ISC2 New Jersey Chapter Newsletter

Editor-in-Chief: Tran Cheung

Welcome to the ISC2 New Jersey Chapter's September 2023 issue!

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

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

Ken's Korner

Message from the President

Now that summer is over, our Chapter is moving full steam ahead. We had two great events this month and next month we have even more. I was so moved to see how many people came to our first ISC2gether Day in the pouring rain. It is a testament to the strength of our community and I am honored to be a part of it. Over the last two months we have made some major additions to the Board and I am already amazed with what they have already accomplished. Stay tuned for more great initiatives and events from our Chapter and say hi to our official mascot, Forrest!

Welcome Aboard!

Welcome New Board Members!

We are so excited to announce that we have three new ISC2 New Jersey Chapter Board members!

Please welcome our new Membership Chairs, Sharon Kelley and Samantha Snellen and our new Education Chair, John Linkowsky, CISSP!

They have already proven themselves to be fantastic chapter volunteers and we already know that we will be seeing great things from them in the coming year!

Welcome Aboard, New Chapter Members!

Walter Figel, Paul Kaffenberger, Iqra Hina, Todd Emge, Ellen Keefe, Scott Dudenbostel, Sivaprakash Palaniswamy, Zachary Kaston, Maneesh Gogineni, Jennifer Dalle Pazze, Jared Roth, Francisco Urena, Brenda Mbabazi, Anthony Nacco, Ting Cosper, Frank Cresciullo, and Virginia Greenwood

Note for all potential members: Click here to watch a special video from our Welcoming Committee. In this video, they discuss why they love being a member of our chapter. Special thanks to Sammi Fishkin for producing this video!

New Initiatives

Cyber Pathways Live! - Need Volunteers

In an effort to learn from each other about the various areas within cybersecurity, we will be conducting a series of informal virtual discussions led by experienced Chapter members. This program will start in November and we are actively seeking out members from various careers within cybersecurity.

Volunteer time commitment for mentors: 1/2 hour from 7-8pm in November Volunteer time commitment for coordinators: 3-4 hours from now until the end of the event

If you are interested in participating as either a mentor or as a coordinator, click here to sign up.

Event Recap

Joint meeting with InfraGard NJ

Our partnership with InfraGard NJ has strengthened this year. We had a great number of ISC2 members attending their last meeting, where we learned about the current geo-political climate from local FBI agents. Member Alexandra Tarabour was the moderator for this panel discussion.

Fall Picnic - September

We had a wonderful time during our fall picnic even with the outer bands of tropical storm Ophelia. Over 80 people braved the rain to eat good food, especially the samosas! We had a great time catching up with each other and met many new members, while children were playing cornhole and Jenga! It was quite amazing to see the resilience of our community!

Special thanks to the Picnic Committee for all the work that you did to make it so memorable!

Check out some great photos from the event by clicking here.

ISC2gether Day!

This month, ISC2 headquarters asked all the local chapters to participate in their first International Community Service Day, aka "ISC2gether Day". We participated in this event by packaging 125 healthy meal kits for the Community FoodBank of New Jersey while enjoying each other's company at our annual Fall Picnic, right afterwards.

Special thanks to Marie Ivanov for doing the heavy lifting here. She organized the event and collected all the donated food from several supermarkets!

Shout Outs

Congratulations to our own President, Ken Fishkin, who was awarded the prestigious James R. Wade ISC2 Service Award!

Let us know if you passed a test, got a promotion or made a career move and we'll give you a shout out!

Upcoming Events

October 2023 Monthly Meeting

There will be no ISC2 New Jersey Chapter meeting for the month of October due to the Joint Metro Cybersecurity Conference taking place October 19th and 20th, 2023. See below for details.

Public Speaking Workshop

Date: Thursday, October 12th, 2023
Time: 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Location: Virtual Event

Register here.

InfraGard NJ - October 2023 Monthly Meeting

Ensuring Resilience: Mastering Business Continuity

Date: Tuesday, October 17th, 2023
Time: 5:30 p.m.
Location: Roseland, NJ

Register here.

NY Metro Joint Cyber Security Conference

Registration is now open for the 2023 NY Metro Joint Cyber Security Conference and Workshop!

Date: October 19th and 20th, 2023
Time: 8:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Location: Microsoft, 11 Times Sq. NYC (Workshops are virtual)

It will be held in-person at Microsoft in Manhattan on October 19th and 20th, celebrating their 10th anniversary. Featuring a keynote by Lisa Plaggemier, Executive Director of the National Cybersecurity Alliance. Our chapter is a community partner for this event and we are expecting 300-400 attendees. For details, click here.

To register for this event, click here.

To learn more about becoming a sponsor for this event, click here.

InfraGard End of the Year Symposium

Date: Thursday, November 9th, 2023
Time: 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Location: Kean University - 1075 Morris Avenue NJCSTM/STEM Building (STEM Auditorium) Union, NJ 07083

Register here.

November 2023 Monthly Meeting

For our November Monthly Meeting, we'll have Debbie Reynolds – “The Data Diva” and Jeremy Jethro - Red Team and Data Forensic / Incident Response expert join us.

Date: Thursday, November 16th, 2023
Time: 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Location: Virtual Event

Annual ISC2 SECON International Chapter Conference 2023

We are announcing our 2nd Annual ISC2 International Chapter Conference, SECON International!

Date: December 6, 2023
Time: 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. ET
Location: Virtual
Cost: FREE

To register for this event, click here.

Call For Speakers!
Submission Process: The submission deadline is 11:59pm ET on October 15th, 2023. Chapter members are highly encouraged to present at this conference and will be given preference over non-members.

Notification of Acceptance: Submitters will receive a response from the committee by November 15th, 2023.

Format: Speakers will have 15 minute talks and no time for Q&A. If needed, we will provide coaching assistance to help you condense your presentation.

Click here for the Call For Papers Submission Form.

Partial list of participating ISC2 chapters: New Jersey, Israel, Poland, Brussels, Netherlands, Uganda, Canada and Greece.

ISC2 New Jersey Chapter Holiday Dinner

Date: Wednesday, December 6, 2023
Time: 6:00 p.m. - 10 p.m.
Location: The Armory, 200 Front Street Perth Amboy, NJ 08861
Cost: $30 for members and $60 for guests/non-members

Click here to register for this amazing event at a beautiful location!

Member Bios

Member Spotlight - Mohamed Brahim

This month, we would like to give a big shout out to Mohamed Brahim! He has been a member since 2021 and has proven to be a phenomenal volunteer. He has been instrumental to the ISC2 New Jersey Chapter's success by maintaining our website and always volunteering for various initiatives.

Thank you, Mohamed for everything you do, and we are very grateful for your service.

Current Initiatives

Message from the JuMPstart Mentorship Program (JuMP) Committee - October Update

We hope everyone enjoyed the amazing fall volunteer event and picnic. At the event, we received a significant amount of feedback around the JuMPstart Mentorship program from people about how the mentoring program has positively affected them. The majority of our mentoring committee was able to attend. We all had a wonderful time and learned from the people in the program.

We are busy wrapping up the September session and launching October. Please be on the lookout for our email updates.

Many of you have reached out about adding mentees and mentors, thank you and please feel free to continue to reach out to mentoring@isc2chapternj.org. Thank you all for your continued support, we will be launching a new series (5 months of mentor and mentee meetups) in January 2024.

If you want details about the program and to fill out the 2-minute form to sign up to mentor or mentee please click here.

We look forward to making the mentorship program continue to succeed!

Join Our Discord Server!

We now have over 320 members on our Discord Server!

By adding a Discord server to the mix of our communication tools, we now have real-time collaboration between our members 24/7.

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.

We are always looking for ideas and 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!

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.

Interview with Shantanu Sharma (member of ISC2 New Jersey Chapter) by Bryon Singh

Bryon: Tell us about yourself. What are your interests, and how did you get into cybersecurity?

Shantanu: I currently hold a PhD in Bioinformatics and an undergraduate degree in Computer Science. Since earning my degrees, I have been working in financial services, where I identified a significant need for cybersecurity due to the prevalence of cyber fraud. Before embarking on a career in cybersecurity, I founded my own financial company. Working behind the scenes in this venture provided me with valuable experience in the financial industry.

Bryon: On your journey into cybersecurity, what are some certifications you have achieved?

Shantanu: I recently completed my ISC2 Cybersecurity Certification, and I plan to pursue CISSP next. In addition, I have earned various certifications in data analytics, machine learning, and AI.

Bryon: Could you offer some tips and guidance for our members who are pursuing the ISC2 CC or any other certifications that you have completed?

Shantanu: One crucial thing to remember is to evangelize the importance of the code of ethics and principles of cybersecurity. For certification completion and self-study, I utilized resources available through an O'Reilly subscription and Coursera. I highly recommend the O'Reilly subscription, which can be accessed at https://www.oreilly.com/online-learning/pricing.html.

Bryon: What are your next steps in terms of professional development and self-improvement?

Shantanu: I am planning to engage more with the ISC2 NJ Chapter’s mentorship program. Though I haven’t signed up yet, your description of the program has piqued my interest. I will definitely look into it further and reach out to Matt Lang for more information. I will also look into the CISSP bootcamp offering by ISC2 NJ chapter as I am also interested in that certification.

Educational Training

Dirt Cheap CISSP Bootcamp!

Register for our dirt cheap 5-day bootcamp to prepare yourself for the CISSP exam. This bootcamp is only available to ISC2 New Jersey Chapter members.

Dates: October 21st, October 28th, November 4th, November 11th, and November 18th, 2023
Time: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Location: Virtual

The course textbook is not included, but it is less than $100.

Register here.

FREE Certified in Cybersecurity (CC) Bootcamp!

Are you new to cybersecurity or haven't gotten your first cybersecurity certification yet? Look no further and register for this FREE 2-day bootcamp to prepare you for the new ISC2 "Certified in Cybersecurity" (CC) exam.

Dates: December 9th and December 16th, 2023
Time: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Location: Virtual

It's the first ISC2 certification that doesn't require previous experience. This course is only available to ISC2 New Jersey Chapter members.

Register here.

NYU 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 completely free, 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 www.cyber.nyu.edu.

To learn more about this program, click here.

Grand Canyon University and ISC2 New Jersey Chapter Partnership

We are proud to present to our fellow chapter members a new partnership we formed with Grand Canyon University!

Grand Canyon University’s Educational Alliance Participant (EAP) program provides a no-cost, non-exclusive opportunity to support your valued employees’ growth by helping them earn a degree, certificate or take a single course with scholarship benefits.

EAP partnership benefits:

10% off tuition scholarship on the degree or single course
Attend class 100% online with over 250 programs from which to choose
Ongoing support from a local counselor, plus free online tutoring, technical support and more

If you’re interested in learning more about this program, you can reach out directly to Lara Bogner by email lara.bogner@gcu.edu or call 602-247-4608.

https://www.gcu.edu/counselor/lara.bogner

Recordings and Slides From Prior Meeting

Thank you to our presenters in our September meeting!

We'd like to extend thanks to our presenters Adnan Rafique, and Michael Melore for two fantastic presentations.

Click here to view Adnan's presentation.

We would also like to give a special thanks to KC Udoh for and May Brooks Kempler joining us as well. KC is now on the Board of Trustees for The Center for Cyber Safety at ISC2 and he discussed their new initiatives and May discussed the importance of volunteering and giving back.

Check out their recordings here:

Adnan Rafique on Securing M365

Michael Melore on the Cost of a Breach

KC Udoh

May Brooks Kempler

Make sure to check out ISC2's Board of Director Candidates, of which May is one of them!! Click here.

Board Members

ISC2 New Jersey Chapter 2023 Board of Directors

Thank you to our out-going Board Members Membership Chair, John Manley, and Education Director, Jose Lagdameo for your tremendous contributions and services for our chapter and the community.

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