Presented at
Diana Initiative 2020 Virtual,
Aug. 22, 2020, 8 a.m.
(60 minutes)
We often assume 'Barrier Breaker' means that someone was 'the first' or 'the only' to do something and what happens after that is almost a foregone conclusion . That's not how barriers get broken. It's kind of like saying, "a single drop of water breaks the dam", when we know that it takes a critical mass of water, a flood, before the dam will break. In security, especially, we reward the 'lone hacker' who discovers a zero-day and tend to dismiss those that come behind who identify similar classes of vulnerabilities or the same vulnerability presented in different ways--as if those discoveries aren't equally remarkable. Barrier breaking isn't a one-person phenomenon, it is a movement of people committed to change. Using a handful of examples, I will highlight some barrier breakers in *our* industry and provide actionable methods that each of us, day by day, and byte by byte, can use to become better barrier breakers.
Presenters:
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Yolonda Smith
- Opening Keynote Speaker
Yolonda Smith is the Head of Cybersecurity for sweetgreen, a fast-casual salad restaurant chain with over 100 locations across North America whose mission is inspire healthier communities by connecting people to real food. In this role, she is responsible for the development and operationalization of security policy; building high-performing teams which instantiate security practices throughout core business functions and; ensuring that sweetgreen's two million guests are able to access real food using a trustworthy platform.
A security professional herself, she spent 8 years in the United States Air Force as a Cyberspace Operations Officer with duties and responsibilities varying from Mission Commander, (Advanced Network Operations) where her team planned and executed the first DoD Cyber Threat Hunting Missions to Flight Commander, (Cyber Defense Capabilities Development) where her team developed and fielded the first and only malware neutralization tool for the Predator Drone Weapon System. Additionally, she successfully completed multiple deployments in support of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom where her teams delivered secure, reliable communications capabilities to forward-deployed units on-demand.
Yolonda holds a litany of degrees and certifications including a Bachelor of Science, Computer Science (University of Notre Dame, 2005), Master of Science, Information Technology, with a concentration in Information Assurance (University of Maryland, 2010) as well as GSEC (2008), GCIH (2011), and CISSP (2008) certifications.
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