The rapidly changing threat landscape has finally provided relevant business justification for commercial companies to invest in developing cybersecurity intelligence that used to be the domain of the government – and they are doing it at a pace that is making the value of government “Classified" cybersecurity information increasingly irrelevant. The organic intelligence being developed by private companies and the informal cybersecurity intelligence coming out of the research community and some “Invitation Only" or “You’re Not Invited” groups is simply more actionable and more valuable than that provided by the government. While the federal government will always, and should always, have important visibility of the threat, the evolution of technology is giving the private sector the means to develop sophisticated, high quality information that rivals the government.
Mark Weatherford is a Principal at The Chertoff Group and advises clients on a broad array of cybersecurity services. As one of the nation’s leading experts on cybersecurity, Mr. Weatherford works with organizations around the Nation and around the world by creating comprehensive security strategies for core business operations and objectives. Mr. Weatherford also serves on the Advisory Board at both Cylance and Coalfire and is a member of the Bipartisan Policy Commission Electric Grid Cyber Security Initiative and the Idaho National Laboratory Strategic Advisory Group (SAG) for Electric Grid Resilience. Prior to joining The Chertoff Group, Mr. Weatherford was appointed as the Department of Homeland Security’s first Deputy Under Secretary for Cybersecurity. Before joining DHS, Mr. Weatherford was the Vice President and Chief Security Officer at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) where he directed the cybersecurity and critical infrastructure protection program and worked with electric utility companies across North America. Prior to NERC, Mr. Weatherford was appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to serve as California’s first Chief Information Security Officer and was also the first Chief Information Security Officer for the State of Colorado, where he was appointed by two successive governors. As a former U.S. Navy Cryptologic Officer, Mr. Weatherford led the United States Navy’s Computer Network Defense operations and the Naval Computer Incident Response Team (NAVCIRT). Mr. Weatherford earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona, amaster’s degree from the Naval Postgraduate School and holds the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) certifications. He was one of the Information Security magazine “Security 7 Award” winners in 2008, was awarded SC Magazine’s “CSO of the Year” award in 2010, and was named one of the “10 Most Influential People in Government Information Security” by GovInfoSecurity in both 2012 and 2013.