragmatic solutions to challenges in this area. One of our goals from the panel was that CIOs would have 2-3 things they could immediately implement when they got back to their desk.

We covered a number of compelling questions across People, Process, Technology, with some of the key remarks conveyed in the following:

CISO at an early stage security startup

What are your recommendations on sourcing, as you can’t do all of this in-house today?

You need to be creative in your staffing solutions; it is very hard to hire experienced staff. We recommend getting less experienced staff and training them. The Merritt College Cybersecurity program is a great source and example of this model.

What do you recommend on security reporting relationships (CIO, CEO, COO)?

I report to the CEO directly as it is essential to our company being a small, early stage startup.

CMO at an early stage security startup

Who are the bad guys and what do they want?

There are three main actors: One who wants to steal our money; the second, our IP; the third seeks notoriety (think Anonymous.)

CEO at early stage security company

How do organizations find and attract good security talent?

You bring in less experienced staff and train them.

Mark Egan

@markeegan