Hello Eastern Carolina InfraGard Chapter member,

Our next Eastern Carolina InfraGard Chapter meeting is October 19th from 1:00 pm – 4:00pm at Cisco, Building 5, 1025 Kit Creek Road, Morrisville, NC 27560.

Check out these outstanding presentations by Stephen Volandt, Vice President of Auroros, Inc., a contracting and management-consulting firm based in Raleigh, NC:

Session 1: Cyber Business Risk

Placing Cyber risk in business terms is the best way to communicate to the business (non-IT) stakeholders in your organization.   Learn about connecting Cyber Risk to Business Risk. Understand the fundamentals of how to link Cyber Risk + Business Impact using Enterprise Architecture principles, and build the case for the capital spending needed for proactive mitigation. Most Cyber Security is focused on attack prevention. However, many organizations are already penetrated and being exploited, with unknown active and potential business impact, often by insider threats or compromised access credentials.

In fact, most compromised organizations suffer exploitation within hours, with the breach not discovered for months. These cyber related business risks are quantifiable and can be merged with the overall strategic opportunity and risk portfolio. The steps to accomplish this assessment are understandable and require a collaboration between the architecture team, the business risk community, and the cyber assessment community. The end result is a mechanism that breaks cyber risk out of being a just another line item in the CIO’s budget, and integrates it into the larger business and IT investment portfolio process. I developed this presentation in collaboration with the former DHS Cyber Security Director and the lead architect for the Pentagon’s Continuity of Operations Plan.

Session 2: InfraGard EMP-SIG s new book:  POWERING THROUGH: From Fragile Infrastructures to Community Resilience

Mr. Volandt will provide a pre-publication overview of the EMP-SIG s pending book, which considers all threats that might result in loss of a critical infrastructure for a month or longer.  It addresses concerns with solar storms, cyber, massive earthquakes, not just man-made EMP.   This book provides an overview of five low probability, high impact threats to the electric grid: man-made electromagnetic pulse (EMP), solar geomagnetic disturbances (GMD), cyber-attacks, physical attacks, and radio-frequency (RF) weapons.

This book is a ground-breaker for initiating awareness regarding mobilization of building blocks for a national response capability.

The book’s theme involves threat awareness and then starting preparedness from the bottom up:  individuals, households, communities, volunteer organizations.  If we are better prepared individually, we can be positive resources for the institutional responses that may fail.  The book encourages design of  resilient islands  and networks of these islands.  Even renewables will need adjustments, for example protecting the inverters on solar panels, and providing interrupters in advance of SCADA systems supporting low net-energy communities. As readers obtain an overview of the immense challenges for societal recovery, we hope that the planning guide elements of our book will build support to invest before disaster strikes, both within the electric grid and in off-grid resiliency initiatives.

As an added bonus, Kathleen Volandt will discuss Identity Theft in America: The epidemic touches every facet of our life. Over 70% of identity theft problems will never show up on your credit report! Know what’s at risk, the biggest threats to you and your family and how to be proactive.

Biographies:

Stephen Volandt   is Vice President of Auroros, Inc., a contracting and management-consulting firm based in Raleigh, NC. He specializes in successfully connecting strategic purpose, risk management, decision-making, enterprise project portfolio management, operational user requirements and the technology that supports them. He has been instrumental in the establishment of governance structures for global and nation-wide organizations. Mr. Volandt co-authored the DoD CIO Executive board governance charter and participated in establishing enterprise-wide portfolio rationalization, harmonization, and transformation governance for the DoD technology portfolio. Mr. Volandt served as the lead architect for transforming the multi-billion-dollar United States Marine Corps business enterprise to better support combat operations and readiness cycles. He provided policy, operations modeling, IT and communications modeling, planning, and budget justification for a global US Army weapon of mass destruction response capability; and was a principal operations planner and architect for joint US Army and National Guard response to smuggled nuclear weapon ground burst terrorism in the homeland. Mr. Volandt has also supported the Joint Requirements and Integration Office (JR&IO), NRO, and served as the governance team leader for the FBI s CJIS Division. Other areas of expertise include cyber business-risk assessments, technology portfolio transformation management, disaster recovery planning and operations, and military operations. Prior to transitioning to management and technology consulting, Mr. Volandt performed or managed thousands of environmental assessments and remediation projects, to include radioactive and complexly contaminated industrial and military SUPERFUND sites, and supported state government and FEMA during several hurricane recoveries. He is a former US Marine Corps reserve officer who served at the infantry battalion, brigade, expeditionary force, and headquarters levels; specializing in readiness, decision support, exercise management, logistics, sustainment, and global operations in austere remote environments. He graduated from The Citadel with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics. He currently volunteers as the 2nd Vice President for the Eastern North Carolina InfraGard Chapter, as the Deputy Director, InfraGard SE Region EMP-SIG, and as the National InfraGard EMP-SIG Administrative Officer.

Mr. Volandt authored the exercise scenario, exercise process, provided the maturity model for the 2015 EMP SIG annual workshop and conference. His current passion is the design, funding, and creation of resilient communities.

Kathleen Volandt is Founder/CEO of Auroros Incorporated, a service disabled veteran and woman owned small business.  Mrs. Volandt is a proud Army veteran and has been veteran advocate for 20+ years!

Auroros Incorporated specializes in cybersecurity, governance structures, and her team has successfully transformed global and nation-wide organizations up to $94 billion in assets. With degrees from Virginia Tech, she is also a 2016 graduate of the prestigious Leadership NC program. Mrs. Volandt has been invited to testify to Congress and has appeared on CNN, NBC Nightly News, Fox News and NPR.