I got to spend this week in Nashville, Tennessee presenting at the DoD's annual Information Assurance workshop. Sponsored by the NSA, over 2,000 members from all over the government attend. I presented my talk Securing The Human, you can download the presentation complete with notes from here. I was impressed how passionate many members of the government and military are about awareness and creating a secure culture. During the event two things stood out for me.- I found some great free security resources developed by the US government. While primarily for the US DoD community you may be able to find some of these useful. Check out the National OPSEC Program and DISA's Education Materials.
- One of the things I teach in my MGT 433 class on building security awareness programs, be prepared for failure when presenting. Sure enough it happened to me at this event. 3/4 of the way through my talk my laptop died (a microphone got too close to it, I think upsetting the memory). The trick to presenting is being ready for failure and simply present without your slides, which I did. No matter how much you prepare for your talks, be prepared for failure.
About the Author
Lance Spitzner
Director, SANS Security Awareness
Lance has over 20 years of security experience in cyber threat research, awareness and training. He invented the concept of honeynets, founded the Honeynet Project and helped pioneer the field of cyber intelligence. Lance has published three security books, consulted in over 25 countries and helped hundreds of organizations establish mature security awareness programs. Lance serves on the Board for the NCSA, is a frequent presenter, serial tweeter ( @lspitzner ) and works on numerous community security projects. He served as an armor officer in the Army's Rapid Deployment Force and earned his MBA from the University of Illinois.