Interview Chris Kubecka

In preparations for Cyber Resilience Conference, we spoke with Chris Kubecka, CEO of HypaSec, a security firm she founded in 2015.

Chris Kubecka is an American computer security researcher and cyberwarfare specialist. In 2012, Kubecka was responsible for getting the Saudi Aramco network back up and running after it was hit by one of the world’s most devastating Shamoon cyberattacks. Kubecka also helped halt a second wave of July 2009 cyberattacks against South Korea. Kubecka has worked for the US Air Force as a Loadmaster, the United States Space Command and is now CEO of HypaSec. Chris Kubecka is listed in the Top100 Fascinating Females Fighting Cybercrime. She lives and works in the Netherlands.

What do you think are the biggest challenges in the field of (cyber) security?

I think that we changed profit over people to profit over cybersecurity. There needs to be an understanding that there are people behind our computers, people whose lives can be damaged because of privacy breaches. People and technology are getting more and more interconnected with each other and these interconnections could have an immense impact on normal people. These impacts could all be due to a lack of cyber security. This wonderful world called Cyber actually means our digital selves and if you threaten our digital selves, you can actually harm us. So, we have to change our fundamental thinking and realise that this digital realm is something that actually needs to be paid attention to. Cyber law and policies are something that is still quite new in this world and that this transition is not something that can or could happen overnight.

You are providing a session at Cyber Resilience Conference on June 1. What are you going to talk about?

During Cyber Resilience Conference Chris Kubecka will have a workshop about OSINT and your organisation’s security and a keynote about how to use OSINT for national defence & resilience.

I won’t spoil in everything out there but I can give you a hint. During the conference I will provide real world scenarios in an interactive way. Everyone, who participates will get a series of questions asked whereby they need to handle diverse tasks for example, a cyber incident that just happened or a regulation that just got approved. There needs to be a discussion going on so that participants get a sense of reality about cyber security and an understanding that the digital world knows more about us than we know about ourselves.

And finally, what tip would you like to give a security professional?

Be aware that technology and normal people are getting more and more interconnected with each other and understand what kind of impact cyber security can have on people’s day to day life. Diverse privacy aspects are just now getting the attention that they needed to have but do not forget this domain is still relevantly new to us.