How can companies use threat intelligence and the ATT&CK framework to make their security programs more effective? I recently obtained my Master’s Degree in Cybersecurity and, to do so, had to complete a capstone project. For my project, I chose to demonstrate how threat intelligence can be used to help security teams better understand their organization-specific threat landscape and use that knowledge to drive decision-making and defense activities. In addition to presenting the case study to my peers at Quinnipiac University, I presented a higher-level version of my topic at an (ISC)² c ..read more

An Interview for ITSP Magazine’s Focal Point Podcast This conversation was originally recorded with ITSP Magazine for their Focal Point podcast. The below questions were used to guide the conversation but are not a transcript and differ a bit from the podcast episode. You can find the podcast episode here or on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Introduction I currently work as a Senior Engineer on a security tools team at a pharmaceutical company. Most of my day-to-day involves implementing new tools, optimizing our existing tools, and handling 3rd ..read more

Part one of my four-week cybersecurity awareness series. Did you know October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month? This October, I'll be publishing weekly posts with my top security tips to help you stay secure online! With the number of internet threats increasing each day, it's more important than ever to secure your online accounts. Too often we think, "my account won't get hacked" or "there's no way my identity will get stolen", and then one day it happens and we're left anxious and paranoid trying to pick up the pieces and repair the damage. Cybersecurity can't be up to just the trained sec ..read more

Hi and welcome to my blog! Thank you for stopping by and I really hope you enjoy the content you come across while you're here. I wanted to take some time to introduce myself so you can get a better idea of who I am, why I started my blog, and what my goals are. To start, I'm a full-time security engineer for a large healthcare organization. I've been working in the security industry for close to three years, but I started my tech career back in 2017. My first role was as an intern on a Windows Engineering team, where I was able to learn more about corporate domain administration and the depl ..read more

A closer look at DNS and how it’s used in cyberattacks. When you think of DNS attack types, the first thing that probably comes to mind is a Denial of Service, or DoS, attack. While this is a valid thought to have, DoS attacks aren’t actually attacks on DNS. More often than not, they use DNS to carry out a DoS attack rather than actually attacking DNS itself. DNS is one of the backbones of the internet, allowing users to get from point A, their computer, to point B, a website, in seconds. This article will look at some of the common ways the crucial service can be attacked to redirect users t ..read more

Three years ago I was a 20 something-year-old eating whatever she wanted. Now I’m eating healthier than I have in my entire life. If you would’ve told my parents 20 years ago that I’d grow up eating healthier than them, they would have never believed you. Throughout my childhood, I was a sweet eater through and through. I loved anything chocolate, had dessert every single night, and avoided fruits and vegetables at all costs. If it wasn’t for competitive cheerleading I probably would’ve ended up obese. I seriously consumed so much sugar, and I know most kids do, but I think I took that to the ..read more

SecOps, Incident Response, Vulnerability Management, Risk Analysis…where do I start? The information security industry is very large and there are many different career paths to be considered. Googling “jobs in information security” likely results in something like this: For someone whose interest has been piqued but who hasn’t really been exposed to any of the available career paths, seeing something like what’s in the screenshot above can be overwhelming. How can you successfully kickstart your career if all of the options have you confused with where you should begin? The number of positi ..read more

Yes, collaboration overload is a thing and it’s severely impacting our productivity. Collaboration overload is a relatively new phenomenon that’s become more prevalent in the era of remote work as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s defined as: “the point where individuals spend so much time assisting their colleagues or engaging in collaborative activities that they are not left with enough time to complete their tasks.” — NTask Publications like Harvard Business Review and McKinsey are saying it’s sinking productivity and leading to increased stress levels and burnout in employees. Anyo ..read more

3 tips to help you improve your password hygiene and protect your accounts from being compromised. Passwords: We all hate dealing with them but they’ve become just as important as the keys to our home. Unfortunately, too often we don’t take the security of our passwords as seriously as we do our house and car keys. If your house key is lost or stolen, what do you do? Change your house lock immediately. And when you get a notification that your password may have been involved in a breach? If you’re thinking, I’d ignore it, you’re not alone. Oftentimes, we discount the seriousness of these noti ..read more

Introduction to Business Email Compromise and the best ways to defend against it. Business Email Compromise, or BEC, is a term that’s become more prevalent over the last few years. Why? you might ask. In October of 2020, it was reported BEC attacks rose in approximately 75% of industries. While there was speculation this was the result of the pandemic, we haven’t seen these threats decrease at all over the last year and a half, so they’re certainly not going away. In this article, we’ll be discussing what BEC is, the objectives of BEC attacks, and the steps involved in carrying one out. Then ..read more