CERT: Corporate Emergency Response Team...

What have you done lately to help deter, defend or defeat acts of crime or terrorism in your business, building, office park or community?

It's about time the leaders in our respective organizations stood up and volunteered their time, resources or in kind contributions to do so.

The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) has been around for some time and it is now making its way to your own "ground zero", the "Corporate Emergency Response Team" (CERT).

Now that our US First Responders are finally getting the funds they need, to recruit and make the leadership and citizen soldiers of our corporate organizations more prepared.

The awareness and education wave is now ready for prime time in a conference room or a field exercise near you. The funds may be here, but a lack of eager and trained manpower is still our greatest risk.

Incident Management is about taking command in crisis situations, whether they be the loss of a key employee or the integrity of a mission-critical application online.

The leaders of the next decade will stand out as true patriots in the fight against corruption, fraud, espionage and theft, not all in a foreign land, but just around the corner.

While we need to be prepared for the likely events we know will happen, it is also the training for the ever more likely events that will deter the force that is creating ongoing acts of "corporate terrorism".

If you haven't done so already, think about the leaders in your company, the company next door to yours, on the floors above and below you. Band together.  Volunteer your time with a non-profit in your county or a religious facility in your neighborhood.  Help them become more safe and secure on a weekly or monthly basis.

Only then will we have the momentum we require to "Deter, Detect, Defend and Document" (4D) the enemy or adversaries in your Area of Responsibility (AOR) on a continuous basis...

Godspeed!

4GW: The Spectrum of Cyber Risks...

CyberSpace is indeed a "Strategic National Asset” and protected by our United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM).

OPS Risk Managers across the private sector of the USA are dealing with transnational non-state actors (in some cases funded by nation states) that are robbing our private sector and government agencies blind. Stealing Personal Identifiable Information (PII), Corporate Intellectual Property, Defense R & D and classified State secrets. 

The commander of our US Cyber Command has an even bigger job; protecting and defending our country's vital Digital Infrastructure. This nexus of criminal, terrorist and irregular warfare is being waged on a 24/7 basis here in our homeland.

So how do you go about fighting this 4th Generation (4GW) war comprised of well organized, decentralized, clandestine subjects operating in the cyber shadows?

This begins with creating an effective Information Sharing Environment (ISE), a fusion of who, what, when, how, where and maybe why. Defending the nation against the physical attacks of the likes of Al-Qaida or the virtual attacks from nation states has some very interesting similarities.

If the USCYBERCOM is going to take the fight to those who wish to copy, delete, probe, scan, flood, bypass, steal, modify and spoof their way across our Digital Infrastructure, it shall be charged with pulling together existing cyberspace resources, creating synergies and synchronizing war-fighting effects to defend the information security environment.

Whether our troops are fast roping out of helicopters or behind the flat screen detecting and analyzing the stealth cyber attack, the approach to defeating the adversaries is much the same.

Infiltrating the "cells" and collecting valuable INTEL on the global enemy is what gives us the "Ground Truth." The commander for USCYBERCOM is already educated on the private sectors role in achieving this continuous and lofty goal of creating more decentralized and clandestine citizen soldiers.

As the private sector battles the non-state actors for preservation and protection of valuable intellectual property and customer data, corporations are simultaneously being attacked by adversarial plaintiff lawyers.

The private sector would enjoy having our government involved in more proactive efforts to seek out and stop these criminal and terrorist entities that prey on organizations that remain vulnerable.

The Operational Risks associated with litigation in the corporate enterprise are here to stay.

If the public and private sector can once and for all coordinate, collaborate and "Share Information", we can disrupt, capture, prosecute and defeat our cyber adversaries…

Explore to Learn: "Get Out There" to Build New Relationships…

As the early morning light revealed the white mountain peaks in the near distance, recent explorations were still on our mind.

Walking along narrow rock paths engineered in sandstone thousands of year ago.  Looking at centuries old trees and the fruit they still produce for human generations.

Then sitting in and reflecting on the creative humans who designed and built the only Christian Church to worship in the middle of the town square.

When you take the time and the courage to seek new knowledge, see historical evidence of our human innovation and learn about our true global existence, you will smile.

Think about where you are sitting or standing right now.  Why are you there?

Your journey to this particular location at this time in your life is your decision.  Do you like what you see, hear and feel about why you are there now?

You will only know the answers by leaving it behind.  For a few hours, days, or a few weeks to explore someplace new and valuable where you have never visited before.

Maybe your journey is only a plane ticket away.  Perhaps a short drive over the mountain.  Could it be a walk on a trail around the corner?

Or is it just an elevator ride 10 floors below you in your secure Corporate HQ.  Or a walk a few blocks away to a local branch office on the promenade.  Yes, that is the floor or branch where you will find the expert people you don’t even know yet, who are there to help you learn.

They will guide you on a historical walk of the past to help you better understand the world you are operating in right now now.  This hour.  This day.  This week.

The past may be minutes, hours, days or decades yet they are the teachers, the analysts, the Quants or expert guides who will tell you the real story.

As you listen and view the evidence of their analytical perspectives and the true Satellite imagery data that creates the new hypothesis, just imagine.  As you see the evidence of the insider data breach of your intellectual property and the current ransomware demand, believe.

You see, you are capable of the journey and the exploration, yet you still don’t have the courage to walk out of your room and travel to the relevant places you have never been.

Being brave on a more regular basis to meet with new people will give you new confidence.

Being brave to build new expert “Relationships” will bring new “Results”.  Being brave to experience new results will produce new “Rewards”. (R3)

After about 400 miles driving in and around a new euro country where human behavior on the road in and around traffic circles or on the highways is unique, you will learn.

Driving 75 km/h over the speed limit in the highway fast lane with your left blinker on means something…