Gauging Today’s Cyber needs and Projecting Tomorrow’s with Michelle Schaap

On this episode of CHATTIN CYBER, our host sits down with Michelle Schaap to explore the ever-evolving landscape and intersectionality of the cybersecurity field. Schaap currently serves as an Attorney concentrating in Cybersecurity, Construction and Technology Law at Cheisa Shahinian & Giantomasi PC (CSG), where she has advised on privacy & data security practices for over two decades. Michelle specializes on cyber preparedness and IT disaster recovery planning as well as structuring commercial transactions and negotiating project agreements. A diverse strategist with over thirty years of practice, Ms. Schaap has also honed her skills in renewable energy projects, software industry development.

After receiving degrees from Cornell University and Rutgers Law School, Ms. Schaap started her career at a law firm that gave her the opportunity to be on rotation and gain a large breath of experience across multiple specialties. Eventually focusing on Land Use law, she credits this with allowing her “to learn what her client’s immediate needs were and potentially long-terms needs” in order to prepare for the future. In practicing general law internationally and at large corporations like Toys R Us, she developed proficiency in many of the aspects that cyber law touches including HR, supply trains, upstream obligations, and more.

In this interview, Michelle uses this vast experience to predict the developments in the field over the next decade. She warns that cyber response has yet to catch up with state-of-the-art software, and suggests that some of the most effective and cost-efficient methods of cyber security have existed long before those technologies came on to the scene. Tune in as she explores how to gauge what level of security is right for your business and a few fast tips to bring your business and personal security up to speed. Catch up on all this and more on this episode of CHATTINN CYBER with Marc Schein!

Cybersecurity’s Irrefutable Role in Reliable Data Privacy – Kenneth Rashbaum

In this episode of CHATTINN CYBER, Marc Schein interviews Kenneth Rashbaum, a Queens native who has led the way in developing and navigating the broad field of cybersecurity and data privacy. Pulling from his diverse portfolio of education and experience, Rashbaum uses his background to involve himself comprehensively within everything that the cybersecurity world touches. Kenneth has served on e-discovery councils advocating for best practices in the exchange of international digital evidence within complex litigation. While making advancements within this field, Rashbaum was appointed to several leadership roles.  He sat as faculty for the Federal Judicial Center and for the Georgetown Advanced E-Discovery Institute, and also acted as a special consultant to the New Jersey Assembly in preparation for the state’s first comprehensive privacy and cybersecurity bill. Additionally, Ken testified before the New Jersey Homeland Security and State Preparedness Committee, using his expertise in cybersecurity and privacy to serve his current home state.

Kenneth Rashbaum’s involvement within the financial field occurs most frequently when the Fordham law professor educates leaders and CEOs concerning the relationship between digital security and information privacy. Rashbaum works with these companies and organizations to ensure that internal policy meets state and national law in addition to client safeguard requirements for data protection and privacy expectations. With an expertise in organizing and negotiating technology contracts, Kenneth has helped many companies gain profitable business opportunities.

In the interview, Rashbaum discusses his approach to a well-implemented cybersecurity plan primarily as an offensive move and secondarily as a defensive one in response to a data incident. A company or organization should assess the potential risk of an attack and implement preventative actions before any red flags appear. In his expert opinion, a mature cybersecurity program includes the following core elements:

  1. Taking inventory of and understanding the reason for current data
  2. Noting where data is stored
  3. Assessing whether it is protected by specific law
  4. Knowing who has access to it
  5. Creating a plan to safeguard the data

While some companies are only beginning to actualize a plan as Rashbaum advises, Marc Schein’s interview reveals that Kenneth has been an eye-witness to the relationship between cybersecurity and data privacy since HIPAA enacted compliance laws decades ago. “HIPAA,” explains Rashbaum “is where privacy and cybersecurity regulation in the United States started. It is the only nationwide comprehensive privacy and cybersecurity law with implementing regulations that we have—[t]he U.S. is very sectoral while the rest of the world has overall privacy and security regulation.”

Marc and Kenneth chat about some of the current political issues that cause a divide on cybersecurity ideology. “[Both Democrats and Republicans] think federal privacy and cybersecurity law is a necessary,” begins Rashbaum. “So there is no debate about the ends, there’s a debate about the means.”

Will the country come to a consensus on universal cybersecurity implementation? Does your company have in place an updated and effective policy for data protection and breach prevention? Consider these questions as you listen to Marc Schein’s interview with Kenneth Rashbaum in this episode of CHATTINN CYBER.