Meet Vanessa Faur, Cyber Threat Analyst with Cal OES’s California Cybersecurity Integration Center (Cal CSIC), who actively works to reduce cyber-attacks and respond to threats when they happen.
Cal-CSIC is the hub of the state government’s cybersecurity events, coordinating information sharing among all levels of government agencies, utilities, and other service providers, as well as academic institutions and non-governmental organizations.
Her role has been vital in bridging the gap between the tactical and strategic levels of cyber threat intelligence within Cal-CSIC.
After joining Cal-CSIC in 2021, Vanessa has vigorously reviewed alerts that monitored malware and its impact on Californians, analyzed cyber incidents, and fed threat and vulnerability data to the broader Cal-CSIC team. This intelligence strengthened the State’s strategy to protect its vulnerable population and services.
“We ultimately help public organizations. Let’s say there is a water district, and if they get targeted by ransomware or some other type of cyber-attack, that will directly affect Californians who receive water from that water district or water treatment facility. And so, helping defend their systems and their networks is a huge priority for us.”
Contributing to the development of the Cyber Threat Monitoring Program was a proud moment for Vanessa. She has worked on redefining the functions of the program and configured new tools that meet the needs of California’s contemporary cyber landscape.
This Cybersecurity Awareness Month, “keep it simple. Don’t click on suspicious links. Don’t open suspicious attachments. If it feels off, it’s off. For organizations, I would say know what normal looks like and have policies and resources available for when you detect abnormal behavior.”