Dave Weinstein '06 In the Cyber Arena

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SPRING/SUMMER 2019

DELBARTON

Dave Weinstein ’06 In the Cyber Arena

Dave Weinstein ’06:

By Jessica Fiddes

In summer 2008, Dave WeInsteIn ’06, an International studies major at Johns Hopkins university, was interning at a manhattan mortgage investment bank.

By fall, both Lehman Brothers and the investment bank were out of business. suddenly, his career path in finance looked less secure.

“When I was at Delbarton, I thought I was the luckiest kid in the world.

Now that I’m an adult, I know that I was.”

One season, Coach Brian Fleury posted this flyer in each of his players' lockers. His former player Dave Weinstein still treasures it.

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that autumn, Dave entered a fellowship program interning at the state Department where he worked as an analyst in the Office of missile threat reduction. eight years later, he was serving as new Jersey’s first Chief technology Officer and, today, he is a highly respected expert in the field of cybersecurity.

Delbarton: Learning How to Fail One fall day in 1998, traveling home to Westfield, nJ from a youth soccer game, Weinstein’s mother drove onto Delbarton campus to give her fifth grade son a quick tour. sitting in

the old baseball field dugout and staring up at Old main, Weinstein thought, “I have to come here.” He entered Delbarton in fall 2002 for ninth grade.

Freshman soccer coach John thompson introduced him to Delbarton’s unique ethos, and english teacher rik Dugan inspired him with theodore roosevelt’s words railing against cynicism: “It is not the critic who counts…the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly…” the Benedictine monks of st. mary’s abbey led Dave Weinstein to a deeper connection with his Catholic faith. He found academics challenging and soon experienced failure, missing the cut for varsity soccer and baseball in sophomore year. Finally making varsity baseball as a junior, his coach was Brian Fleury, who was battling cancer and tragically passed away in 2007. Fleury encouraged his players to ‘get better today’: keep working, ‘get soaked’. “next to my closest family members, Brian Fleury was and continues to be the most influential figure in my life,” says Weinstein.

In baseball, even the best hitters fail to reach first base seventy-percent of the time.

Fleury taught Dave Weinstein that life is full of disappointments, and that real success is

In the Cyber Arena measured by how one manages them.

He motivated Weinstein to put his failures into perspective and not to let them defeat him.

Weinstein also formed his closest friendships at Delbarton– many of them were freshman soccer teammates. “When I was at Delbarton, I thought I was the luckiest kid in the world. Now that I’m an adult, I know that I was.”

The Path to Public Service On to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, MD where Weinstein was recruited to play DIII baseball. After his State Department internship, he developed an interest in public service and, that spring, applied for a CIA summer internship. The CIA rejected him.

He launched an aggressive email campaign. On his list was Mike McConnell, a former Vice Admiral in the United States Navy, former Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) and Vice Chairman at defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. McConnell responded, and Weinstein landed a Booz Allen internship supporting clients at Fort Meade, MD, home of the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command. This was his first exposure to cybersecurity.

NSA leads U.S. Government efforts in cryptology, information assurance and computer network operations. Cyber Command, founded in 2009, is the military arm of the NSA created to thwart

cyber threats. Weinstein’s internship at Fort Meade led to a job offer after graduation and, during senior year, he applied to a Master's program at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service.

Georgetown rejected him. He posted the rejection letter on his bedroom wall as a reminder– he needed to get better.

Six months later, employed full time at Booz Allen, he reapplied to Georgetown and, this time, was accepted. Working full time and taking classes at night for six straight semesters, he graduated with a Master’s Degree in Security Studies in December 2012.

Sailing the Cyber Seas

The Weinstein family, Dave, Brett and 2-year-old daughter Vera, look forward to welcoming its newest member (a boy) this June.

Sitting at the office one day, he read Sailing the Cyber Seas, an article by former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Admiral (Ret.) James Stavridis that compared naval with cyber warfare. He pinged the author on LinkedIn: I liked your article, would love to compare notes and pick your brain. Two weeks later, Weinstein took a rare day off from Ft. Meade, met with the Admiral for a half hour, and Stavridis suggested they write something together. An article in Foreign Affairs soon followed; Stavridis and Weinstein have written half a dozen articles together since then. (Weinstein also emailed CIA Director General David Petreus and later took a memorable 10K run around Langley with the Director.)

Behold the power of a well-written email.

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Delbarton friends surrounded Brett and Dave at their wedding at the Boston Public Library in October, 2014.

In front, from left, are Brian Fuller ’06, Brett Pettee Weinstein, Dave Weinstein ’06, Will Hart ’06, and Joe Colangelo ’03; Middle: Rob Gallic ’06 and Pat Pirozzi ’06; Back: Mike Campbell ’06, Scott Krenitski ’06, Dan DeGeorge ’05, Brendan Leanos ’06 and Conor Troy ’06.

Weinstein next moved from private to public sector, accepting a government job at Fort Meade as a U.S. Cyber Command Computer Network Operations Planner. For three years, he organized support for cyber operations and developed military operational plans.

Transitioning between the global highway of fiber-optic cables and a network of Beltway bureaucrats, he quickly found himself at the center of the cyber universe.

His undergraduate degree in International Studies turned out to be an asset. Policy wonks needed someone to translate bits and bytes into nouns and verbs, and Dave Weinstein was their man.

Having never taken a computer science course in his life, buried in the basement at NSA, he immersed himself in a crash course.

His Hopkins girlfriend, Brett Pettee, a Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering major (“she’s way smarter than me”), was in medical school at University of South Florida in Tampa and wanted to do her residency in the northeast. Their marriage in October 2014 made it a logical time for Dave to change jobs, so he looked for a position in the private sector.

On April 2016, then- NJ Director of Cybersecurity and Chief Information Security Officer Dave Weinstein ’06 returned to Delbarton to address members of the Current Events Club during an M Block presentation in the FAC.

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Leaving U.S. Cyber Command, he accepted a Senior Consultant position at Deloitte where, for 8 months, he helped organizations identify cybersecurity exposures, but clients seemed more concerned about checking compliance boxes rather than reducing risk. In December 2013, credit card details of 40 million Target customers were compromised at the height of the holiday shopping season. Suddenly, companies received calls from board members pushing for improved data security.

In 2014, still with Deloitte, Dave Weinstein was at a client’s office in Conway, Arkansas when he spotted a Delbarton announcement about former CIA operative Dr. Chris Rodriguez ’95.

Years before, Weinstein and his Delbarton classmates had been inspired when Rodriguez spoke to them about his work in intelligence. Now, Governor Chris Christie P’15,’19 was appointing Rodriguez as his New Jersey Director of the Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness. Weinstein reconnected with Rodriguez, and Governor Christie soon hired Weinstein to serve in a new position: State of NJ Cybersecurity Advisor.

With 50+ agencies, 50,000 email addresses, multiple data centers, and a patchwork of security, New Jersey State government data needed protection. In 2015, Christie signed an executive order establishing a civilian group, guided by Weinstein, to coordinate cybersecurity efforts and New Jersey was able to reduce risk by elevating the barriers to entry, creating an innovative model that other states soon emulated.

In June 2016, Christie promoted Weinstein to NJ State’s first Chief Technology Officer and at the tender age of 28, he was the chief executive of a government agency with 600+ employees and a $250 million budget, focused on centralizing IT operations. He calls it “the privilege of a lifetime” to serve in Governor Christie’s cabinet. When Governor Christie concluded his 8-year tenure as governor in January 2018, Weinstein’s position also ended.

By then, the Weinstein family included a six-month-old daughter Vera, and Brian Fleury’s phrase “I am third” took on new

meaning when Weinstein became a father. “Actually, it’s more like fourth,” he says with a laugh. “We have a dog.” For 10 years, Weinstein sprinted through the public sector, mostly in cybersecurity, then IT. It was time for a break, so he took two months off to investigate options and spend more time with his family.

He sought a nimble, mission-focused cybersecurity start-up, and accepted a position with Claroty, a New York-based leader in operational technology network protection that secures essential infrastructure globally. As Chief Security Officer, Weinstein helps protect the firm’s Fortune 500 clients– including utilities, mining, transportation networks and manufacturing facilities – from serious data breaches.

Threats Abound Nearly 90% of America’s critical infrastructure – from electricity and oil pipelines to water treatment plants – is privately owned and operated. As more devices link to infrastructure, the systems become dangerously susceptible to attack. Government agencies are unauthorized to monitor domestic networks and, thus, companies are compelled to deal with international cyber threats on their own. For instance, it is the responsibility of PSE&G, one of the nation’s ten largest electric companies, to keep China off its network, with no protection from state or federal agencies.

In 2016, Gov. Chris Christie appointed Dave Weinstein ’06 New Jersey’s first chief technology officer, a Cabinet-level position that reported directly to the governor.

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The Ultimate Threat: Back to an Analog World

In 2014, Chris Rodriguez ’95, left, was named New Jersey Director of the Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness. NJ Governor Chris Christie P’15,’19 soon hired cybersecurity expert Dave Weinstein ’06 to serve in a new position: State of NJ Cybersecurity Advisor.

Nowadays, media outlets and government agencies call upon Weinstein to share expert commentary on cybersecurity issues.

Foreign interference in U.S. domestic affairs is another pressing issue. Russia has designed an information operations campaign with great intention to sow distrust and division in our society.

Weinstein suggests that the most effective way to defeat meddling countries is to shine a bright light on their activities. “If enough Americans feel like they’re being exploited and manipulated by a foreign power, then we can collectively change our behaviors and render their tactics obsolete.”

The Internet of Things, or ‘IoT’, is another hot topic in cybersecurity. The advent of home devices offers great promise, but also increased risk. Smart thermostats, baby monitors and security cameras make our lives more convenient, efficient, and productive, but these conveniences contribute to a ‘bloated attack surface’ that is tempting to malicious hackers. By 2025, there will be an estimated three internet-connected devices for every human on the planet and manufacturers labor to improve product security.

Weinstein’s home includes a network of 32 devices; he predicts that someday soon there will be a cybersecurity-home alarm system to protect devices from hacking.

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Meanwhile, the four main adversaries, Russia, China, North Korea and Iran, continue to exploit the internet. China literally has ‘farms’ of people sitting in warehouses manipulating blurry ‘I am not a robot’ visual tests to break into accounts around the world. “It’s not so much that China is going to turn off the lights,” Weinstein says. “It’s that they have that capability, and could hold that infrastructure and use it as a lever against us.”

But the real threat, he believes, lies not in someone trying to hack into our email, or listen to our dinner table conversation via the tiny microphone that Google quietly engineered into its Nest thermostats. He fears that the net positive societal role of the internet could become a net negative, throwing us back into an analog world, to an era of LP records and slide-rules. When his daughter Vera is 30, will people reject the internet? The goal of cybersecurity technology and policy is clear: to protect and preserve the net positive influence of our internetconnected world.

He advices young alumni not to totally forfeit the humanities in their pursuit of a career in cybersecurity. Early professional choices, including internships and workstudy programs, are valuable opportunities to gain exposure quickly.

“Avoid big flashy objects” – a start-up experience or an obscure government agency can play an important developmental role by supplementing education with practical experience. He values intellectual balance – a broad perspective that can bridge the gap between technical and non-technical information.

Cybersecurity needs more translators, like Dave Weinstein.

What’s next?

Speaking of balance, this is an intentional period of rebalancing for Dave Weinstein.

Brett is now an Internal Medicine doctor with Summit Medical Group in Berkeley Heights and the family lives in Westfield where, this June, they welcome their second child, a son. Valuing family life, he says, “I don’t want to take my foot off the pedal but want to make sure I’m around for these important times.”

Meanwhile, Politico reports that Weinstein’s experience in both Washington and Trenton makes him “often called upon on the national scene to provide the state perspective.” He continues to serve as an expert in his field, regularly counseling government committees on today’s shape-shifting cybersecurity threats.

A purposeful man, Weinstein never looks too far ahead. Eleven years ago, he thought he would be working in finance.

Later, thanks to initiative, resilience and good timing he discovered he could lead a large organization and solve dauntingly

“It is not the critic who counts…the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly…”

- Theodore Roosevelt

complex problems. He likes to be in the big arena, and may return to the public sector one day if the right opportunity presents itself.

Early on, Brian Fleury taught Dave Weinstein perseverance. Fleury’s voice still echoes in his mind with profoundly impactful messages from a man who couldn’t afford to waste a single moment on this Earth. “To this day he reminds me to be present, in my personal and professional life”, says Weinstein, “And to pursue constant improvement in a spirit of positivity and giving.”

At Delbarton, Weinstein learned there was far more to fear from mediocrity than failure. He continues to believe that society can achieve collective greatness if each of us embraces Fleury’s simple message: Get better today.

The 2006 Archway yearbook was dedicated to Brian Fleury who continues to inspire his former player Dave Weinstein ’06 every day.

Lessons from a Cybersecurity Guru Here are Dave Weinstein’s top tips on how to protect your security at home, work, shopping and traveling: n

n

n n n

Use two-factor authentication on all Internet accounts, especially on email and cloud-based services.

Assume data breaches. Use caution when writing emails and texts Use complex passwords and vary them by account Change the default credentials on your home router Never enter personal, financial, or account information when using public WiFi

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