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ISC2 New Jersey Chapter Newsletter is a monthly curated publication sharing achievements of our members, interesting topics, and relevant links.

Welcome Message

Letter from the Editor

Welcome to the ISC2 New Jersey Chapter's October 2024 Issue!


Our goal is to provide the cybersecurity community with monthly New Jersey Chapter news, upcoming events and initiatives, as well as timely and relevant articles from our dedicated member volunteers.


This issue celebrates the four-year anniversary of the newsletter. To date, we have published 52 issues and grown to almost 3,000 subscribers! We have revamped our newsletter and moved to a new platform with Mailchimp. We hope you enjoy the new format and content.


This effort would not have been possible without our dedicated newsletter committee members: Tran Cheung, Sharon Kelley, Aaron Kraus, Patricia Guroff, Khurt Williams, and Sravanthi Kolli.


We invite you to send any comments or suggestions to communications@isc2chapternj.org.


Co-editors in chief of Issue #52: Aaron Kraus and Tran Cheung

Ken’s Korner

Message from the President: Ken Fishkin

This month we accomplished so many things, it’s hard to believe that it was all done by volunteers!  Not only did we win the ISC2 Chapter Recognition Award for North America AND the Outstanding Partner Award for the Center for Cyber Safety and Education, but launched our first Capture the Flag event, our NJ Cyber Guardians Internship Program and our new Newsletter and Mentorship tools!


November will (hopefully) be much calmer, as we all need a well deserved rest!

Welcome Aboard Members

This month we welcomed 29 new members, including members from Bahamas, Maryland, Virginia, Brooklyn, and California! The chapter continues to expand its reach to security practitioners across the country and around the world.

Great to meet you all and glad you joined us!


Candy Ferguson (Bahamas), Fatema Basrai, Arthur Mendes, Sriharsha Katragunta, Mehmet Alacatag, Janet Tuohy, Takala Crook, Ryan Mulhollem, Nana Kwesi Sekyi Okusu, Zia Islam, Kluivert Francis, Damian Zalewski, Karl Zettl, Kelvin Dhliwayo, Nicolas Zaster, Hassan Bilal, Kimberly Thornton (Maryland), Mahmoud Ezat, Michael Scocco, Mihir Kansagra, Ryan Bosia (California), Matthew Kelly, Bob Broders, Keith Collins, Dheeraj Maram, Cid Dominique, Geraldine Okon (Brooklyn), Adam Marcus (Virginia) and AJ Anand.

Chapter News

Chapter News & Current Events

Congratulations to Our New High School Sub-chapter in Ohio


Matthew Wall from Lakota West High School in Ohio is actively recruiting members at his high school and has been very successful so far!  Also, he is teaching his fellow classmates how to protect themselves from the latest cyber threats.


These student chapter members are very passionate about cybersecurity and we can’t wait to see what they’ll do next!

Events

Recaps

HackNJIT 2024 Recap

What a fun day we had as judges at HackNJIT, this November! It was fierce competition with over 200 students from various schools.

In only 36 hours, the students had to develop highly innovative, creative and functional projects. The winning team developed a device and app to help people improve their posture. Can’t wait to do it again next year!

Thank you judges, Matt Lang, Sheshananda Reddy Kandula, Smit Nayak, Fuad Hamidli and our photographer of the day, Pradeep Nerupati.

October 2024 Monthly Meeting Recap

Thank you Gaurav Singh and Cochi Ho for both giving phenomenal talks at our last ISC2 New Jersey Chapter meeting!

Gaurav Singh, Senior Manager of SAP cybersecurity at Under Armour discussed the dangers of not treating your SAP environment with adequate security controls.

Secure Your Financial and Supply Chain Enterprise Applications: recording; presentation


Cochi Ho, former FBI Special Agent enlighted us with his stories on techniques that criminals used to secretly communicate via the Internet.  For example, using an email server's draft folder as a dead drop was fascinating.

Terrorist Communications and Tactics: recording

Special thanks to everyone on the NJ Cyber Guardians Committee for their dedication in turning this idea into a reality: Tom Brennan, Alexandra Velez, SSCP, Tran Cheung, MBA, CISSP, CCSP, CISA, PMP, Van Munoz, Sharon Kelley, Leon Ferri, MBA, CISSP, Arthur Hedge and Christopher Kay CISSP, CPP.


Thank you Holly Schneider Brown, Alisha Wenc and the Center for Cyber Safety and Education for all their support! Extra special thanks to Alexandra Velez, SSCP for these amazing photos, editing the videos and for live streaming the entire event!


To learn more about CISA and the NJ Cyber Guardians program, click below to watch the whole event:

Senior Awareness Training Recap

Raising Awareness: Senior Scam and Fraud Prevention at YMCA - Scotch Plains

This past Friday, 11/1/2024, ISC2 New Jersey Chapter members, Anicee Monfleury, Fatema Basrai, CFEand Sammy Cordero, presented a crucial session on Senior Scam and Fraud Awareness at YMCA - Scotch Plains. We had a fantastic turnout of seniors, who were highly engaged and asked many questions throughout the presentation.


We covered key topics like the Grandparent Scam, Romance Scam, and Government Scam.  Spreading awareness about these types of scams is a cause we’re all passionate about, and events like this remind us of the importance of education in safeguarding our communities.

Upcoming Events

All times are EST

Cyber Pathways - 10/28/2024 - 11/14/2024

We are continuing our Cyber Pathways program. This initiative aims to help students and career transitioners who are looking to break into the cybersecurity industry and learn more about the various roles and opportunities within it.


Join on ISC2 NJ Chapter Discord (and send Ken an email at president@isc2chapternj.org to get the link if you’re not already there)!  

ISC2 New Jersey CMMC Round-Table

To protect American intellectual property and national security, the Department of Defense (DoD) developed the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program. CMMC requires covered defense contractors and subcontractors to implement security protections set forth in NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-171 for sensitive unclassified DoD information.


We invite you to join us for a brief overview of the CMMC rule, a presentation “What the CMMC Rule means for Organizations and External Service Providers”, insights on how to implement it, and networking opportunity for other professionals working on CMMC challenges!

MS Copilot Workshop

Our beloved trainer, Jay Ferron has offered our chapter another free workshop.  Join us for a free virtual event to learn about MS Copilot, an AI-powered assistant integrated into Microsoft Office applications. Popular tools and platforms are increasingly integrating AI capabilities, so it’s important to stay ahead of these changes and ensure you’re ready for the workplace of tomorrow!

New Member Welcome Meeting - Virtual Only

Are you a new or nearly new NJ Chapter member? If so, join one of our upcoming orientation (welcome) meetings, where you can learn about all the chapter benefits and ask questions about membership.


Our membership co-chairs, Sharon and Sam run this virtual welcome meeting on the third Thursday of each month. Register for our next welcome meeting on . The meeting will last approximately 20 minutes and will be recorded and sent to new members who weren't able to join.

Monthly Meeting - November 2024

For our November Monthly Meeting, we'll hear from Jeff Tomkiewicz, an Offensive Security Engineer for a Fortune 40 on Fortifying Active Directory:Combatting Misconfigurations and Shekar Gadekar, CEO at Quality Edge topic is TBD

Volunteer Opportunities

SECON International needs your help!

We need a few more volunteers to help either facilitate our upcoming SECON International event or help edit our conference website (no programming skills needed). Please sign up if you can donate a few hours of your time.  

Save the Date - December Monthly Meeting - 12/19/2024


Date: Thursday, December 19, 2024
Time: 6 pm - 8 pm
Location: Virtual


Member Showcase

Member Contribution

New Books Written by Our Chapter Members

Eyes In The Sky: A Guide to Drone Forensics

by Vaibhavi Toward and Smit Kayak


Mastering Your Work Life Balance

by Michael C. Redmond

Member Survey Request for John Checco’s Dissertation


John C. Checco (Chair/Co-Founder of the NY Metro Joint Cyber Security Conference) is a Doctoral Candidate in Cybersecurity from Marymount University and is seeking assistance from our members to help him. See below for his request.


TOPIC: THREAT INTELLIGENCE USAGE FOR CYBER OPERATIONS

 

If your work involves security operations and/or security decision management using cyber threat intelligence, we need you!

For my dissertation, I am conducting research on the usability of threat intelligence in cybersecurity operations and decision-making. Fictional scenarios will be presented to participants where they will use a provided cyber threat intelligence report to react and respond to each situation using a survey containing both ranking as well as open-ended questions. Please support this effort either by directly participating in the survey, asking your SOC / security teams to participate, or sharing this invitation with your peers and colleagues.

Survey Link: Doctoral Dissertation Survey: USABILITY OF THREAT INTELLIGENCE IN CYBER OPS

Chapter Initiatives

Ongoing

JuMP October Update: Exciting Launch and Progress


Dear Members,


We're thrilled to announce that our mentorship platform, Qooper, will launch this month, marking a significant milestone for our program. This achievement is thanks to the dedication of our volunteers who have worked tirelessly to ensure a smooth rollout. Various cooperative groups, from recent graduates to seasoned professionals, will benefit from the platform’s robust features and improved connectivity. The committee has maintained steady progress and dedication, ensuring our mentorship activities remain on track. Thank you for your continued support and enthusiasm—your involvement drives our success.

Warm regards,
Matthew Lang and The Mentorship Committee


Contact Us: For any questions, comments, or suggestions, please reach out to us at 
mentoring@isc2chapternj.org.

Join our ISC2 NJ Chapter Discord Server!

We now have roughly 550 members on our Discord Server!


We are looking for volunteers to help make Discord a better and fun place. Please reach out to Bryon Singh at bryon@isc2chapternj.org with ideas or ping him on Discord!


By adding a Discord server to the mix of our communication tools, we now have real-time collaboration between our members 24/7. Looking for a job or for some advice on bettering yourself on the job? Find it here!


Our Discord Server is a dynamic hub for job seekers, offering firsthand job opportunities in various IT and Cyber positions from chapter members. It's also a resource for members seeking internships, aiming to enhance their skill sets, or wanting to share resumes for reviews and feedback (including interview skills assistance). In addition to our website and newsletter, we announce upcoming events through Discord Server notifications. You'll receive regular reminders, so you won’t miss out on our engaging events! Moreover, our mentorship program is hosted on Discord, facilitating interaction with mentors during your cohort.


For those members that want to communicate on a variety of topics between meetings using Discord, just send Ken an email at president@isc2chapternj.org to get the link.


The members of the Discord Committee are Bryon Singh, Tran Cheung, Giovanni Mercado, John Linkowsky , Krishna Nekkalapudi, Matthew Lang, Michael LeBlanc, Nikunj Shah, Brett Smith and Saurabh Sagdeo.

Upcoming

Cyber Nexus


The Cyber Nexus Initiative aims to enhance ISC2 NJ Chapter as a thought leader in cybersecurity by inviting, reviewing, and publishing cutting-edge articles and blogs on its website. The initiative will help disseminate valuable insights, promote academic and professional discourse, and contribute to the overall advancement of cybersecurity knowledge. The initiative also offers a platform for ISC2 NJ chapter members to share their cybersecurity expertise, who may not be comfortable with public speaking. More details to follow to participate!

Chapter Partners

ISC2 1 Million CC

Going For Your Certified in Cybersecurity Certification?

ISC2 New Jersey Chapter is proud to be actively involved in the ISC2 1MCC Partner Program! We provide a pathway for potential candidates from our thriving network and help support individuals through training, exam pass and to becoming a CC holder.


To help you on your journey to achieve the CC, register for it. After registering, we'll be able to see your progress and be able to provide guidance and encouragement if you need it.

NYU Programs

NYU Program and ISC2 New Jersey Chapter

The ISC2 New Jersey Chapter and the New York University Tandon School of Engineering have formed a partnership to further educational and credentialing opportunities for students and the cybersecurity community.


In addition to participating in NYU Tandon events, lectures, career fairs, and other professional development activities, ISC2 will offer students a full membership for $10, giving them access to a network of local industry leaders. As part of the agreement, ISC2 members can sign up for The NYU Center for Cybersecurity (CCS) mailing list to stay current with research and events featuring leading faculty and industry partners at cyber.nyu.edu.


To learn more about this program, click below.

Board of Directors

ISC2 New Jersey Chapter 2024-2025 Board of Directors


President: Ken Fishkin - President@isc2chapternj.org

Secretary: Mallik Prasad - Secretary@isc2chapternj.org

Treasurer: Priyanka De Abrew - Treasurer@isc2chapternj.org

Education Chair: John Linkowsky - Education@isc2chapternj.org

Co-Membership Chair: Sharon Kelley - Sharon@isc2chapternj.org

Co-Membership Chair: Samantha Snellen -  Samantha@isc2chapternj.org

Co-Communications Chair: Tran Cheung - Communications@isc2chapternj.org

Co-Communications Chair: Bryon Singh - Bryon@isc2chapternj.org

Co-Mentorship Chair: Matthew Lang - Mentoring@isc2chapternj.org

Co-Mentorship Chair: Adam Shuren - Adam@isc2chapternj.org

Events Planner: Marie Ivanov - marie@isc2chapternj.org