Christopher Burgess
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Opinions expressed by ICN authors are their own.
Christopher Burgess (@burgessct) is an author/writer, speaker, advisor, consultant and advocate for effective security strategies, be they for your company, home or family.
He founded and led Prevendra, a security, privacy and intelligence consultancy and content provider. Prior to Prevendra, he served as the Chief Security Officer, President Public Sector and Chief Operating Officer (2011 to 2013) of a small start-up within the big data analytic space, Atigeo. And he also served for a number of years as the Senior Security Advisor to the Chief Security Officer of Cisco, where he focused on intellectual property strategies. Additionally, also while at Cisco, Christopher led the following teams within the Corporate Security Programs Office: Global Threat Analysis providing geopolitical, economic and security analysis to Cisco strategists; Global Investigative Support providing forensic support to the enterprise’s investigatory groups; Global Government Security Office implementation; the US Government Security Office (NISPOM/DCID); and the eLitigation & eDiscovery support (EDRM) efforts within Cisco.
In addition, he has substantial international public sector experience, having served 30+ years within the Central Intelligence Agency. He lived and worked in South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Central Europe and Latin America where he acquired a deep understanding of the people, cultures, and business practices of these respective areas. During this career he served in various positions, including that of Chief of Station. As Chief of Station, he was the personal representative for the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and concurrently for the National Intelligence Director within his geographic area of responsibility. He served as an executive member on numerous regional federal collaborative entities: Joint Terrorism Task Forces, U.S. Attorney Terrorism Task Forces and Regional Counterintelligence Working Groups. Upon his retirement, the CIA awarded him the Career Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the highest level of career recognition.
Christopher authored the ebook, Senior Online Safety (Prevendra, March 2014, Spanish version September 2014), and co-authored the book, Secrets Stolen, Fortunes Lost, Preventing Intellectual Property Theft and Economic Espionage in the 21st Century (Syngress, March 2008) and contributed to Bringing the Social Media Revolution to Healthcare (Mayo Clinic, October 2012), with a chapter on privacy.
Christopher contributes on a regular basis to the The Huffington Post beginning with the seminal piece, “A Common Sense Approach to Social Media,” as well as on occasion to the Spanish language edition, El Huffington Post. He is a compensated contributor to various enties.
In addition, Christopher's early CSO magazine contributions are highlighted by three pieces, “Social Elements of Security Policy and Messaging,” the study “Nation States’ Espionage and Counterespionage, Overview of the 2007 Global Economic Espionage Landscape,” and Inadvertent Disclosure: Know the Risks."
Christopher is an invited speaker to a plethora of events and venues, to include AARP’s Scam Jam, Carnegie Mellon University’s CyLab, Mayo/Ragan Social Media Healthcare Summit, Seattle Interactive/Gnomedex; Taia Global’s Suits & Spooks, Washington Technology Industry Association, Cisco Live!; the Interpol Intellectual Property Crime Conference; and numerous times at the NATO Information Assurance Conference. He has appeared on the BBC, CNBC, i24, China TV, Fox Business, Bloomberg and AARP’s Inside E-street.
The opinions expressed in this blog are those of Christopher Burgess and do not necessarily represent those of IDG Communications, Inc., its parent, subsidiary or affiliated companies.
David Jewberg — social engineering the Russia conversation
The David Jewberg persona trolled Russian and Ukrainian media. The question remains: Was it the alter ego of Dan Rapoport or a creation to social engineer the Russian dialog?
Chinese citizen tries to steal advanced robotic technology IP
Medrobotics' CEO caught Dong Liu in the company's conference room attempting to steal advanced robotic intellectual property.
Theft of North Korean secrets may have pushed Kim Jong Un into talks
The ultimate insider has made off with North Korea's cyber intelligence, counterintelligence and nuclear secrets, causing people to think that's why Kim Jong Un met with South Korea's leader.
Apple means business when protecting intellectual property
Apple takes the protection of intellectual property very seriously. In 2017, it says 27 people were caught and 12 arrested for revealing inside information.
Aviation industry takes steps to mitigate insider threats
The aviation industry realizes insider threats are a reality and is working within the public-private partnership to heighten awareness of them.
Charter Communications, who can you trust?
Charter Communications, its union, its customers and the New York attorney general all are experiencing trust issues.
No Congressional background check for IT contractor charged with fraud
Imran Awan was an IT contractor to members of Congress, with access to their email servers, yet not even a basic background check was conducted.
Paper healthcare records highly vulnerable, yet often overlooked
It isn't just digital healthcare records that are vulnerable. Paper records are regularly compromised -- and they're the easiest for healthcare organizations to protect.
Iran's need to steal intellectual property
The indictment of nine Iranians by the DOJ is one in a long string of incursions by Iran to compromise trusted insiders and steal intellectual property.
Former employee visits cloud and steals company data
Shared credentials may have facilitated a former medical center employee's access to the HIPAA data stored in the cloud after his termination.
Vengeance by DDoS: No one is immune
The DDoS attack is showing up as one of the tools used to extract vengeance against companies, organizations, and individuals. Companies need a defense plan.
Keep those nuclear secrets secret. No problem, I'll hoard them in my attic
Weldon Marshall recently pled guilty to stealing U.S government secrets associated with the U.S. nuclear weapons systems and keeping them in his Texas home.
U.S. cybersecurity threat risk remains high -- no signs of lessening
The U.S. Director National Intelligence says the public and private sectors in the U.S. are at continual risk and the country should expect cyber attacks from nation state and non-state actors.
When employee access exceeds trust, IP goes missing
Companies may be tempting fate by giving interns deep access to company data, as these two examples of intellectual property theft show.
Cyber espionage: China wants Japanese firms’ intellectual property
Cyber groups within China are targeting Japanese companies involved in heavy industry and national infrastructure as part of a multifaceted effort to create the Chinese strategic playbook.
Contractor hacks former employer, destroys and corrupts data
Edward Soybel was let go by W. W. Grainger and subsequently hacked his way back into the company to access customer databases to destroy and corrupt the data.
China and Germany in a dust up over cybersecurity
Germany calls out China on their lack of progress on bilateral cybersecurity efforts, while China continues to target German companies for intellectual property theft.
4 Applied Materials executives fleece company and get indicted
U.S. Attorney for Northern California indicted four former executives for stealing intellectual property and trade secrets from Applied Materials.
