John N. Stewart

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month and for me, it’s a time to reflect on where we’ve been and how far we’ve come, study the trends and challenges we face today, and look ahead to the next generation of opportunities facing not only the security community, but society at large. In my more than…

The cybersecurity industry is one of change and disruption. The ability not only to sustain, but to flourish, over a 26-year career in this field requires a special level of dedication. Michele D. Guel, winner of the 2016 ABIE Award for Leadership, exemplifies that dedication, tirelessly devoting he…

I grew up in Northern New York State, so a trip to Helsinki in the middle of February held no fears for me. Interesting things are going on in Finland from a cybersecurity point of view, so I jumped at the chance to speak to the Security Day conference in Finland’s capital city. The conference appea…

Are we heading to a day of reckoning, where the forces of cyber crime overwhelm and erase the good things that information technology delivers? If we head down our current path of incremental, individualized approaches to cyber security, the answer is “Yes.” But I’m enough of an optimist to think th…

RSA 2013 ends and I both miss it and breathe a sigh of relief that it’s over. Let me explain. As a security guy, it’s nice to be around other security like-minded people.  We all speak the language. You needn’t really justify why you are worried about things most people have never heard of. It’s exc…

The RSA Conference is expected to be bigger and better than ever this year—more booths, more vendors, more technical sessions and keynotes. But I have to ask the question: “Are we as IT practitioners better off now than we were 4 or 5 years ago?” There are a lot of people at the show who worry that…

A month from now, thousands of cyber security friends, colleagues, professionals, hackers, defenders, sellers, buyers, old timers, and newbies will descend on San Francisco for the 2013 RSA Conference. We will challenge one another about what has changed, create new topics and new words to describe…

As security practitioners, we generally see three types of perpetrators with different motives: Financial Political General trouble-making Each of these attackers can display various levels of organizational structure: Individual Well-organized, persistent group Ad-hoc groups pursuing a common pu…

A couple of days ago, I participated in a Social Video Broadcast about cyber security survival tips for the holiday season. Some of my advice is familiar. Use stronger passwords, apply the “smell test” to too-good-to-be-true on-line offers, read the manual—especially the parts about account set up a…