CyberDelilahSpinello
Delilah Spinello
My Cybersecurity Training
Business Partner Overview
Dumbarton Oaks Conservancy
Quick Facts
Dumbarton Oaks is a city park, under the National Park Service spanning 27 acres. This is now the first-ever female landscape architect to design public recreational and educational spaces.
It is divided into two parts the formal gardens, which are maintained by Harvard University to preserve its natural beauty, and the other garden recognized as a national park under federal law. The park receives federal funding and is backed by a large volunteer force that works towards updating and modernizing the park creating engaging activities for visitors.
Dumbarton Oaks Conservancy
About the Founder
Louis Slade is the 1st Vice President and Co-Founder of Dumbarton Oaks Conservancy. Before working in the nonprofit sector, Lou was a professional engineer specializing in transportation planning. He founded Gorove/Slade Associates Inc., a firm that worked on engineering consultations.
He has worked to promote the park and its beautification projects by hiring professional landscape architects and making it into a bigger attraction. Lou Slade’s work with NPS has helped fund the restoration efforts and create large-scale support amongst the community. He has worked to initiate a multitude of projects that will protect the park from further damage.
Dumbarton Oaks Conservancy
About the Business
Established in 2010, Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy is a nonprofit that works to restore the 27-acre park formerly part of Dumbarton Oaks estate in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. This landscape was designed to include numerous different parts of nature beauty, from meadows to waterfalls. Due to resource limitations, Dumbarton Oaks Park has been facing natural deterioration slowly losing its splendor. The Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy is confronting this change.
The Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy is working against the natural change in the landscape to continue keeping the park’s historical beauty. By partnering with the National Park Service, they can protect the native flora and landscaping built in the 1940s. We want to make our park accessible so that everyone can share in its beauty, protecting the area for educational visits from schools and providing a welcoming space for families and those who enjoy nature.
Dumbarton Oaks Conservancy
Current Vulnerabilities
Our Cybersecurity concerns stem from a lack of staff training. As a park restoration organization, there is not much cyber protection which exposes the general infrastructure for systems. Key cybersecurity concerns focus on their vulnerability to attacks and data breaches due to weak internal security measures, including vulnerabilities in WordPress, poor physical security, weak passwords, and inadequate staff training.
They also aim to establish a private network to safeguard sensitive data and reduce unauthorized access risks. Building a cohesive plan and foundation will aid in facilitating general operations and protection of data security.
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 implements multiple cyber security protocols and solutions to protect our partners, such as Virtual Private Network (VPN), Antivirus software, private networks, and physical security, paired with employee cybersecurity training to create stronger protection for the clients’ data. We want to employ a VPN and antivirus software to encrypt sensitive data and protect IP addresses. Having a WIFI router for staff only minimizes the risk of hacking and access from unauthorized users. The employees will also go through regular training sessions for phishing emails and password protection. /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 physical threats, employee negligence, and hacktivists, 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 nonprofit to develop cybersecurity solutions to protect against various cyber threats. I worked with my team to analyze the threats to the organization, 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
- Nonprofit 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.
I was given the unique opportunity to attend an embassy where I received a briefing on cultural, economic, and international situations. We also got the opportunity to ask questions about the country’s cybersecurity infrastructure; therefore, allowing me to learn about cybersecurity at an international level.
We also toured the Department of Homeland Securities’ Cyber Crimes 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 a nonprofit based in the Washington D.C. area to discuss their companies cybersecurity needs.
After three meetings where I walked through the organization model, protected information, and staff training of the nonprofit, I worked with my team to create a staff training protocol and threat analysis for my partner.
At the end of the internship, I advocated for, and received funding for, my nonprofit 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.