Articles

Women in Security - March 2025

The Women in Security (WIS) group held it’s first quarter meeting at Fiserv in the Polaris Pointe complex at Noon on March 6, 2025. Heather Miller of Wesco Anixter organized the meeting and Kim Lease of Fiserv was the host. There were 15 people in attendance including 6 men. Industrial Security is a tight community, and it was great to see so many people in the room who knew each other from different corporations. Represented at the meeting were specialists in cyber security, physical security services, physical security equipment and banking.

The day’s topic was cyber security. This was discussed at the individual level, business level and national level. Included in the discussion was spamming, phishing, impersonation, fake accounts and destructive actions. Besides cell phones and computers, threats can come across from devices like thermostats and doorbell cameras. Several people in attendance laughed when they realized that nearly all had been victims of the same phishing ploy – a fake text from “Easy Pass” seeking money for unpaid highway tolls!

Protective measures discussed included extensive system testing with internal and external departments, and working with federal law enforcement agencies including DHS, FBI and CISA (cyber command). Foreign states and foreign actors are a great threat including developing sophisticated commercial software which appears to be safe but includes bugs. Another threat is spam or suggestive information being sent to children or people who don’t recognize it – which is passed on and into other systems. A major concern (which was mentioned by DHS and Sam Queeno of AEP at a recent ASE) was the cyber threat to the power grid.

About half of those present at the meeting were NOT ASIS members and Bernie invited them to come to the upcoming luncheon meetings. Fiserv was a fabulous host and provided lunch from Carrabba’s Italian Grill.

Article by Messenger Editor Ed Sachs