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Jean Gordon Kocienda

Global Threat Analyst

Corporate Security Programs

Jean follows geopolitical issues, keeping tabs on economic, political, and social developments in the 165-plus countries where Cisco does business, and putting them in context for technology industry decision-makers. Jean contributes regularly to various internal and

external publications, including the weekly Cyber Risk Report. A decidedly non-technical person in a sea of technical experts, Jean contributes a helping of right-brain thinking to Cisco security analysis.

Jean joined Cisco in 2007 after 12 years of federal government service.

She speaks Japanese, loves to travel, and is a fan of sumo wrestling.

She lives in relative peace with her left-brained husband and son in Silicon Valley.

Articles

July 30, 2018

SECURITY

A Case for the Liberal Arts in Cybersecurity

2 min read

I encourage anyone with a liberal arts background, especially women, to consider a career in cybersecurity. Your insights are needed.

August 7, 2015

SECURITY

Espionage in the Internet Age

2 min read

If you had asked me a few years ago, I might have predicted that the rise of large scale hacking and network-based Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) would spell the end...

March 3, 2015

SECURITY

The Seven Deadly Sins of User Access Controls: Part I

2 min read

2014 was a terrible year for corporate data breaches. If there is to be any silver lining, information security professionals must draw lessons from the carnage. A good place to start is to identify common denominators. Several of the most damaging incidents started with phishing emails into office (or contractor) networks. Social engineering has gotten […]

January 15, 2015

SECURITY

Geopolitical Trends in Cybersecurity for 2015

3 min read

New year predictions generally take one of several forms: broad generalizations about multi-year trends, guesses about what might happen, or overviews of recent events disguised as predictions. The first is too easy, the second—going out on a limb—risks missing the mark so badly as to be useless. So I will go with the third choice in […]

August 21, 2014

SECURITY

Cisco 2014 Midyear Security Report: Brush Your Teeth, Change Your Passwords, Update Your Software

2 min read

Listening to the radio on the way to work recently, I heard that hackers had stolen some 1.2 billion usernames and passwords, affecting as many as 420,000 websites. When asked what listeners could do to protect themselves, the security expert speaking recommended changing passwords. He did not mention which ones. Indeed, the names of the […]

December 16, 2013

SECURITY

Our Unofficial Top Ten Cyber Trends for 2014

6 min read

(I pulled this list together with the help of my colleague Martin Chorich. Or maybe it was the other way around. ) Every year, publications ranging from supermarket tabloids to serious academic journals issue forecasts for the coming year. Those with foresight hold on to these articles and read them again the following December for […]

February 18, 2013

SECURITY

Sovereignty and the Internet

Add this to your list of parties spoilt by the Internet revolution: national sovereignty. We all know that the borderless nature of the Internet is stretching longstanding technical and legal definitions. But recently, my colleague Richard Aceves and I got to talking about the mish-mash that social media is making of culture, language, and national […]

December 12, 2012

SECURITY

Bringing Up the Social Media Baby

3 min read

According to a Nielsen study, social media is no longer in its infancy.  No kidding. During the November military confrontation between Israel and Hamas, social media played a very grown-up role.  What distinguished it from past politically-charged social media exchanges was the participation of state and pseudo-state spokespersons.  Official announcements were issued by the Israeli […]