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

Table of Contents

Letter from the Editor

Welcome to the ISC2 New Jersey Chapter's November 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.


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


Co-editors in chief of Issue 53: Tran Cheung and Aaron Kraus


Newsletter committee members: Tran Cheung, Bryon Singh, Sharon Kelley, Aaron Kraus, Patricia Guroff, Khurt Williams, and Sravanthi Kolli.

Ken’s Korner

Message from the President

November was an amazing month for our chapter, as we had so many events that it was hard to keep track of them all!  After six months of planning, we are finally kicking off our Internship Program (a.k.a. NJ Cyber Guardians), and have pushed ourselves harder and grown stronger than ever before!  We also now have a huge number of student members from so many colleges, universities, and even high schools!  


I highly recommend you read more about our NJ Cyber Guardians program, as this is our most ambitious initiative to date.  We have just started the pilot phase with two interns and will not be accepting additional participants until this cohort is complete.


I hope everyone in the U.S. had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I am personally thankful for all the Board members and volunteers who have made this year so memorable!


- Ken Fishkin

Welcome Aboard, New Members!

Welcome aboard!

This month we welcomed 47 new members, including 27 students. 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!


Pedro Manzanares, Gabriel Sanchez, Joe Piarulli, Jeffrey Beckett, Jason Sparrow, Bhargav Sai Vemulapalli, Jesse Bhagat, Agar Geoffrey Adamson, Dylan Ralston, Steven Wertheim, James Schmidt, Umair Mazhar, Darsh Devraj, Anjali Vundavally, Kumbirai Muhwati, Sumeesha Chandran, Michelle Ubom, Belal Ezat, Lauren Wexler, Rukayat Campbell, Abubakarr Kamara, Robert Jones, David Yen, David Schmutte (OH), Ackim Lewis (Virgin Islands), Zach Leech, Roberto Tobias, Eric Weitzman, Daniel Baloch, Sonam Dorji, Cliff Isaac Achokah, Samantha Bogush (PA), Keith Mishkind, Xena Khan, Rakeem Dawson, Erick Reyes, Adrian Barden, Hina Heipp, Yavuz Birol Guner, Matthew Wall (OH), Nicolas Zaster, Anthony Vargas, and Jana Zettl (VA).

Follow Us On Social Media!

We’ve Gone Social!  Check us out Instagram, Spotify, YouTube, X and Facebook and others via Linktr.ee.


You can also visit our Chapter’s calendar to view our many activities.

Our Committees

To get an idea how active we are, check out our list of chapter committees.  If you are interested in any of them, please reach out to the committee members below.

  1. Podcast Committee (full)

  2. Mentorship Committee - Matt Lang (mentoring@isc2chapternj.org)

  3. Senior Scam and Fraud Committee - Anicee Monfleury (anicee.monfleury@isc2chapternj.org)

  4. Discord Committee - Bryon Singh (bryon@isc2chapternj.org)

  5. Newsletter Committee - Tran Cheung (communications@isc2chapternj.org)

  6. Education Committee - John Linkowsky (education@isc2chapternj.org)

  7. SECON International Committee (full)

  8. SECON NJ Committee - Ken Fishkin (president@isc2chapternj.org)

  9. NJ Cyber Guardians Committee (full)

  10. CMMC Roundtable Committee - Matt Lang (matt.lang@isc2chapternj.org)

  11. Capture the Flag Committee - Ken Fishkin (president@isc2chapternj.org)

  12. Merch Committee - Samantha Snellen (samantha@isc2chapternj.org)

  13. Cyber Nexus (Coming Soon)


Recaps

November 2024 Monthly Meeting Recap

Operational Resiliency and Securing Active Directory were the topics du jour at the ISC2 New Jersey Chapter's November monthly meeting!

We started out with a lively discussion from offensive security expert,
Jeff Tomkiewicz 🇺🇦 on how to mitigate the inherent vulnerabilities that come with an Active Directory environment. Kerberoasting, Pass the Hash, and Golden Ticket are just some of the techniques used to compromise your environment.

Afterwards, we heard from Brian Katula, Incident Response tabletop master at Global Resilience Federation to learn about their Operational Resiliency Framework and their free upcoming multi-sector tabletop exercise on December 11th. You can register for this event by using this link: https://lnkd.in/ekKvwFb8

Click the video above to listen to Anicee Monfleury, Chair of our Senior Fraud and Scam Committee with an update on program’s success.

Cyber Pathways Recap

For three weeks from October 28, 2024 through November 14, 2024, Bryon Singh and his team of volunteers orchestrated another great Cyber Pathways event.  A variety of mentors from various areas donated their time to discuss what they do in an “Ask Me Anything” format.


Thank You To The Following Mentors!

Adnan Rafique, Miguel Angulo, Aaron Ferraro, Smit Chandrakant Nayak, Sheshananda Reddy Kandula, Dhruvi Girishkumar Bhagat, William Klisch, Alex Perotti. Ashley Price-Horton, William Klisch, Pavan Nallamothu, Nathali Cano and Radzhiv Valiev.


Thank You Volunteers For Making This Happen!

Aneta Klepacka, Pavan Nallamothu, Sheshananda Reddy Kandula, Katerina Poulathas, Rupesh Shirke, Ime Iyonsi, Oladiti Komolafe, Swarupa, Mareena, Chiara Blengini and Guitze Rodríguez.

Capture the Flag Event and Walkthrough

Click the video above to watch a short video clip of CTF event. Thank you, Alex Velez, for the photos of the CTF event!


You can also watch the recording of the CTF walkthrough demonstration.

Launching Our NJ Cyber Guardians Internship Program
The NJ Cyber Guardians program is designed to help small nonprofits understand their cybersecurity gaps, while providing interns with skills in leadership, communications, professionalism, along with theoretical and practical cybersecurity skills.

To promote the program, we had a highly attended networking and educational event on Wednesday, October 30, 2024, that was hosted by committee member,
Tom Brennan of Proactive Risk. The other main component of this event was listening to Christopher Kay, the NJ State Cybersecurity Coordinator at CISA, discuss CISA's goals and mission, and the free services and cybersecurity tools that they offer.

You can watch
a recorded video of the event and learn more about CISA and the NJ Cyber Guardians Program.  Extra special thanks to Alexandra Velez for her amazing photos, videos and for live streaming the entire event!

NJ Cyber Guardians Committee:
Tom Brennan, Alexandra Velez, Tran Cheung, Van Munoz, Sharon Kelley, Leon Ferri, Arthur Hedge and Christopher Kay.

Upcoming Events

Our 3rd Annual SECON International Virtual Conference is almost here, so sign up now, before we reach maximum capacity! This unique conference is designed to promote community within ISC2 Chapter members from across the globe, but it is free and open to everyone.


Check out these fun facts about this year's conference:

📍We have roughly 30 speakers from 6 continents speaking this year.

📍This year's keynote speakers are Tara Wisniewski, J. Carlos Vega, Rachel Kim Bierner, and Dr. Erdal Ozkaya.

📍Over 400 people from over 50 ISC2 Chapters have already registered.

📍You'll receive 5 CPE credits.


Special thanks to this year's Platinum Sponsor, Cipher | A Prosegur company!

We invite you to join us as having insights provided by someone who has faced a particular CMMC related issue(s) can be more useful than just reading about it. The CMMC Roundtable not only provides a platform to share ideas, it also provides opportunities for networking, skill development and potential marketing opportunities.


Agenda focus: A brief overview of the published CMMC Rule. There will also be a presentation/discussion on “What the CMMC Rule means for Organizations and External Service Providers”.

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 Thursday, December 12, 2024 at 6pm. The meeting will last approximately 20 minutes and will be recorded and sent to new members who weren't able to join.

Meeting Agenda:

  1. CISO AMA Panel with Ulf Mattsson, Sharon Kelly, Christopher Callahan and Alon Rosenthal - Moderated by Shruti Kalsi

  2. Laila Fetjah will give a talk on - Optimizing Security and PCI DSS Compliance in Cloud Fintech Environment

January 2025 Monthly Meeting - Save the Date

Date: Thursday, January 30, 2025

Time: 6 pm - 8 pm

Location: Virtual


Speakers: Vishal Chawla, CEO at BluOcean and Michael Melore at IBM

SECON NJ Conference - Save the Date

Date: Tuesday, June 10, 2025

Time: 9 am - 5 pm

Location: Kean University, Union, NJ & Virtual

Member Contribution

Article Title: The Importance of Cyber Regulations by Ola Komolafe

“Regulation is the only tool that works,” Lewis says – WiredMagazine


Cybersecurity regulation is increasingly vital due to the growing dependency on digital infrastructure across every sector. As cyber threats become more sophisticated, regulation helps safeguard data, protect national security, and ensure trust in digital systems.


Russia’s cyber operations against Ukraine’s energy grid date back to 2015, when hackers launched an attack that shut down power to nearly 230,000 Ukrainians for several hours. Russia's attacks on Ukraine’s electricity grid have been a significant aspect of its strategy in the ongoing conflict, aimed at destabilizing Ukrainian infrastructure, economy, and civilian morale.

Ongoing Initiatives

Unencrypted Chatter: Episode 6

Check out our latest podcast episode of Unencrypted Chatter, where Marie Wang sat down with Prabha Jha, a passionate Business Information Security Officer (BISO) dedicated to empowering women in cybersecurity and prioritizing health and wellbeing.

JuMPstart Mentorship Program (JUMP)

For the past four years, the ISC2 NJ Chapter Mentorship Program has been fostering growth and collaboration among our members. This initiative connects professionals eager to learn with experienced mentors, creating a community dedicated to skill-building and knowledge sharing.


Exclusively available to ISC2 NJ Chapter members, this program is ideal for:

Early-Career Professionals: Gain guidance on building a career path, earning certifications, and navigating the cybersecurity field.

Experienced Practitioners: Expand your leadership skills by mentoring others and giving back to the community.

Career Changers: Transition into cybersecurity with advice tailored to your background and goals.

Specialists Looking to Grow: Deepen your expertise in new areas of cybersecurity or develop soft skills for leadership roles.


📌 Get Involved:

Mentors: https://mentoring.qooper.io/join/204dab

Mentees: https://mentoring.qooper.io/join/720b1c


Be part of this ongoing journey to shape the next generation of cybersecurity professionals!

Join our Discord Server!

We now have roughly 570 members on our Discord Server!


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.

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 Program

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.

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