Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Black Hat Panel: Top Skills


Jennifer Granick moderated a panel containing many of our most respected peers in the industry. Jennifer was incredibly sharp as she guided Jeff Moss, Bruce Schneier, Adam Shostack, and Marcus Ranum through several topics ranging from information sharing, critical infrastructure, future attacks, and cyber insurance.

The topic that caught my attention began with: You're the CSO. What are you going to spend your money on in the next 10 years?

Across the board, the answer was to spend your money on your employees... and that quickly folded into the types of skill sets needed. The answers given? Malware analysts, generalists, forensic analysis, response, cloud security, contracts, legal. You need people that can see the big picture and understand how the pieces fit together.

My takeaway for my customers? Invest in your people.

And a special note for my students. Continue reading, expanding, learning, pushing. Make yourself valuable and marketable. Love what you do. I've spoken with a few of you lately that have hit rough spots or failed in a big way. Don't quit. Don't give up. Don't you dare stop now. And in particular to one student who stepped up to the plate... I'm proud of you. Keep it up.