Profile of Eric Cole

Founder & Chief Scientist, Secure Anchor Consulting

Member Since: 4/21/2014
Author
News & Commentary Posts: 15
Comments: 2

Dr. Cole has 20 years of hands-on experience in information technology with a focus on building out dynamic defense solutions that protect organizations from advanced threats. He has a Master's degree in computer science from NYIT and a Doctorate from Pace University, with a concentration in information security. He the author of several books, including Advanced Persistent Threat, Hackers Beware, Hiding in Plain Site, Network Security Bible, and Insider Threat, and holds more than 20 patents. He is a member of the Commission on Cyber Security for the 44th President and is actively involved with the SANS Technology Institute (STI). He also served as CTO of McAfee and Chief Scientist for Lockheed Martin.

Articles by Eric Cole

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CIO Vs. CSO: Allies Or Enemies?

4/14/2014
In the wake of the Target breach it's clear that the CIO and CSO must have clear boundaries of responsibility and equal representation in the board room.
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Risk Management: Asking The Right Questions

10/8/2012
In order to make sure an organization's security is properly aligned with risk, it is critical that organizations focus on asking the questions that really matter
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Is Your Organization Doing Good Things Or Doing The Right Things?

10/4/2012
Fixing vulnerabilities that are a real threat is the right thing to do
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Taming the Beast: Preventing/Detecting Insider Threat

11/27/2010
While many companies deal with the problem of insider threat, there are some practical things that can be done to both prevent and detect insider threat. Always remember, prevention is ideal but detection is a must.
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Profiling The Evil Insider

11/16/2010
How to sniff out a rogue insider
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Understanding The Mindset Of The Evil Insider

10/4/2010
Technology is typically going to serve as the basis for insider threat attacks. One of the major key technology areas is information extraction, and it must be clearly understood so an organization can try to stay one step ahead of the malicious insider.
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Why The Insider Threat Is Ignored

9/28/2010
The insider threat is complicated, and most organizations do not fully understand the magnitude of the problem. There are three main reasons why the insider threat has been ignored: Organizations do not know it's happening, it's easy for organizations to be in denial, and organizations fear bad publicity.
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Different Flavors Of The Insider Threat

9/22/2010
There are different categories of insider threats, based on the level of access the employee has. There are four types: pure insider, insider associate, insider affiliate, and outside affiliate. Each of these categories also has different motives. Understanding each is a key to building proper preventive and detective defenses.
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Missing The Insider Threat

9/20/2010
"I trust everyone. It is the devil inside that I do not trust" is a great line from the movie "The Italian Job." Every single person has the potential to do harm if the right circumstances occur. Yes, this includes employees.
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Are We Missing the Point?

8/29/2010
Recently there has been a lot of talk about nuclear weapons, terrorism, and peace treaties. At the end of the day, the question remains: how do we protect a country and its citizens from attack? If that is really the purpose of the summits and the meetings, why isn't cybersecurity part of the discussion -- more importantly, the insider threat?
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Advanced Persistent Threat: The Insider Threat

8/16/2010
APT is the buzzword everyone is using. Companies are concerned about it, the government is being compromised by it, and consultants are using it in every presentation they give. But people fail to realize that the vulnerabilities these threats compromises are the insider -- not the malicious insider, but the accidental insider who clicks on the wrong link.
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A Real Insider Threat Story

12/8/2009
I was sitting at my desk when my phone rang. I answered, and it was a large pharmaceutical company that was interested in consulting services. It had noticed a trend with one of its foreign competitors. Every time it went to release a new product (in this particular case a new drug), one of its competitors would release a similar drug with a similar name, several weeks before it, beating it to market.
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Stopping Insider Attacks

11/12/2009
There is no single thing you can do to prevent an attack from the inside. The concept of defense-in-depth applies here as it does to all areas of security. No single solution is going to make you secure. Only by putting many defense measures together will you be secure, and those measures must encompass both preventive and detective measures.
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Measuring Insider Risk

11/11/2009
The key thing to remember when dealing with insiders is they have access and, in most cases, will exploit the weakest link that gives them the greatest chance of access, while minimizing the chances that they get caught. Why try to break through a firewall and gain access to a system with a private address when you can find someone behind the firewall with full access to the system?
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Insider Threat Reality Check

11/9/2009
Organizations tend to think once they hire an employee or a contractor, that person is now part of a trusted group of people. Although an organization might give an employee additional access that an ordinary person would not have, why should it trust that person?
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