Brigadier General talks cyber threats in the internet age

Drake Rhone Staff Writer drake.rhone@drake.edu @drakerhone

Drake DATA club hosted Brigadier General David A. Cotton on Feb. 24. Cotton is a former Director of Cyberspace Operations in the Air Force and current Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Iowa State University. He spoke to around 50 students on how to best educate and defend themselves against cyber attacks in the current threat climate.

The presentation ran from 3 to about 4 p.m. followed by a chance to network with Cotton and other audience members. Cotton discussed topics such as his numerous cybersecurity assignments, the role of a CISO and how attackers are making use of the “internet of things.” After the presentation, Cotton said that since he was speaking in Aliber Hall, he wanted to convey that business minds are needed in the cybersecurity community.

“This is the College of Business and Public Administration,” Cotton said. “I want to emphasize in the technology realm. While you may understand the technology, you always have to understand the business. Even if you’re the I.T. guy, you still have to understand the business you’re supporting.”

Cotton said that he also wanted to educate Drake students on what kinds of cyber threats exist in today’s interconnected world.

“There’s been an explosion of the internet of things,” said Cotton. “The generation of the student body is more comfortable with it, so you really need to understand the threats that they present to you so that you can better manage them and take advantage of them so that they don’t take advantage of you.”

Cody Drilling, the president of DATA club, said that they sought out Cotton to be a guest speaker because he was a good friend of their advisor but also had an interesting story to tell.

“As far as the College of Business, we’ve been having a lot of interest in data analysis,” Drilling said. “We have our new major, data analytics that just started a year and a half ago or so. We know that our student body is just really interested in data and data analysis. One of the big things that really results from that is trying to keep your data safe. With the internet of everything, or the internet of things, which is starting to become a real keyword in our society, we want to make sure that we are safe when we are connected to the internet. Cybersecurity is a huge part of that and is something we want to focus on.”

Drilling said that the event was DATA’s last event of this kind for the semester, but they will be hosting others.

“I know our very next event coming at the end of next month is going to be more of a hands on activity,” Drilling said. “We want to give people the opportunity to look at computers and look at servers. We’re actually going to do a computer and server breakdown to give people the opportunity to look inside a computer and know the pieces and the parts that go into making a computer a computer.”