Page 29 - Cyber Defense eMagazine June 2020 Edition

Cybersecurity Education and Practice: Never Stop

Learning

By Ken Sigler, Dan Shoemaker, and Anne Kohnke

As the number of industries, organizations, and educational institutions continue to recognize the
scope and impact of cybersecurity, the means in which the crisis is approached cannot be made
haphazardly. For many years cyber professionals have been able to apply consistency within
practices aimed toward minimizing the effects of cyber-attacks by using international and
domestically adopted standards, guidelines, and frameworks. These standards, guidelines, and
frameworks aim to put into context how some facet of cybersecurity should be accomplished. While
well-intentioned, this wide array of sometimes overlapping standards can be quite overwhelming to
the practitioners and organizations that need them the most.

Organizations tend to fit into one of two categories when considering their adherence to standards
and guidelines. Many take the unsystematic (and sometimes chaotic) approach by either ignorantly
or willfully neglecting the value of standards and guidelines or by ignoring them entirely and just doing
their own thing. It is those organizations that find themselves strapped with the complexities and
budgets of recovering from data breaches, much less understanding how the breach happened in
the first place.

Cyber Defense eMagazine –June 2020 Edition 29
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