Two former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) officials are looking to continue their efforts on Secure by Design outside of the agency with new gigs at the Institute for Security and Technology (IST).
Bob Lord, a former senior technical adviser at CISA, has officially joined IST as the senior vice president for digital security strategy. Lauren Zabierek, a former senior advisor at CISA, also joined the company as the senior vice president for the future of digital security.
Lord and Zabierek both announced their departures from CISA on April 21. The two helped lead CISA’s Secure by Design initiative alongside Jack Cable, who left CISA in January. Cable is now the chief executive officer and co-founder of Corridor, an AI-powered secure by design development platform.
In a LinkedIn post on July 24, Zabierek said she and Lord are joining forces at IST, with a “special guest appearance” from Cable, to continue their mission to drive change “in how software is built, secured, and trusted.”
“For two decades, my work in national security has focused on preventing harm – whether from conflict, terrorism, or cyber threats,” said Zabierek. “These harms aren’t the result of novel attacks, but decisions baked into the systems we rely on every day.”
“Now at IST, I’m doubling down on my efforts to shift the responsibility away from individuals and onto the structures that shape outcomes – with a front-row view of the whole system,” she added.
Zabierek and Lord are hitting the road to challenge how governments and technology companies think about cybersecurity.
The two will be making their “first tour stop” at the “Hacker Summer Camp” in Las Vegas. They will be speaking on a panel at the BSides conference in Las Vegas next week, ahead of Black Hat and DEFCON. Their panel will focus on the future of CISA’s Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) Program, which almost shut down in April.