NEWS AND EVENTS
Capitol Hill Blockchain Day
Washington, DC — May 2024
Maria-Kristina spent two days in DC with the Digital Chamber of Commerce in May. Day 1 was the DC Blockchain Summit, and Day 2 was Blockchain Education Day on Capitol Hill where Maria-Kristina and other industry experts met with members of Congress to educate about crypto, blockchain, and the national security implications of both!
Maria-Kristina kicked off the annual Payments Academy conference this year with a keynote presentation about cyber threats to Higher Education and a live demonstration of how artificial intelligence is being used by attackers today!
Keynote at The Payments Academy Conference
Indianapolis — May 2024
Information Security Forum for Texas Government
Austin — April 2024
Maria-Kristina presented to various Texas government organizations at this year’s ISF Conference. She educated on the importance of human-focus cybersecurity and the best practices for rehearsing and strengthening Incident Response plans!
Texas Emergency Preparedness Summit
Dallas — April 2024
Maria-Kristina presented alongside the Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency (CISA) at this year’s Texas Emergency Preparedness Summit which was organized by the office of Congressman Michael C. Burgess (R 26th District of Texas).
Quoted in Consumer Affairs
March 2024
Our CEO was quoted in a Consumer Affairs piece entitled “FCC moves to beef up security of home ‘smart’ devices”. Here’s a snippet:
“Maria-Kristina Hayden… points out that one weak IoT device in a home can grant an attacker access to all other devices on that home network. Consumers must be provided with easy-to-understand instructions about choosing secure IoT devices and how to configure settings,” she told us. “This is where the FCC's proposal should really help.”
Read the full piece here!
Maria-Kristina spoke at her second 1Voice conference presented by the Financial Services Institute. She spoke about global cyber threats, security trends in the financial industry, as well as how companies large and small should be tacking human security challenges!
Financial Services Institute 1Voice
Orlando — January 2024
Quoted in Forbes
December 2023
Our CEO was quoted in a Forbes piece entitled “Best VPNs for Netflix”. She spoke about how Virtual Private Networks keep us safe from cyberattackers, and what to know when choosing the best VPN for you!
Update* this article has been removed from the Forbes webpage. Perhaps Netflix complained??? :)
Guest Lecture at Tufts University
Boston — October 2023
Maria-Kristina presented to Masters Students within the Fletcher School of Global Affairs about all things wargaming! Military wargaming, corporate wargaming, and how to start implementing them for risk reduction in the field of education as well.
Judged Atlantic Council Cyber 9/12 Competition
NYC — October 2023
Maria-Kristina judged for the fourth year at Columbia University’s annual 9/12 Cyber Policy Challenge competition. This is by far her favorite competition to be a part of… ever since she and her National Intelligence University team of 2016 won second place as competitors!
Quoted in Yahoo!
October 2023
Our CEO was quoted in a Yahoo!Life piece entitled “From birth announcements to back-to-school photos, here's what parents need to know about their kids' digital privacy”. Here’s a snippet:
“According to Maria-Kristina Hayden, "There is no one-size-fits-all" approach to posting family news on Instagram.
"The topic of social media sharing should be thought of as a sliding scale of safety, privacy and risk," she says. "Every family has a different tolerance and will find they are comfortable." That said, Hayden does recommend that parents never post a child's birth date, home address, school name, teacher's name, schedule, medical information, online usernames or whereabouts in real time.”
Read the full piece here!
Quoted in NextAvenue (PBS)
October 2023
Maria-Kristina was quoted in a NextAvenue piece entitled “Don’t Let Yourself Get Smished”. Here’s a snippet:
“SMS phishing, or smishing, is a variant of the kind of phishing we've been hearing about for years," says Hayden. "But SMS phishing doesn't arrive through email. It arrives on your phone. That could be a text message, a WhatsApp or a Signal message, or any kind of messaging app that you use on your phone in a text-like fashion.”
Read the full piece here!
Our CEO contributed to a HuffPost piece entitled “Read This Before You Scan Another QR Code”. Here’s a snippet:
“Not only can QR codes act as malicious links, bringing you to a nefarious website or downloading malware, but they can also be programmed to make calls and send messages to your contacts,” Hayden said. “A client of mine scanned a QR code that surreptitiously wrote and sent emails from his account to his entire contact list. The emails contained malicious links that sought to harvest recipients’ bank login information… and friends and family clicked because of the well-worded disguise.”
Read the full piece here!
Quoted in Huff Post
August 2023
