CAREER OUTLOOK
WHAT A ‘WHITE HAT’ HACKER DOES
security professional, a digital forensics investiga- tor and has one of the cool- est occupations, at least to those outside the cyber security industry. He is a certified ethical hacker. That is a sentence fraught with derring-do, and perhaps some hype. Tendell, 29, and based in Denver, does what a lot of people wish they could he has led many investiga- tions into cybercrimes. His specialties include coordinating with teams to conduct internal audits,
C
harles Tendell is a Black man wearing a white hat. He is a cyber security consultant, a cyber
The cell phone issue says Tendell is indicative of a huge
Charles Tendell, cyber security consultant, cyber security professional and digital forensics investigator
vulnerability assessments, lead remediation efforts, managing inci- dent responses, joining and conducting computer forensic investiga- tions, conducting internal and external penetration tests and evalua- tions, managing internal security awareness training and providing executive management with guidance on industry best practices. In short his portfolio range from consumer scams to corporate espionage, and the goals are always to figure out how the bad guys did what they did, and how to thwart or capture them. As managing partner of Azorian Cyber Security, Tendell provides services to clients from individuals, to mom and pop shop owners, Fortune 100 companies and the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force and the Department of Defense. A primary service that ethical hackers like Tendell provide is penetration testing. They are hired to try to hack into power plants and water systems to see what are their vulnerabilities. He also probes and picks at intelligence systems and communication systems. He has also worked on cases as a forensic investigator to validate that child pornography was on particular devices, and done analysis of cyber attacks. He is a member of Ecouncil, an organi- zation that provides certified ethical hacker (CEH) and computer hacking forensic investigator (CHFI) certifications. Examples of cyber threats Tendell has worked on recently include digital identity theft, mobile device fraud, social media hacks and credit card and near field communication (NFC) hacking. The latter concern how certain cell phones can establish communi- cation by being close to one another or touching. Because of these opportunities, “I’ve worked with some of the greatest people and helped foil some terrible crimes and bring some terrible people to justice,” he said
72 USBE&IT I WINTER 2012
emerging cyber problem. In an expanding universe of mobile devic- es how do you protect them from being hacked, and the networks at public, private and non-profit organizations to which they connect. Tendell, who has a bachelor of science degree in information systems security from the University of Phoenix, says that becom- ing a CEH is a great “how the hacker thinks” certification. He suggests certification holders should also earn a management or an audit certification to be viewed as a well-rounded professional. He also says make a focus on the OWASP (Open Web Application Se- curity Project), which can teach one “how to build, design and test the security of Web applications and Web services,” as everything is becoming a cloud- and Web application-based. Always learning, Tendell spent five years as an information systems and intelligence analyst with the U.S. Army. And he says that cyber security students should gain superior operating system (OS) level understanding, and continuously enhance one’s research skills. They must also read online industry journals and join forums. Plus he urges attendance at forensics and security conferences including DEFCON, the hackers’ event and CES (Consumer Elec- tronics Association. Tendell also follows companies like Mandiant, a security company that tracks and evaluates the damage that hacker cause, and Black Bag Technologies, which focuses on Apple devices. His favorite cyber security apps are Backtrack, which has penetration testing and forensics tools, and Samurai Web Testing Framework. It is “a live Linux environment that has been pre-configured to func- tion as a Web pen-testing environment.”
Such knowledge is crucial because “we are protecting against known vulnerabilities. Hackers think outside of the box. Security professionals need the think outside of the box,” Tendell said.
GUARDING THE WAR FIGHTERS: CyBer SeCurITy IN The u.S. AIr FOrCe
Major David Lavine is a cy- ber integration and network defense officer in the u.S. Air Force. his official designation is AFNet program manager, NGB/A6CI, cyber analyst, u.S. Cyber Command.
Lavine is a former flight com- mander in Japan. he gradu- ated from North Carolina A&T University
with a degree in
computer science, and from the u.S. Air Force Institute of Tech- nology with a master of science degree in cyber warfare.
www.blackengineer.com
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