ISC2 New Jersey Chapter Newsletter

Editor-in-Chief: Tran Cheung

Welcome to the ISC2 New Jersey Chapter's April 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.

Special thanks to Aaron Kraus and Patricia Guroff for supporting this month's publication!

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

Ken's Korner

Ken’s Corner

April was our busiest month ever for our chapter, as we had four major events: Bowling, Topgolf, ISC2gether Day and our Monthly Meeting! During the month of May, we will be planning the final details for our upcoming hybrid SECON NJ conference!

Hope to see you either at our upcoming picnic, conference or both!

Welcome Aboard!

This month we welcomed 18 new members. The chapter continues to expand its reach to security practitioners from around the world, including new members like Karthick from India and Nana from Ghana.

Great to meet you all and glad you joined us!

Leeor Shapira, Akshay Sekar Chandrasekaran, Wayne Roye, David Tortora, Scott Kinny, Gabe Morales, Emmanuel Zongo, Juan Rojas, Rabihu Hussein, Mandela Grant, Brian McHenry, Sunil Agarwal, Nana Yaw Boachie-Agyeman, Monroe Ingram, AhMaad Bryant, Chitra Chavda, and Karthick V G.

ISC2gether Volunteering Month

ISC2gether Day - Community FoodBank of New Jersey 2024

This month, the ISC2 New Jersey Chapter held its annual ISC2gether Day at the Community FoodBank of New Jersey.

Roughly 30 chapter members volunteered a few hours of their time to pack up 1,536 bags of pasta for people in need.

It was a great way to give back to our local community, while having fun doing it. Glad to be a part of such an amazing chapter!

Special thanks to Marie Ivanov, MBA, CISA, CRISC, CDPSE for coordinating this event and Alexandra Velez for her amazing photos.

Pics from the event can be found here.

Event Recap

TopGolf

What a huge turnout the ISC2 New Jersey Chapter had for its first Topgolf event! Lots of fun, good food and the weather held up!

It was also great to see more students start coming to our events, as well!

Special thanks to our sponsors Josiah Lung from Rapid7 and Cole Zugelder from Zscaler for supporting our community with this memorable event!

Extra special thanks to our Event Coordinator, Marie Ivanov, MBA, CISA, CRISC, CDPSE for arranging this event!

Pics from the event can be found here.

Bowling

The ISC2 New Jersey Chapter had a great turnout at our first bowling event! Thank you Marie Ivanov, MBA, CISA, CRISC, CDPSE for coordinating this event with our new member/sponsor Andrew Lascar from Acronis! It was a lot of fun and I’m glad no one took a picture of my score!

Pics from the event can be found here.

Shout Outs

Congrats!

Congrats to our members who passed the CISSP exam! Yash Kothiya was also one of our exam scholarship winners. Reginald passed with the help of our CISSP study group!

Upcoming Events

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.

Click here to register for our next welcome meeting on Thursday, May 23rd at 6pm. The meeting will last approximately 20 minutes and will be recorded and sent to new members who weren't able to join.

Public Speaking Workshop

Date: Thursday, May 9th, 2024
Time: 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Location: Virtual Event

Register here.

Spring 2024 Picnic

Mark your calendars now for our Spring Picnic!

Date: Saturday, May 18th, 2024
Time: 12 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Location: Roosevelt Park, Edison, NJ
Cost: FREE!

Register here.

ISC2 New Jersey Chapter Meeting - May 2024

Speakers:
Mira Olson– Privacy Architect at DoorDash
David Hutchens – How to improve your public speaking – TED Talk style!

Date: Thursday, May 30, 2024
Time: 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Location: Virtual Event

SECON New Jersey 2024 - Securing the Connected World

SECON New Jersey 2024 is open for registration!

With less than two months away, ISC2 New Jersey Chapter and ISACA New Jersey Chapter will be hosting the 2024 SECON conference and it's going to be the best one yet!

Check out some of the conference highlights to date:
🔥 Four Keynote speakers: Michael Geraghty, Michael Redmond, Ira Winkler and Dr. Erdal Ozkaya
🔥 +40 speakers (most of them are either NJ ISC2 or ISACA chapter members)
🔥 Several panel discussions
🔥 Our career track will be run by professional career coaches
🔥 SWAG will be awesome, as usual
🔥 Roughly half of the conference tickets have already been purchased. (Last year, it was sold out!)
🔥 We'll be offering ISC2 exam scholarships for those that qualify
🔥 Student tickets are only $10
🔥 Our event is hybrid, in case you can’t make it in person
🔥 Earn up to 7 CPEs

Stan Mierzwa, CISSP, CCSK, Assoc. CCISO, ITIL and the Kean Center for Cybersecurity have been fantastic partners over the past several years. Thank you again for letting us host our event at your facility!

Get your tickets soon before they sell out!

Event: SECON NJ 2024
Date: Thursday, June 13th, 2023 | 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Location: Kean University, 1075 Morris Avenue, NJCSTM/STEM Building, Union, NJ 07083
Virtual Location: gather.town

Register here.

No June 2024 Meeting

June Meeting Note: There will be no meeting in June, since SECON is scheduled for that month. Please use the link above under the SECON New Jersey 2024 section to register. See you there (virtually or in person)!

SAVE THE DATE - NY Metro Joint Cybersecurity Conference - October 10th, 2024

NY Metro Joint Cybersecurity Conference.

The 2024 NY Metro Joint Cyber Security Conference will be held on October 10th, celebrating our 11th year featuring keynotes, panels and sessions aimed at educating everyone on the various aspects of information security and technology. Workshops featuring in-depth extended classroom-style educational courses to expand your knowledge and foster security discussions will take place the same day.

Call for Speakers

Volunteer Opportunities

Be an active part of our community!

Discord volunteers, sign up here.

SECON volunteers, sign up here.

Education Committee volunteers, sign up here.

Current Initiatives

Join Our Discord Server!

We now have roughly 500 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. Looking for a job or for some advice on bettering yourself on the job? Find it here!

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.

We are looking for 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.

JuMPstart Mentorship Program

Dear Members,

This May marks a significant milestone for the JuMP Mentorship Program. We are thrilled to announce the trial of a new software solution designed to enhance the mentor-mentee experience. This tool aims to improve collaboration and progress tracking, which we are confident will bring our interactions to new heights. We will be excitedly sharing more details as we prepare for a full launch in June.

Feedback Spotlight:

"Grace was awesome and super kind and gave me all kinds of super good insight into cyber intelligence and the cyber world." — Matthew S.

The enthusiastic feedback on our transition to monthly signups has been overwhelmingly positive, reinforcing our commitment to adapt and respond to your needs. Matthew’s experience mirrors the sentiments expressed by many of you, highlighting the program's evolving success.

Get Involved:
Don't miss out on the opportunity to shape our program. Join our dynamic roster by signing up here or reach out with your thoughts at mentoring@isc2chapternj.org. Thank you for your continued support and engagement. Together, we're not just enhancing skills but also building a resilient and inclusive cybersecurity community.

Warm regards,

Matthew Lang and The Mentorship Committee

Educational Training

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 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 here.