Social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and LinkedIn are great because they allow us to maintain friends and connections across the country without leaving our homes and offices. The downside of social media is the casualty with which we use it.

The Akamai Government Forum 2014 event helped customers dive deep into the efficiencies of moving to the cloud and innovations in cybersecurity. Below are the two questions I found most interesting along with summarized answers given by R.H. and Mike.

Last week, I attended the AFCEA NOVA chapter luncheon where the guest speaker was Brigadier General (retired) Gregory J. Touhill, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity Operation and Programs at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In his insightful and practical message, Mr. Tourhill demonstrated that protecting our critical infrastructure is a team effort that requires vigilance and broad participation.

Aneesh Chopra, the first and former Chief Technology Officer of the United States, gave one of this year's GovDefenders keynotes. During his presentation – The Promise of Open Innovation: Securing Data to Solve Problems – Aneesh took time to talk about his work during his years in President Obama’s administration within the context of security.

Dr. Ross’ GovDefenders keynote focused on continuous monitoring, a topic NIST has been working with for over eight years. In his presentation, he zeroes in on two big questions: What is continuous monitoring and how does it fit into an agency’s risk management program?

John Slye’s GovDefenders keynote, “Meeting the Cybersecurity Challenge,” was one of the most watched presentations during this year’s annual virtual event. In it, he breaks down what federal public sector agencies are doing to combat cyber threats.

SolarWinds recently published an interesting infographic on cybersecurity based on a series of surveys they did with the federal IT community.

We’ve posted the GovDefenders panel on YouTube. Moderated by DLT Solutions’ Chief Technology Officer Van Ristau, the panel featured Ken Durbin, Continuous Monitoring Practice Manager, Symantec; Paul Christman, Vice President, Dell Software Public Sector; and Wallace Sann, Regional Vice President – Systems Engineering & Federal Chief Technology Officer, ForeScout.

I recently appeared on a panel for Federal Times at their “The Next Chapter in Federal Cybersecurity: Continuous Monitoring & Identity Access for Secure Networks” breakfast event. I was joined by Deborah Gallagher, Director, Identity Assurance & Trusted Access Division, Office of Governmentwide Policy, GSA and Paul Grant, Strategy Advisor for Cybersecurity, Defense Department, Office of the CIO. We didn’t get through all the questions so I thought I’d continue the conversation here.

What is a Man-in-the-Middle attack and why is it so worrisome for cybersecurity experts? Josh defines it, offers examples, and explains why they're currently so devastating.