Transcript 0:00 [gentle music] Is this too little too late? I have been talking about the need for greater cybersecurity for more than a decade. Cyber criminals, we talk about these cyber bad guys, are only getting smarter. 0:14 They're one step ahead of us, and they always seem to be waiting in the weeds, but I'm not sure we are moving fast enough. I always say we've gotta be fast. We've gotta move quick. 0:30 [upbeat music] Welcome to The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation, with your host, Peggy Smedley. 0:45 Hello, listeners, and welcome to today's edition of The Peggy Smedley Show. As always, I'm your host, Peggy Smedley. I hope everyone here in the United States had a great Labor Day weekend. I certainly did. 0:58 But today on the show, we are going to talk all about some new initiatives underway to boost the nation's cybersecurity, and we certainly need to do a lot to protect that. 1:08 There has been a lot happening the past two weeks, and on today's show, I'm going to give you an update and share my thoughts about what needs to happen next. 1:19 But first, later on in the show, I will be interviewing some amazing guests, as always. I will be talking to Cindy Jordan, CEO and founder of Pix Health, and we have a lot to talk about there. 1:31 And then I will be wrapping up the show with Caitlin Frank, co-founder of EMOD. So let's get started. It has been quite a year. There have been cyber attacks on LinkedIn, Acer, and so many more. 1:45 There was the cybersecurity breach that happened in Florida and the water system back in February, as most of you will recall, will, will, will recall. 1:55 Of course, we can't forget the attack on the Colonial Pipeline in May. And at the end of August, a Microsoft Azure cloud vulnerability exposed st- thousands of databases. 2:10 It seems the hits just keep on coming, and I can assure you this is not music to anyone's ears. 2:19 The Verizon Business 2001 Data Breach Investigations Report that was released in May examined 5,258 breaches, yeah, 5,000, from 83 contributors across the globe. 2:35 This is a whopping third more breaches analyzed than just one year earlier. Think about that, a third. Both phishing and ransomware attacks are inching up and up, and so are the costs and the devastating impacts. 2:52 Yes, I'm talking about devastating impacts. It is touching nearly every single industry. Think about finance, healthcare, public administration, retail, manufacturing, food. 3:10 Virtually no industry has been immune. The evildoers, as I always like to say, do not discriminate. There is so many good things happening, but the reality is there are so many bad things. 3:24 But let's focus right now on some of the good news to report in all of this hacker headache mess. Many companies are on a crusade to win this fight for cybersecurity and to protect our most valuable data. 3:40 So let's take a closer look at what is being done, because rather than focus on the bad and the evildoers, I really wanna focus on the good on this segment today. 3:51 You ri-might recall back in May, President Biden issued an executive o-order to modernize the federal government defenses and to improve security of technology. 4:04 Since that time, the administration has improved the cybersecurity of more than 150 electric utilities that serve 90 million Americans, so that's good news. 4:17 At the end of August, President Biden met with leaders to develop a plan to improve the nation's cybersecurity. Now, here's what has come out of that meeting, and this is what I wanna focus on. 4:29 The administration announced the formal expansion to a second major sector, natural gas pipelines. No surprises, this is now a big area of focus, and you can imagine why. 4:43 Additionally, the National Institute of Standards and Technology will collaborate with industry and other partners to develop a new framework to improve the security and integrity of the technology supply chain. 5:01 Now, the supply chain is so vital. We talk about the importance of the supply chain all the time. Thank goodness. We all know the vulnerabilities that exist in our supply chain today. 5:13 The technology companies are making some big moves as well. Apple will establish a new program to drive continuous security improvements throughout its technology supply chain. 5:29 It is going to work with suppliers to drive mass adoption of multi-factor authenticat- authentication, security training, vulnerability remediation, event logging, and incident response. 5:46 As another example, Google announced it will invest 10 billion in the next five years to expand zero trust programs, help secure the software supply chain, and enhance open so- source security.Meanwhile, IBM is looking to train a hundred and fifty thousand people. 6:09 Yep, a hundred and fifty thousand people in cybersecurity skills in the next three years. 6:16 Additionally, it will partner with more than twenty historically Black colleges and universities to establish cybersecurity leadership centers to grow a more diverse cyber workforce. 6:30 Now, here's another one that is really important. Microsoft announced it will invest twenty billion. Yeah, twenty billion. Look at that. 6:39 We're talking big dollars here, in the next five years to accelerate efforts to integrate cybersecurity by design and deliver advanced security solutions. Yeah, we're talking twenty billion. 6:54 Microsoft also announced it will immediately make available a hundred and fifty million in technical services to help federal, state, and local governments with upgrading security protection. 7:08 Now, the tech giant will also expand partnerships with community colleges and nonprofits for cybersecurity training. Now, you and I all know, everybody listening know training is so vital. It's essential. 7:22 We can talk about the money invested, but training is where it all starts. The more Microsoft passes on the education, the greater the defenses. This is really, really smart thinking. 7:36 I love the way Microsoft is stepping up and saying, "Let's do the training." Now, let me give you one more example because this is what we need to be talking about, all these companies stepping up. 7:46 Amazon will make available to the public at no charge the security awareness training IT it offers its employees. 7:55 The company will also announce it will make available to all Amazon Web Services account holders at no additional cost a multi-factor authentication device to protect against cybersecurity threats, like phishing and password threat. 8:13 So this is just the beginning. Nonprofits and colleges are making some pretty big and bold moves too. 8:21 We all need to understand, we all have to be focusing on protecting our connected devices and everything we do at every endpoint. 8:31 Girls Who Code announced it will establish a micro cred-credentialing program for historically excluded groups in technology. 8:41 The University of Texas system announced it will expand existing and developing new short-term credentials in cyber-related fields to strengthen America's cybersecurity workforce. I think you get the idea here. 8:56 There's quite a bit of work underway now to win the fight against cybersecurity, and it's a battle. It is a fight that needs to be won. 9:06 This shows companies and schools are talking cyber protection to the next level because the bad guys have gone to extremes that we all hate to see. 9:19 We all need to be better, and that happens when we work together, when we are united, and we put up a front to fight the bad guys. So here's my opinion for today. Is this too little too late? 9:36 I have been talking about the need for greater cybersecurity for more than a decade. Cyber criminals, we talk about these cyber bad guys, are only getting smarter. 9:47 They are one step ahead of us, and they always seem to be waiting in the weeds, but I'm not sure we are moving fast enough. I always say we've gotta be fast. We've gotta move quick. 9:58 But I've been talking about the need for secure backups, multi-factor authentication, and verification for years and years now. 10:06 Some companies have certainly listened, and I am just not sure it's been enough to really make an impact. But I'm not a naysayer. What I am is a positive thinker, but companies are putting a lot of effort now. 10:20 But I hope companies are not paying lip service to this. I hope that they are putting their money to the problem, which is what we're seeing, and that's what I like. 10:29 And even more importantly, they're reaching out to work with others. When we do that and not just putting money to it, we solve the problem. We need to do more to secure our businesses. We need to do the training. 10:43 I do like the steps we are starting to take, but we need to do it faster, quicker, and we need to work together. 10:49 Only time will tell if it's going to have the required impact to protect our devices, to protect our companies. 10:57 Perhaps even more importantly, there's another key point that I really think deserves to be mentioned here, and that's all these initiatives. 11:06 There's a big focus on the worker, and that's what we need to do and focus on the worker. So here's my tip for today. Focus on the worker. This is a twofold tip. I started this before. 11:22 We need to focus on education for all workers, not just a few, and that's still so critical. We can't just focus on the folks that are in c-cyber. 11:32 We also need to focus on reskilling, upskilling, and find new workers for the security positions that are unfulfilled. It's really a hard reality. 11:43 Nearly half a million of public and private sector cybersecurity jobs remain unfulfilled. We know this is a common challenge across all industries. 11:54 But if we don't have cybersecurity protected, all industries will falter. 12:00 And as I started the show saying cybersecurity threats and incidents affect businesses of all sizes, shapes.These threats impact nearly every town and every city, large or small, and anywhere in the world. 12:16 Everyone is a victim to the bad guys who are looking to attack, and that means everyone must pick up the mantle. We all need to be part of the solution. Perhaps it is educating others about the importance. 12:32 Perhaps it's inspiring the next generation, or maybe it's just putting better practices in place at your company. What can you do today? Let's fight this fight for cybersecurity together. 12:49 How can we work together? How can we educate the person next to us about better practices? How to avoid those phishing attacks? You know what? 13:00 We don't want our water systems, our utilities, our electricity, anything to be attacked. We don't want our infrastructure to be attacked, but we all have to work together to protect our systems. 13:14 But unless we think about how we work together, we're going to lose the fight. But we can work together if we think about how we're gonna do it and put our best minds and resources to it. 13:26 It's not just about money, but it's about educating those who are gonna apply the money that these companies are putting forward, and that's where the education comes. All right. 13:36 As always, if you have thoughts on what I've talked about today, please send me your thoughts. Tweet this discussion. Tweet on Connuc- ConnectedWMag. That's where we continue the discussion, or on LinkedIn. 13:48 I'd love for you to, you know, post a message up on LinkedIn and let's continue this conversation, 'cause I'd love to hear what you have to say, because only when we continue the conversation can we continue and educate each other. 14:00 All right, that's all the time for this segment. Check out our website at connectedworld.com or our show website at thepeggysmedleyshow.com. 14:08 All right, don't go away, 'cause I'll be right back after this quick commercial break, and, uh, so g- get that quick cup of coffee, you know, 'cause I want you to come back. 14:16 As always, this is The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation. And remember, with great technology comes great responsibility. I'll be right back. [upbeat music]
