The Big Apple is a lot to handle—and no less on the cybersecurity side, with around 80-to-90 billion attacks every week.
That’s where Kelly Moan, head of NYC Cyber Command and CISO for the city of New York, comes in. A mayoral appointment, Moan manages the cyber threats to the city and directs a team in the hundreds on how to address attacks and vulnerabilities.
Backstory. Moan didn’t come to cybersecurity through a traditional route. An undergrad focused on international studies and Russia, she gradually found herself gravitating toward the tech sector over time. Eventually, after working with the federal government, she got certifications in security and woke up one day as a security engineer.
“It’s been really exciting to transfer those skills that I was using in the federal government, most recently, the Department of Homeland Security, to such a large ecosystem like the city of New York,” Moan told IT Brew.
Big time. In her work for the city, specifically Cyber Command, Moan is responsible for “over 100 city agencies, 300,000-plus city employees.” That means maintaining control over a huge number of people and institutions, the kind of work that’s often reserved for bureaucracies more federal in nature.
In order to keep up with the multiple stakeholders in the city and state, New York established the Brooklyn-based Joint Security Operations Center (JSOC) in Feb. 2022. Similar to a fusion center, the Department of Homeland Security-run operations centers that “fuse” state, local, and federal agencies, New York’s JSOC manages a plethora of invested parties to handle cyber threats. The potential for the center, Moan told IT Brew, is high.
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“That joint collaboration doesn’t end at New York City and New York State,” Moan said. “The intent has always and continues to be a public and private partnership; we have public and private partners, not just New York State, but also federal government, other municipalities or states, across the US who are interested.”
I ❤️ NY. A city with a population that rivals many US states, and even many countries, New York presents a unique challenge for cybersecurity. Not only does the city’s cyber command have to manage over 8 million residents, there are nearly 20 million people in the metro area, many of whom come into the city daily for work.
Add to that the city’s sports teams (go Yankees) concerts, and other large scale events, and you have a recipe for constant and evolving threats. Handling that kind of complex demand requires quick thinking.
“The mission is huge, and the attack surface is also continuing to increase and evolve with new and emerging technology as well,” Moan said. “Most New Yorkers walking the street, going to work, commuting, may not realize what goes on behind the scenes to protect the services and the systems and the data that's being used to power the city.”