Welcome to the cyberTAP

I’m a lucky guy, what else can I say! Good health, good family, and a good job…

The world faces the shifting sands of an ever-changing cybersecurity landscape: new strains of ransomware popping up, the supply chains of our trusted partners under attack, and a growing number of connected surfaces (and services) to protect. Added to that chaos, now we must endure the tempest of a global pandemic. Through all these challenges I have enjoyed the privilege of working with a brilliant and dedicated team of hardworking professionals that continue to provide critical cybersecurity education and professional services to our clients and partners. In addition to my team, I work for a university that is dedicated to protecting its employees, students, and constituents, that has an unprecedented focus on affordability and access, and that has created resilience against the hardships felt across the industry of higher education. Like I said, I’m a lucky guy. But I have no desire to selfishly hoard all this good fortune; I think it’s only responsible to share our secrets to success, our knowledge, our strategies, our capabilities, and our team with all of you.

With that, let me be the first to welcome you to the new Purdue cyberTAP newsletter and blog. Purdue cyberTAP, a service of the Purdue Technical Assistance Program, has committed this year to find new ways to connect with our clients, partners, and friends. We find ourselves suddenly in a fully connected world that is at the same time is disconnecting its people. We must all find new ways to meet, connect, operate, and learn. Our new outreach efforts are designed to bring you informative and fun cybersecurity news, tips, tricks, and services. But more than that, we hope these efforts build connections and can help share the good fortune we’ve had here at Purdue cyberTAP.

cyberTAP, by name, is a relatively new organization--we’ve only been operating under this designation for 18 months. But don’t let that fool you: this team has been providing cybersecurity services for more than a decade now. Furthermore, the Purdue Technical Assistance Program has been helping businesses be successful in the state of Indiana for 35 years. Through that time, we’ve spun off vertical domain-oriented organizations like the Manufacturing Extension Partnership and the Purdue Healthcare Advisors.

cyberTAP is a new approach for the Technical Assistance Program. We don’t support a single vertical domain but are instead a cross-cutting horizontal service organization with projects in defense, manufacturing, healthcare, legal, government, K-12, higher education, just to name a few. Our focus is cybersecurity: the domain knowledge, the behaviors, and the attitudes. I've never worked with a more fun-loving, easy-going group of professionals that can—in the same breath –embrace the necessary adversarial thinking for this discipline. I love when I find our team on our chat jointly analyzing a phishing attempt: the discussion will be rife with both insight, and animated gifs of Homer Simpson disappearing into the shrubbery.

Even though there may in fact be a new cyber threat behind every bush, our approach is practical. We don’t suggest that our clients operate within a faraday cage, in an underground cement bunker, surrounded by a moat, guarded by a dragon. Instead, we see risk that needs to be analyzed, people that need to be trained, and teams who need help. cyberTAP stands ready to help and to carry out the land-grant mission of the best darn university anywhere, ever, and in all time! Of course, I’m biased…

Our hope is that these blog posts and newsletters add to our already rich partnerships, and help establish deeper connections between our team and yours. As always, we look forward to connecting more in the future.

All the best,

Mat Trampski