In Class Exercise – Mr. David Price – Febuary 25, 2025

BLUF: Guest speaker, David Price, works in the Cyber Security and infrastructure agency. (CISA) It was a
part of Homeland Security under the Trump administration but became its independent organization.
They are set up to protect critical infrastructure like water, electricity, and pipeline distribution.

The first topic that stands out is that he describes that critical infrastructure is essential in cyber warfare. In cybersecurity, all infrastructure must be protected from foreign threats as they can use it as leverage
in war. If a country like China were to disrupt any water or electrical infrastructure, they would use it as
a distraction to invade a country to prevent them from knowing ahead of time that they’ve declared
war.

The second topic that stood out to me was David Price talking Operational technology. Operational
technology is servos, they control how much distribution water, electricity, and gas goes to the public.
It’s vulnerable because it can be easily hacked remotely from a long distance without getting caught. There’s a high amount of risk management put into protecting these systems as they are critical to the
public to have access to water, electricity, and gas.

The third topic that stands out is CPG Development. During both the development and the continued
management, all forms of CPGs apply to critical infrastructure organizations and are not tiered into
maturity. The CPG contains a worksheet that helps small organizations mature their cybersecurity
programs to help prioritize protections that are to be implemented. This is important to demonstrate
the importance and relative impact and cost of these protections to the executive. If something like a
router uses the default password, an individual can research that particular router to understand what
the common password is and use that to attempt to hack into it.

Conclusion: David Price demonstrated the importance of critical infrastructure, how vulnerable
Operational Technology is to attacks, and how CPG development is to companies that require an
updated and mature guideline on cybersecurity. This stood out to me because it demonstrates how
important critical infrastructure is in the field of cybersecurity and protecting it with the latest programs.

In Class Exercise – CAPT T-REX O’Donovan – March 4, 2025

BLUF: Captain O’Donovan is a commanding officer who talked about his military experience, including his daily life in the Navy, and shared his cybersecurity knowledge.

O’Donovan talks about the chain of command, where each duty of each rank has a responsibility of cybersecurity revolving around offensive and defensive measures. The operations department, for example, is responsible for managing patches to update the software to its latest version. This chain of command is important as it gives everyone responsibility in the Navy’s cyber network.

Another thing that resonates with me is the map he shows that represents the communication buildings that manage the Navy message network. Each building network, like the low-frequency ones, establishes communications with nearby Navy vessels or communicates with satellites to respond to Navy ships far from land. 

A final thing that resonates with me is the discussion of how the Navy gets information delivered from the boat to the internet. He explains that ships in port can connect to the network, use the military satcom, or use a teleport to provide interconnections linking to satellites to ground-based communications. Transport relates to the CIA triad method because it involves military encryption where satcom links have their communications classified on their network. 

In conclusion, O’Donovan’s discussion of the Navy’s cybersecurity network was very informative. It was interesting to learn about the chain of command, how each Navy department handles cybersecurity jobs, how they communicate with each other using their military network and technology, and how the information is delivered in the Navy. It was interesting to learn that Oscar the Octopus, who is in the Navy computer and communications logo, was designed by Disney himself!


In Class Exercise – Lieutenant Blair – April 4, 2025
BLUF: Lieutenant Colonel Blair is a United States Marine Corps soldier currently serving as a
lieutenant. She joined because someone said she couldn’t enter it and it would be better to join the Air
Force, so she took that with a hint of defiance and joined the Marine Corps. She discusses her time in
the military, sharing how to be authentic and how to be unique with your craft.

Blair talks about how being true to yourself will help move your life forward because people
around you will help and build trust, especially in the field of cybersecurity. If there’s no trust, they
won’t know if your work is as authentic or important as you say. Overcoming imposter syndrome is an
important factor to take into consideration because it helps build character and self-confidence.

Blair emphasizes how being a part of the Marine Corps involves communication, leadership, and
teamwork. Communication allows people to understand your craft and how well you are talking with
them daily to share ideas and beliefs involving your craft and abilities. Leadership is important to show
you’ll take innovation on the opportunities that arise from working as a soldier and show you’re devoted
to your work. Teamwork involves how important it is to work with the people around you and who you
are as a person.

In terms of career, do what you enjoy doing and not do a job that you won’t have fun at even if
you’re skilled at it. If it becomes a hobby, then you’ll become happier with working on your craft while
doing your job. This would build a confident structure of trust with yourself that allows you to feel happy
with working on what you love.

In conclusion, Blair teaches us how bringing your skills to the table with your best foot forward
will help earn you the jobs you seek with your unique skillset, experiences, and background. These all
resonate with me because it’s important to have confidence so that I can communicate with others to
build leadership and teamwork with the people I work with in a workplace.