Marina Ruschel
My Cybersecurity Training
Business Partner Overview
Business Collaboration
Quick Facts
Many Americans experience mental health and struggle to find solutions due to the stigma surrounding the issue. Healthy Right is a youth-led, non-profit organization that aims to improve mental health in communities in New Jersey and Washington, D.C. The organization works to bring awareness by advocating for legislation.
Healthy Right strives to reform healthcare and mobilize communities by recruiting young people to create events, host programs, and support other organizations that promote the health of teens and children. The organization has had immense success in implementing many programs and events such as Mental Health Boxes during the COVID-19 pandemic, Quarantine Zoom Meetings to improve mental health from the safety of patients’ homes, and Mental Health Discussions at Dover Library.
Business Collaboration
About the Owner
Anisah Daniel started Healthy Right at 16 years old after personal struggles with mental health. She realized that other members of her community were uneducated on different mental illnesses or resources to improve their mental health. She took action and launched Healthy Right. Apart from running the organization itself, many bills have been introduced into the House of Representatives and Senate through Healthy Right.
Although the nonprofit now has new leaders, Anisah plays a significant role in the organization by training new board members, making decisions on important issues, and playing her part in improving the mental health of different communities. She currently studies Neuroscience at George Washington University.
Business Collaboration
About the Business
Healthy Right is based in Morris County, New Jersey but their legislation efforts extend to Washington, D.C. The organization is led by about 10 youth and serves over 60 different members of the community.
The nonprofit constantly holds community meetings and attends fairs to spread its message of destigmatizing mental illnesses. Healthy Right aims to reduce stigma so people feel more comfortable seeking help when needed by providing educational opportunities where community members can learn how to address mental illness.
Business Collaboration
Current Vulnerabilities
Employees have not received training on what to look out for in terms of attacks, making the company even more susceptible to breaches.
My Security
Proposal
Our goals for our proposal were to address the main cyber security concerns of our partner business, as well as threats we identified through SWOT analysis and the CIA triad.
We proposed various network security measures to ensure that personal data from our partner’s clients is not leaked or compromised in any way. Our plan implements Cloudflare, multi-factor authentication, and AES 256-bit encryption to prevent hackers from breaching systems/p>
Our proposal was successfully granted, allowing us to implement our solution for our non-profit. This will ensure that our partner is not at a high risk of cyber attacks, protecting them for years to come.
My Security
Proposal
Presentation
During the Cybersecurity & Defense Internship, I worked with Beth Cerrone and Jamie Kreider to learn about the basics of cybersecurity, and potential career pathways within it.
Throughout the week, I worked with a company to develop cybersecurity solutions to protect against various cyber threats. I worked with my team to analyze the threats to the business, and then developed a comprehensive solution. At the end of the week, I presented my cybersecurity solution to a panel of three judges and received grant money to implement the solution.
Internship Highlights
- Security Site Tours
- Business Partner Meeting
- Working With Experts
- Cybersecurity Labs
I was given the unique opportunity to take exclusive tours of multiple government and security sites to speak directly with security professionals. During these tours, I was able to witness first-hand how cybersecurity operates at the national and international level.
First, I received an exclusive tour of the United States Pentagon where I was able to view the interior of the Pentagon as well as see some of the different meeting rooms throughout the Department of Defense.
We also toured the Department of Homeland Securities’ Cybercrimes Center where we received classified tours of the cyber crimes unit of the DHS and learned how Homeland Security uses cyber intelligence to track major crimes such as drug smuggling, human trafficking, and major theft.
In order to apply the skills I learned throughout the internship, I worked directly with an aspiring entrepreneur based in the Washington D.C. area to discuss their companies cybersecurity needs.
After three meetings where I walked through the business model, protected information, and staff training of the companies, I worked with my team to create a staff training protocol and threat analysis for my business partner.
At the end of the internship, I advocated for, and received funding for, my business partner to implement the cybersecurity training protocols so they can best protect their client information and continue to develop with a reduced fear of cyber attacks and cybersecurity threats.
To learn more about the world of cybersecurity, I was given the unique opportunity to speak directly with cybersecurity experts from multiple different organizations and backgrounds.
I worked directly with one of the leading consultants in Cyber Threat Management, and a consultant for cyber policy for the National Counterintelligence Executive, Phuong Nguyen, to learn about common threat assessment and cybersecurity counterintelligence. I also heard from the global leader in Firewall Creation, David Balenson; the author of the most widely-regarded O’Reilly book on cybersecurity, Michael Collins; and the lead SME for the FutureG Initiative for the Department of Defense.
Throughout the internship, I also heard presentations from, and spoke with, representatives from the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and the National Security Agency. To learn the physical side of cybersecurity, we also had the unique opportunity to meet with globally-recognized penetration testers and network threat assessors.
In order to put the skills we learned to the test, I had the unique opportunity to use a cybersecurity software used for graduate instructional courses to learn a myriad of cybersecurity skills.
Starting with network cybersecurity, I worked through labs dedicated to network security and linux to understand how networks communicate with each other and how cybersecurity poses a threat to this communication. I used these Linux skills to complete capture-the-flag coding competitions as well as virtual rooms.
At the end of the internship, I worked with an expert from a leading cybersecurity consulting firm to learn how to built ethernet cables. I used ethernet cord, crimpers, and wire strippers to produce functioning ethernet cables.