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Organizations and individuals today handle vast amounts of sensitive information, such as personal health data, financial records, and proprietary business information. Cybersecurity is essential to protect against the wide and increasingly sophisticated number of threats that can disrupt our personal lives, businesses, and even society at large.

As more aspects of our individual and shared civil lives become interconnected through digital networks, cybersecurity will only grow in importance.

That’s why, last month, the Connecticut Institute of Technology (CIT) at the University of New Haven and American Eagle Financial Credit Union jointly hosted Cyber Threat Intelligence, a banking, identity and credit protection seminar for Greater New Haven residents and students interested in learning more about cybersecurity.

The seminar consisted of a three-person panel of experts and scholars, including Samantha Konsewicz, a fraud analyst in enterprise risk management at ; Paulius Laukaitis, a detective with the ; and moderator Harris Weisman, MBA, coordinator of the University’s M.S. in .

The keynote speaker was UNewHaven alum , who currently works for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) as a cyber security advisor (CSA) supporting the State of Connecticut.

‘Aligns with our mission’

Monique Golden, Ph.D., the CIT project and laboratory manager, helped organize the seminar.

“The panel was to allow these different representatives to talk to one another about what they're experiencing, what they are dealing with, how they deal with it, and when they need to communicate with each other,” Dr. Golden said.

“They discussed some of the unique challenges that they face when trying to identify or attribute an attack to a specific group, and how they support the communities that they serve.”

“American Eagle Financial Credit Union was honored to have recently partnered with the University of New Haven for their Cyber Threat Intelligence Seminar in the Financial Sector,” said Colleen Boccaccio, marketing and event specialist for American Eagle Financial Credit Union. “This collaboration aligns with our mission of promoting financial literacy within the community. We are genuinely grateful for the opportunity to contribute to such an important event and to work alongside our community partners to raise awareness and provide valuable resources and information.”

‘We are the destination for cybersecurity education’

UNewHaven was the perfect venue for such a seminar because the CIT is a hub of interdisciplinary technology, focused on emerging areas such as AI cybersecurity, and it is also a leader on how longstanding areas of technology and STEM interact with these developing sciences and ever-evolving issues.

“We have some of the most talented students in cyber education here at the University of New Haven,” Dr. Golden said. “So our goal was to put together an event that would educate and motivate some of that talent and energy to become the next generation of analysts, officers, and change makers in this space.”

The Cyber Threat Intelligence seminar focused on what cyber threat intelligence looks like in the financial sector, as well as how organizations such as CISA, the FBI, and financial institutions manage security risks and threats.

“As someone who's not working in this space directly, I thought it was a really exciting, invigorating presentation because there are so many ways you can make an impact in this field,” Dr. Golden said, whose background is in industrial engineering and education policy.

Of the seminar’s 33 attendees, most were UNewHaven graduate students in the University’s cybersecurity and networks master's degree program.

“We are the destination for cybersecurity education because we have students who are recipients of some of the most prestigious cybersecurity scholarships in the nation,” Dr. Golden said.

‘A great opportunity’

For example, the Tagliatela College of Engineering received a $4 million National Science (NSF) grant—one of largest federal grants in the University’s history—to create Connecticut’s first program, designed to produce the next generation of Super Cyber Operatives who are ready to enter the government workforce and protect the nation from cyber-attacks.

The Department of Defense has a cyber service academy program, which not only includes full tuition and academic fees, a generous yearly stipend for living expenses, and a one-time $1500 allowance for a new computer, and a job working for the Department of Defense upon successful completion of the program.

Additionally, UNewHaven students regularly participate in competitions such as the NSA Codebreaker Challenge, which earlier this year a team of Chargers placed among the top 15 institutions in the country.

“The CIT is looking to expand on all of that,” Dr. Golden said. “I think there's a great opportunity for us to explore what possibilities UNewHaven and the Connecticut community can come up with together.”