Disclaimer: The opinions of the columnists are their own and not necessarily those of their employer.

Perspectives of a Security Maverick written by Kenneth F. Belva

Kenneth F. Belva

Kenneth F. Belva is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of bloginfosec.com. He currently manages an Information Technology Risk Management Program for a bank whose assets are Billions of dollars. He reports directly to the Senior Vice President and Deputy General Manager (CFO).

ITsecurity.com recognized him as one of the top information security influencers in 2007.

In 2009, he was published in the Information Security Management Handbook, Sixth Edition, edited by Hal Tipton and Micki Krause. He also co-authored one of the central chapters in Enterprise Information Security and Privacy, edited by Warren Axelrod, Jennifer L. Bayuk and Daniel Schutzer.

In addition to his daily corporate responsibilities, he is currently the Vice President of the New York Metro Chapter of the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA). In 2008, he served as an Advisor to the Board. During 2006-2007 he was the Chair of the Public Relations Committee as an active Board Member. In this role Mr. Belva was in charge of communication between the Chapter and other information security related professional organizations.

He has spoken and moderated at the United Nations as well as presented on AT&T’s Internet Security News Network (ISNN) on discovering unknown web application vulnerabilities as well as being interviewed on security enablement.

He recently co-authored a paper entitled “Creating Business Through Virtual Trust: How to Gain and Sustain a Competitive Advantage Using Information Security” with Sam Dekay of The Bank of New York. In 2005 he authored the contrarian paper: “How It’s Difficult to Ruin A Good Name: An Analysis of Reputation Risk” which was a leading paper on the impact of security breaches on stock prices.

He taught as an Adjunct Professor in the Business Computer Systems Department at the State University of New York at Farmingdale. Mr. Belva is credited by Microsoft and IBM for discovering vulnerabilities in their software. He is the author of the chapter “Encryption in XML” in Hackproofing XML published by Syngress.

Mr. Belva previously held the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) certifications and has passed the Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) exam.

Mr. Belva frequently presents at information security conferences around the US as well as globally. He writes on day-to-day information security experiences in a non-essay format at SecurityMaverick.com.

DHS Security Control May Improve Airport Economy

– It turns out that banning water on airplanes may help improve the vendor economy in airports. The idea is simple. Since passengers may not carry water onto airplanes when boarding, each flight airport hop benefits because passengers need to re-purchase drinks when they land and exit the…

Bill Gates, Facebook and Privacy Controls

– While in India this week, Bill Gates made the following comment: He admitted that he once had a Facebook page, but every day “ten thousand people tried to be my friend.” He said he spent too much time trying to decide “Do I know them? Don’t I know them?” Ultimately, he said, “I had to…

Video: Hard Drives – Watch Them Shred

– While it’s the dream of almost every information security department to send their hard drives off to the shredder to destroy sensitive data, few of us have actually witnessed it. Below is a YouTube video that shows the visual process that turns our precious hard drives turn to scrap.…

$1000: Apply for Gordon Prize in Managing Cybersecurity Resources

– As part of the University of Maryland’s Great Expectation’s Campaign, Dr. Lawrence Gordon endowed a prize for the best essay in Managing Cybersecurity Resources. Dr. Gordon has been very generous with his time in answering questions regarding on information security economics for…

ID Theft: The Movie

– While recently browsing at Blockbuster, I came across the film, “ID Theft.” With a tag line that rips off Capital One — “Who lives in your wallet?” instead of “What’s in your wallet?” — I didn’t have the heart to rent it. I attempted to…