Cameron Over leads the Cyber & Privacy service line at CrossCountry Consulting. Cameron has extensive past performance in cybersecurity, including experience advising organizations with transforming their cybersecurity and privacy programs.
Cameron has been in the field of information security since the late 90’s. From mid-high school, she was exposed to early network discovery techniques while interning with DoD agencies, and held a Top Secret security clearance for more than 15 years. She grew her career assisting countless agencies with their most pressing security challenges, including specialized skills and expertise in Unix and Linux operating systems, Domain Name Services (DNS), Cross-Domain systems handling highly classified data, and web server and application security.
Cameron now leads a team at CrossCountry comprised of cyber risk management, privacy and data protection, cloud security, security architecture and engineering, and advanced cyber risk, including threat intelligence, threat modeling, and advanced attack emulation. The team has developed a Cyber Fusion Lab, proprietary to the firm, as a highly secure environment with which to conduct assessments, testing, and analysis.
In this wide ranging discussion we asked Cameron questions including:
- How she started in cybersecurity and privacy (it was an internship with DISA)
- Perspectives on how cybersecurity professionals should continue to learn
- Seeking balance between education, training, certifications and experience in the cybersecurity field
- Lessons she has learned in her career regarding best practices
- Observations on adversary innovations
- How to help organizations seeking tailored solutions in security that work for them
- The most important message for boards of directors and CEOs regarding cybersecurity
- Considerations regarding ROI in cybersecurity
- Ways to accelerate the development of a cybersecurity team
- The importance of trust in the relationship between a client and cybersecurity team
Related Resources:
- Cross Country Consulting
- Cameron Over on LinkedIn
- 10 Red Teaming Lessons Learned Over 20 Years – Red teaming is one of the most valuable things you can do within your organization. OODA CEO and Co-Founder Matt Devost offers up his top ten red teaming lessons learned from over two decades of red teaming across hundreds of engagements.
- OODA’s Special Reporting on the Federal Technology Market: This market should be part of any tech firm’s strategy
- OODA Special Report on Best Practices for Agile Cybersecurity Tips from our experts
- Context on Make vs Buy in the Federal Ecosystem: If you know of anyone anywhere in government who is thinking of building/coding a new data system to track issues around the pandemic they should just stop and should buy a commercial platform.
- OODAcast on YouTube: OODA’s YouTube Channel
- OODAcast Podcast: For audio to go
Additional Resources:
A Practitioner’s View of Corporate Intelligence
Organizations in competitive environments should continually look for ways to gain advantage over their competitors. The ability of a business to learn and translate that learning into action, at speeds faster than others, is one of the most important competitive advantages you can have. This fact of business life is why the model of success in Air to Air combat articulated by former Air Force fighter pilot John Boyd, the Observe – Orient – Decide – Act (OODA) decision loop, is so relevant in business decision-making today.
In this business model, decisions are based on observations of dynamic situations tempered with business context to drive decisions and actions. These actions should change the situation meaning new observations and new decisions and actions will follow. This all underscores the need for a good corporate intelligence program. See: A Practitioner’s View of Corporate Intelligence
Optimizing Corporate Intelligence
This post dives into actionable recommendation on ways to optimize a corporate intelligence effort. It is based on a career serving large scale analytical efforts in the US Intelligence Community and in applying principles of intelligence in corporate America. See: Optimizing Corporate Intelligence
Mental Models For Leadership In The Modern Age
An Executive’s Guide To Cognitive Bias in Decision Making
Cognitive Bias and the errors in judgement they produce are seen in every aspect of human decision-making, including in the business world. Companies that have a better understanding of these cognitive biases can optimize decision making at all levels of the organization, leading to better performance in the market. Companies that ignore the impact these biases have on corporate decision-making put themselves at unnecessary risk. This post by OODA Co-Founder Bob Gourley provides personal insights into key biases as well as mitigation strategies you can put in place right now. See: An Executive’s Guide To Cognitive Bias in Decision Making
OODA On Corporate Intelligence In The New Age
We strongly encourage every company, large or small, to set aside dedicated time to focus on ways to improve your ability to understand the nature of the significantly changed risk environment we are all operating in today, and then assess how your organizational thinking should change. As an aid to assessing your corporate sensemaking abilities, this post summarizes OODA’s research and analysis into optimizing corporate intelligence for the modern age. See: OODA On Corporate Intelligence In The New Age
Useful Standards For Corporate Intelligence
This post discusses standards in intelligence, a topic that can improve the quality of all corporate intelligence efforts and do so while reducing ambiguity in the information used to drive decisions and enhancing the ability of corporations to defend their most critical information. See: Useful Standards For Corporate Intelligence
In Business, Like In War, Data Is A Weapon
Broadly speaking, a weapon is anything that provides an advantage over an adversary. In this context, data is, and always has been, a weapon. This post, part of our Intelligent Enterprise series, focuses on how to take more proactive action in use of data as a weapon. See: Data is a Weapon
Fine Tuning Your Falsehood Detector: Time to update the models you use to screen for deception, dishonesty, corruption, fraud and falsity
The best business leaders are good at spotting falsehoods. Some joke and say the have a “bullshit detector”, but that humorous description does not do service to the way great leaders detect falsehoods. Bullshit is easy to detect. You see it and smell it and if you step in it it is your own fault. In the modern world falsehoods are far more nuanced. Now more than ever, business and government leaders need to ensure their mental models for detecting falsehood are operating in peak condition. For more see: Fine Tuning Your Falsehood Detector: Time to update the models you use to screen for deception, dishonesty, corruption, fraud and falsity
