Conal Gallagher

This morning at Detroit Metro (DTW), Delta operations at the McNamara Terminal experienced a reported “network outage,” resulting in a ground stop and delays. Currently, there is no confirmed public statement indicating that this incident is a cyberattack or data breach. An important point for leadership to remember is that while services can be outsourced, accountability cannot. There is often a narrative that points to a third party as the cause—be it a vendor, an upstream dependency, or issues with internet infrastructure. However, the more pressing concern is internal: - Why doesn’t the operation degrade gracefully? - Where are the tested failovers and “break-glass” runbooks? - Why does one failure mode halt all activities at a terminal? - Who is responsible for the end-to-end service, both on paper and in practice? This is where ITIL discipline becomes crucial—not the superficial version, but real change control, clear service ownership, dependency mapping, resilience testing, and incident/problem management that leads to measurable improvements. Vendors may not fully understand legacy environments as you do. Weak governance can lead to repeated outages—different triggers, but the same outcome. Many have learned this lesson in enterprise outsourcing over the years. If Delta aims for “second time’s a charm,” the solution is straightforward: take ownership, engineer for failure, and demonstrate that testing has been conducted. #ITIL #OperationalResilience #ChangeManagement #IncidentManagement #ThirdPartyRisk #CIO #CISO #DTW #Delta

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Your #EDR Healthcheck doesn’t end with findings — it drives measurable outcomes. ✔️ Maximize ROI: Benchmark performance before renewals or migrations. ⚡ Accelerate response: Correlate attacks with logs for faster tuning. 🧾 Prove compliance: Map real evidence to SOC 2, NIST, and CIS frameworks. That’s how leading teams transform EDR validation into business value. 🔗 Turn validation into outcomes: https://lnkd.in/g--XVzre #EndpointSecurity #OffensiveSecurity #pentesting

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I’ve been thinking about exposure management less as a tooling problem and more as a systems problem. When discovery grows faster than mobilization capacity, exposure doesn’t just increase — it compounds. That accumulation is exposure debt.

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👏 Excellent and informative webinar yesterday hosted by Kirk Herath, the Ohio Cyber Reserve, Ohio Cyber Range Institute, Ohio Persistent Cyber Initiative (OPCI), Ohio Cyber Integration Center (OCIC), and the entire CyberOhio team on the new cybersecurity requirements in Am. Sub. House Bill 96. https://lnkd.in/ghCJT_-F For our partners in Ohio's K-12 school districts, this law introduces significant new responsibilities, and it's crucial to start preparing now. The takeaway is clear: Action is required. HB 96 mandates that every Ohio school district, as a political subdivision, must establish, implement, and maintain a comprehensive cybersecurity program. Key Deadlines to Watch: ‼️ September 30, 2025: The law takes effect, and mandatory cyber incident reporting begins. ❗ July 1, 2026: Deadline for school districts and other similar entities to have a compliant cybersecurity program in place. What Does a Compliant Program Entail? Based on the new requirements, your district's cybersecurity program must be built to safeguard data and IT resources and should follow established best practices like the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. For schools with no current cyber program, I recommend the Cybersecurity Rubric (https://lnkd.in/d2FgSRnM) as a great NIST-aligned, education-focused cybersecurity framework. To meet the 2026 deadline, your leadership and technology teams should begin focusing on these core components immediately: 🔎 Identify & Assess: The first step is to identify your district's critical functions and the associated risks. You must assess the potential impact of a data breach or system failure on your operations. 🛡️ Protect & Detect: Your program must include mechanisms for detecting threats and be designed to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of your data. ✅ Respond & Recover: You need documented incident response procedures and a clear plan for recovery and the continuity of operations after an event. This is a critical defense against ransomware. 🧑‍🏫 Train Your Team: The law emphasizes the need for training. Your program should define annual cybersecurity training requirements for employees based on their roles. These new mandates are a significant undertaking, but they are essential for protecting student data and ensuring learning continuity. The good news is that you don't have to do it alone. At Vinson, we specialize in helping K-12 districts build comprehensive security postures that align with state mandates and protect against modern threats. Our Vinson Protect, Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS), and Vinson Educate offerings are designed to help you meet these new requirements head-on. Let's start the conversation about your district's HB 96 compliance strategy. #OhioEducation #K12Cybersecurity #HB96 #Cybersecurity #DataProtection #EdTech #TechDirector #VinsonProtect

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Legacy systems, such as end-of-life software and obsolete but still critical operational technology (OT), create cybersecurity risks that need to be mitigated or addressed through modernization. Ayo Akinsanya, CISSP, CC, shares his personal perspective on addressing this challenge: https://ow.ly/QNM950WJzWy

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📦 Tariffs aren’t just trade tools anymore. They’re a cybersecurity threat vector. As global commerce becomes increasingly digital, tariff policies now shape how and where sensitive data moves — and the risks that follow. 💥 Shifted supply chains = new attack surfaces 🌍 Data localisation laws = complex compliance 📈 Rising tech costs = tighter security budgets In our latest blog, Tim Freestone unpacks the hidden cybersecurity consequences of trade policy and how Kiteworks UK’ Private Data Network helps organisations stay secure, compliant, and agile across borders. 🔐 Unify file sharing, emails, and third-party exchanges 🌐 Meet localisation and sovereignty requirements 📊 Gain full auditability — across jurisdictions 📖 Read the full blog for insights that matter: https://gag.gl/g1Opnp #CyberSecurity #TradePolicy #DataGovernance #Tariffs #SupplyChainSecurity #Kiteworks #UKCyberSecurity

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The trend continues - as traditional document proofing achieves broad rollout, criminals move to synthetic identities, and fraud accelerates. https://lnkd.in/gJrnfDwq Here's my prediction: In jurisdictions that don't quickly adopt privacy-preserving verification, we'll see honeypots of identity data accumulate as businesses struggle to verify their employees and customers, followed by a wave of data breaches that make today's fraud problem look like a few pickpockets at the train station. It's already happening, as remote recruiters and hiring managers have started recording the display of drivers licenses and passports in every interview. Most of those recordings aren't being stored properly. Not to put too fine a point on it, but Polyguard lets everyone keep their credentials on their own device, where they belong. We help share Proofs, not private details.

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Jimmy Xu and I are looking forward to meeting with the Cincinnati OWASP community and talking: “Future-Proofing your Application Security program” In an era of increasingly sophisticated threat actors, application security has become a critical concern for most organizations. This talk, "Reducing Application Security Risk with ASPM (Application Security Posture Management)," will explore the emerging role of ASPM in fortifying application security and accelerating DevSecOps and cloud native adoption by focusing on how to future-proof your approach for 2025 and beyond. Software development has undergone seismic shifts over the last 20 years: the Agile movement, the rise of DevOps and cloud native practices, and now the AI and generative development era. With AI code assistants and “vibe coding” on the rise, we’re seeing faster delivery, along with new and complex risks. Over the last 10 years of the DevSecOps journey, shift-left has also achieved little success. Application Security needs a fundamental reset for the future. In this talk, we will discuss how modern approaches and technology innovations that are built to solve three of the biggest challenges in application security that must evolve for the AI Era – Speed, Coverage & Scale, and Context. We will explore three common scenarios: 1. Inventory and Secure net new applications 2. Reduce risk and volume of existing security backlog by prioritizing and fixing what matters 3. Expand coverage to address emerging blind spots in AI-assisted application development.

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CISA has published a draft of the new CISA SBOM Minimum Elements! The 2021 NTIA Minimum Elements were an important step to help create a common specification of what should be in an SBOM. CISA is proposing an updated, clarified version that can be aligned with existing tools and support use cases. They are actively seeking feedback, so please share, review, and send them your thoughts! https://lnkd.in/eRm_zxT2

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K-12 Cybersecurity Insider | 8/11/2025 In this edition: * Ohio Enacts Cybersecurity Regulations for Schools * Federal Cyber Grant Funds for State, Local Cybersecurity Released * Smart ‘Vape’ Sensor Widely Deployed in Schools Vulnerable to Hacking Read more and sign up to get it delivered straight to your inbox: https://lnkd.in/eV4guZj4 #edtech #edusec K12 SIX

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