Kaylene Damm
My Cybersecurity Training
Business Partner Overview
Business Collaboration
Quick Facts
Nikki Hendricks Designs LLC strives to create eco-friendly pieces to create a more sustainable brand that will positively impact the world’s current carbon footprint. Each piece of material used is locally sourced and eco-friendly. Her inspiration for each collection comes from cultural and social issues, creating a powerful and impactful story behind each piece of work.
Working with brands and collaborating on ideas is a powerful part of having a successful brand. With every collection that Nikki drops, she aims to incorporate more eco-friendly materials and reach more with her goals and products. With that being said, the end goal is to use her clothing pieces to produce conversations on essential topics that need a change in the world.
Business Collaboration
About the Owner
During Nikki Hendricks' time at the Maryland Institute College for the Arts, she displayed her eco-friendly designs at the college’s spring show. At this show, she was scouted and launched her business and message. She has been invited to both the Milan and Paris Fashion Week.
After graduating from MICA she continued to showcase her fashion lines at London and Romania's Fashion Weeks, as well as local shows in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. During the pandemic, Nikki began creating masks for non-profits and incorporate more of her eco-friendly, wearable art into clothing collections.
Business Collaboration
About the Business
With Nikki’s fashion being on the front covers of various magazines, Hendricks Designs flashes an impressive amount of media highlights. Beginning her first residency with DC Fashion Foundation from 2017-2019, Nikki’s work would be featured on British Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar Singapore, and Cosmopolitan Romania, as well as a mini-documentary on Zoomin TV.
Hendricks Designs was incorporated by Nikki in 2017, shortly after she earned her degree at MICA. Of the fashion weeks her small business has participated in, many include those in Milan, Paris, London, and Romania. Hendrick’s Designs’ mission is to design a better future by drawing inspiration from the stories of marginalized people, moving towards sustainable practices and eco-friendly designs, and bringing communities together through collaborations with other businesses and art’s rallying power for good.
Business Collaboration
Current Vulnerabilities
Nikki Hendricks Designs has experienced previous hacking before. The owner’s Instagram account was hacked into and caused the owner to get locked out. Many of the passwords of the accounts are similar which makes access to client information and products. These passwords are also shared with other people on her team and are not regularly changed to keep the data protected.
All of Nikki Hendricks Designs' information is accessible through her devices such as her phone and laptop. If either of these were to be breached, all the data could be taken and would put both her company and clients in danger. The business’ clients’ personal identifiable information (PII) and credit card information is stored in her accounts and can be easily accessed if there were to be a leak.
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.
Our plan involves three main components: network upgrades, employee training, and compliance with National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidelines. Our solution implements network security systems and prepares employees to help protect Personally Identifiable Information (PII) from our partner’s clients, reducing the risk of a data breach./p>
Our proposal was successfully granted, allowing us to implement our solution for our business. This will ensure that our partner is not at a high risk of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) or credit card information being stolen, 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.