This is the 17^th year of Cybersecurity Awareness Month and Kevin Harris, cybersecurity program director at American Military University, says a lot has changed since those early days.

Harris said in the past it was mostly big institutions that had to worry about protecting cyber assets, but now, with smartphones and the internet of things, cybersecurity is a problem everyone faces.

“The first thing is us, as a user, being aware of the vulnerabilities and the fact that our data is out there,” Harris said as part of a Federal Insights discussion sponsored by American Military University. “Most of the time for renting a car we’re concerned with insurance on a vehicle, what’s our liability there? But now, we looking at that rental agreement and saying ‘What happens with this data?’ If I sync my phone, who owns it? Who has access to the GPS on the car while we’re driving?”

Harris said the first step in being cyber secure is being aware of where and how you, as a consumer, may be compromised.

Even medical devices like pacemakers can be compromised by hackers.

“It’s a convenience, and in this case, can improve someone’s quality of life,” Harris said. “But again, it is a vulnerability. If vulnerabilities aren’t addressed properly, it could be life threatening. It’s something that these companies and a the user also needs to be aware of. If there is a vulnerability then address it. Get that system patched or that vulnerability fixed.”

While hacks and intrusions can affect people personally, they can also have large-scale impacts as well.

Just as the internet is connected to everything in our lives, it’s also connected to everything larger institutions use as well. Things like water treatment plants, power plants and hospitals all rely on the internet to keep things running.

“We need a collaborative effort between private entities and also government agencies to make sure that the things that keep our life functioning on a day to day are protected,” Harris said. “A lot of these systems, we talk about utility systems, they are interconnected.”

Right now, government and industry are working to understand their needs in this realm. New laws allow companies and federal agencies to share information about hacks and vulnerabilities. The National Guard has cyber units that work to bolster cybersecurity in critical infrastructure.

The election is one of those infrastructures the U.S. is trying to protect right now. The National Guard will be providing election network security.

“One of the good things is that our electronic voting machines are air gapped, meaning that they are not connected with external networks, so greatly reduces the risk of a hack,” Harris said. “The majority of our electronic voting machines do have a paper audit trail associated with it, which again, drastically reduces hacks. So our voting process is secure.”

However, tech companies are still grappling with false information spewing from trolls, Russian infiltrators and other problem areas.

“If people are able to manipulate information after the fact, then one of the risks would be calling into question the results of the election,” Harris said. “Before and after the election, it’s really important that our tech companies make sure the information relayed is accurate. We’re all in this together.”

Internet of Things

The first thing is us, as a user, being aware of the vulnerabilities and the fact that our data is out there. Most of the time for renting a car we're concerned with insurance on a vehicle, what's our liability there? But now, we looking at that rental agreement and saying ‘What happens with this data?’ If I sync my phone, who owns it? Who has access to the GPS on the car while we're driving?

Dr. Kevin Harris

Program Director, Cybersecurity, Information Systems Security and Information Technology, American Military University

Critical Infrastructure

We need a collaborative effort between private entities and also government agencies to make sure that the things that keep our life functioning on a day to day are protected. A lot of these systems, we talk about utility systems, they are interconnected.

Dr. Kevin Harris

Program Director, Cybersecurity, Information Systems Security and Information Technology, American Military University

Cybersecurity Workforce

If people are able to manipulate information after the fact, then one of the risks would be calling into question the results of the election. Before and after the election, it's really important that our tech companies make sure the information relayed is accurate. We're all in this together.

Dr. Kevin Harris

Program Director, Cybersecurity, Information Systems Security and Information Technology, American Military University

Listen to the full show: 

Allison G.S. Knox, Emergency Medical Technician and Instructor at the Emergency Management and Fire Science Department at the American Military University said, during an interview on the Federal News Radio program Academic Insights: Emergency Management, social media has led the way.

When it comes to potential weather related disasters like hurricanes, floods etc., Knox said, “Emergency managers have done a fantastic job putting out notifications through Facebook and other outlets like Twitter and it’s been fantastic letting people know what’s coming and what they need to do to actually prepare.”

Additionally, according to Knox, “there have been other outlets like the American Military University’s great Disaster Crew Twitter page where individuals learn about what’s happening from people like me that are following these different storms and really follow what’s happening with emergency management from policy standpoints.”

Recovery and response operations also benefit significantly from social media, particularly after disasters, letting people know when they return to their homes, she said.

Knox, a member of the board of Trustees for Pi Gammu Mu, and a leader of the chapter at AMU, has four Masters’ degrees from American Military University. She is also working on a doctorate in emergency management at Jacksonville State University .

She says it’s a hub of sophisticated learning and teaching, but not just for AMU students.

“We have the EDM Digest blog, with a lot different faculty writing about issues coming up. It also helps educate the general public too, on issues coming up with hurricanes and another types of disaster,” Knox said.

Two top issues currently, according to Knox are:

1. “Recruitment and retention response for agencies in rural communities. Patients in those areas may not receive the care that they need in that emergency scenario they are dealing with.
2. Dealing with active shooters: The public safety world essentially is trying to figure out how to prevent them from happening, and then of course when they do happen, how to better manage mass casualty incidents with so many patients.”

Teaching students how to integrate the many new powerful, communications, productivity and creativity applications available to the emergency services field into practical applications, is a key objective for AMU.

Knox said their students are well prepared for the challenge.

“The beautiful thing at the American military University is that we have so many students that are already in public safety or they have backgrounds in the military.”

Many of them already have a good understanding of how to respond to different types of incidents.

“What we do at the American Military University is add in the different social dimensions to help them understand how to mitigate these different problems and really understand these different problems in the social science aspect,” Knox said.

The Path to Emergency Management as a Career

How do you go about fighting a fire? What are the different pieces for fighting a fire? Fires can be pretty complicated, based on what they are constructed of. Fire science looks at how you are going to fight that fire. There's also the pieces of how do you stop that fire before it even starts.

Allison G.S. Knox

Instructor of Emergency Management and Fire Science, American Military University

Social Media and Emergency Management

Where different emergencies are concerned particularly where we know what's going to be happening -where hurricanes are coming up the coast and could possibly hit a particular area, social media has been fantastic and notifying the general public about these different issues that are coming up.

Allison G.S. Knox

Instructor of Emergency Management and Fire Science, American Military University

Public Policy Issues in Emergency Management

Recruitment and retention response for agencies in rural communities -patients in those areas may not receive the care that they need in that emergency scenario they are dealing with.

Allison G.S. Knox

Instructor of Emergency Management and Fire Science, American Military University

Listen to the full show:

“Every part of the country, regionally, has a disaster ‘du jour’, so to speak, where they have greater threats than others”, said Dr. Chris Reynolds, Dean and Vice President of Academic Outreach and Program Development at American Military University, on the Academic Insights show “Preparing for Disaster”.

Whether natural or man-made, he said, today’s disasters require well planned responses driven by up to date information, that’s shared with all stakeholders.

But with each new day comes a new challenge for EDM professionals.

“There’s always room for improvement no matter what. That’s a concept I think that has put us where we are in terms of our preparedness levels now. Mitigation is ongoing. It never stops,” Reynolds said.

The rapid pace of global change, which includes the proliferation of technology, has created new cyber threats that cut across almost every sector of human activity and by extension, emergency response.

“Everything’s tied into cyber. The entire emergency disaster management community relies on cyber, relies on computer infrastructure, and relies on networks,” said Reynolds.

But he added social media, a true by-product of today’s fast-paced high-tech culture has produced a key disaster mitigation tool.

It’s called the “Masters of Disaster” which is a collaborative group made up of more than 3,000 members, from all strata of experience, from high level officials at FEMA, and within the disaster management world, to brand new students. They all   share in disaster mitigation responses -often during real time events.

Central to responding to any disaster, Reynolds suggested, is knowing how to respond to each unique situation.

“One is only as good as one’s education, particularly in a field as diverse as disaster management. One of the things that separates American Military University in our emergency management program is that we have what we call faculty practitioners”, said Reynolds.

Faculty practitioners are individuals who have what he called, “the boots on the ground experience who’s managed to go on to get the education whether it be at the bachelors, or the master’s or doctoral level, and they bring that (experience) to the classroom.”

Emergency Disaster Management and Career Development

To say that there is a specific need in anyone area is really difficult to do because mitigation is a commitment -safer communities, critical infrastructure protection. It's probably our cyber infrastructure our electrical grids those are all high value areas. I hate to say high value targets, but they are.

Dr. Chris Reynolds

Dean & Vice President, Academic Outreach & Program Development, American Military University 

The Role of Education in Disaster Response

You've got the student who's got 10, 15, 20 years of experience doing emergency disaster management. They need check the box saying that they've got the higher education. They bring that real world experience to the classroom. Also, you've got faculty with the experience, you've got students with the experience and then you have students that maybe have no experience. The learning cannot help but to occur.

Dr. Chris Reynolds

Dean & Vice President, Academic Outreach & Program Development, American Military University 

Social Media and First Responders

It’s part of the intelligence gathering. In any disaster you, you have the response element and under NIMS –the national incident management system, where you've got an incident commander, you have operations planner, logistics and finance. You have different roles people play in a disaster. Part of that role is gathering intelligence -collaborating with other agencies. Social media is a big part of that.

Dr. Chris Reynolds

Dean & Vice President, Academic Outreach & Program Development, American Military University 

Listen to the full show:

The pace of technological change has impacted the lives of populations everywhere in one way or another. From communications devices, to cars, even home appliances are connected to the internet. But, perhaps the most critical concern is the validity of the information fed into those devices.
As a result, the meaning of the information that intelligence community (IC) analysts find in front of them is no longer the most important question they need to answer.

Before they do that, “they not only have to review the original source where that information came from, but they now have to evaluate how did it get to them -and what filters were put in place,” said Erik Kleinsmith, Associate Vice President for Strategic Relations in Intelligence, National & Homeland Security, and Cyber for American Military University on the “Academic Insights” show.
He said often, the information has been politically infused, influenced, amended or disconnected from its original source.

The problem, according to Kleinsmith, is today’s abundance of options for capturing information.
“We think that as technology has advanced, we’ve become more and more able to grab whatever information that we need—and that’s not true. We’re grabbing a ton of noise.”
The enigma, said Kleinsmith creates an urgent educational mandate for the IC as it prepares future generations to take on an increasingly complex task.

“I’m a firm believer that intelligence, especially training and education, must always be on the side of the analysis, the critical thinking—the skepticism.”

Kleinsmith said many potential analysts today have excellent multi-tasking capabilities and can adapt to the latest technologies, but that frequently supplants critical thinking and deep analytical abilities.
The reality, he said, is “tools are going to change every 18 months. We’ve still got to go back to the same thing. What does this do to help my analysis? Does it help me collect, does it help me make a product?”

And most of all is determining if the information is legitimate.

The IC Career Path

“Politics that gets into intelligence ruins intelligence. Yes the intelligence reads, assessments, collection and the things that we do, we're going to give them to somebody who could turn that into a political statement or campaign or whatever. But, it's not our job to do that on our side. You can you take a piece of wood and make furniture from it, but you don't grow the wood into a piece furniture. That's not what Intel does.”

Erik Kleinsmith

Associate Vice President for Strategic Relations in Intelligence, National & Homeland Security, and Cyber, American Military University

IC Trends

“I'm a firm believer that intelligence, especially and training education, must always be on the side of the analysis, the critical thinking—the skepticism. The tools are going to change every 18 months. We still got to go back to the same thing. What does this do to help my analysis? Does it help me collect, does it help me make a product?”

Erik Kleinsmith

Associate Vice President for Strategic Relations in Intelligence, National & Homeland Security, and Cyber, American Military University

AMU Programs

“We think that as technology has advanced, we’ve become more and more able to grab whatever information that we need—and that's not true. We're grabbing a ton of noise. But now, the analyst is almost overwhelmed with information that has been politically loaded—that has been biased—that has been censored or protected or whatever from the source that they got it from. So they not only have to review the original source where that information came from, but they now have to evaluate how did it get to them—and what filters were put in place.”

Erik Kleinsmith

Associate Vice President for Strategic Relations in Intelligence, National & Homeland Security, and Cyber, American Military University

As the cyber industry expands, there’s an influx of unique job titles: cybersecurity analyst, cybersecurity manager, even cyber warrior. But, working in the field of cybersecurity doesn’t always mean holding a position with a trendy tech name.

In fact, there are many duties that already exist that now require specific cyber skills to fill the gap.

“For small- to medium-sized companies, they may not even have an individual whose job description is cyber,” said Kevin Harris, program director for cybersecurity at American Military University. “They may not have an IT individual where cyber is part of their particular role, but cyber skills are still very important. Don’t focus on titles that have cyber or security in them, but make sure all the individuals in the organization have cyber skills.”

Not all organizations can afford to hire a cybersecurity expert, so some employees have to wear different hats and dip into the cyber world.

So how can those people stay relevant in a world that is becoming more and more reliant on cybersecurity?

In relation to cybersecurity education, “Individuals do not just gain the understanding of the skillset, but they also have this theoretical understanding of what’s behind it,” Harris said. “They not only know the technical skills, but they also understand why they are doing something. If you have someone who is well rounded that takes a step further and they not only understand what their role is in an organization, but how that role helps that organization grow. That’s one of the larger values that students gain from getting a degree.”

Harris said there are relevant skills that can be learned as the industry continues to build and secure networks to share vital information.

“Foundational networking skills are always important and valuable because you always have data that is traversing some type of system,” Harris said. “Other skillsets like information systems security – making sure the infrastructure of systems is designed properly from day one – those skillsets are important.”

Harris said soft-skills also go overlooked. He said it’s important to be able to market new ideas and convey the importance of certain cyber practices to other functions of a business is crucial.

“I work with our faculty members and I work with our internal teams to make sure our curriculum that we offer in our program is flexible and engaging,” Harris said. “I’m also making sure that the content in the courses meet the needs that we work to identify with our advisory committee what the organizations in the field need.”

AMU is part of American Public University System, which is designated by the U.S. Department of National Security as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education. Harris’ leadership role as cybersecurity program director is to continue delivering high standards of relevant, innovative curriculum so that those who come to AMU to earn a cybersecurity degree or certificate are exposed to the latest knowledge and skills used in the industry.

In the national and homeland security sectors, there are numerous resources and theory. But when it comes down to actually protecting the country in an ever-changing threat environment, how do professionals prepare for future risks?

That’s part of Monique Chouraeshkenazi’s mission. An instructor at American Military University’s School of Security and Global Studies and founder of the Chouraeshkenazi Group—she is building relevant education for the next generation of homeland and national security professionals.

“I applied the concepts and training I learned on the administrative side of the Air Force,” said Chouraeshkenazi, a veteran following 13 years of military service.  “I applied it to my business to provide programs and curriculum for professional military development centers and for universities.”

Chouraeshkenazi is now adding an analysis component to her pedagogy while exploring other disciplines that can potentially bring new insights to the field.

“It’s basically doing advanced research on the scientific notation of terrorism, homeland security and eventually I want to apply psychology to homeland security and terrorism,” Chouraeshkenazi said.

Part of Chouraeshkenazi’s job as an educator and consultant is to continually assess some of the most vulnerable areas of the United States.

Right now, ports and railroads are a serious concern, she said.

“About 2 percent of the imports that come into the United States [through ports] are investigated and examined,” Chouraeshkenazi stated. “It’s due to the manpower, the hours and how long it takes for things to come in from overseas. All those things are factors in what gets inspected.”

Chouraeshkenazi explained ports are considered “soft targets” – including mobile targets such as cargo ships and barges.

“There needs to be legislative action when it comes to port security. Our Coast Guard is responsible for all our waters. If we have to, we need to sacrifice some money to put into it. Congress has a way of finding money when we need to. If you want to protect your waterways and your railroad systems… there’s money I feel like can be appropriated,” Chouraeshkenazi advised.

She added that it’s up to lawmakers and the Department of Homeland Security to find innovative ways to make dollars stretch in order to make ports and railroads more secure.

Ports and railroads aren’t the only issue falling under the radar.

Terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and the self-described Islamic State may not be in the news as much anymore, but they aren’t entirely diminished.

“Because you don’t hear about them doesn’t mean they don’t exist,” Chouraeshkenazi said. “We still need to be cognizant of what they can do in the future.”

But, while there are always security threats, Chouraeshkenazi said people can find hope in students.

“I’m amazed by the students. I learn more from them than they know. When I read the discussions in our classrooms, I’m like, ‘Those are excellent ideas,’” Chouraeshkenazi shared. “Brilliant minds bring such great ideas to the table and it starts in the classroom.”

October marks the 15^th annual Cybersecurity Month and the cyber world is still changing rapidly. Sometimes finding which way is up can be difficult at times.

That’s why there are people like Dr. Ahmed Naumaan, Dean of the School of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics at American Military University to think about the best ways to secure networks.

“Cybersecurity percolates into everything. Everybody who uses the internet, and even if they don’t use the internet, they are effected by cybersecurity concerns,” Naumaan said in an interview with Federal News Radio.

At this point cybersecurity is a public issue and there are steps, Naumaan said, everyone should take to keep themselves cybersecure.

The first one may seem obvious, but Naumaan said it’s still something that’s still an issue, make sure your passwords aren’t easy to guess.

Another tip: don’t leave your computer open in a public place where people can snoop through it.

“You have to practice cyber hygiene and be careful about what information you leave lying around and be careful about protecting those accounts where that information is stored,” Naumaan said.

There are a host of other tips and tricks too, like changing your password often and investigating any suspicious changes to your account.

But let’s say your interest lies deeper than just personal cybersecurity and you have a true passion for protecting networks.

Naumaan said the demand for cybersecurity and cyber-related jobs is basically insatiable right now.

“Cybersecurity is everywhere. Literally. It’s a big area in defense and also in the private sector, in government institutions and so forth. The reason is there are a variety of groups who want access to that information. They can hack into databases or they can intercept traffic that is moving along the wires or wirelessly,” Naumaan said. “These actors range from state-level actors and criminal actors.”

Naumaan said for that reason growth in cybersecurity fields is in many areas.

“The National Security Agency hires very, very technical people. They may also hire people that are policy or management oriented,” Naumaan said. “The big defense contractors work with the government to protect the big information stores and information infrastructure.

On the other hand, there are less technical jobs that oversee cyber activity, audit systems and organize resources to protect networks.

“Depending on one’s interests and level of preparation in mathematics and related areas you can find many different paths to becoming involved in the cybersecurity field,” Naumaan said.

But even the jobs in cybersecurity are changing, Naumaan said.

Right now, companies are working on artificial intelligence to do the most basic cybersecurity work.

“The reason for bringing in automation is twofold. There may not be enough qualified people. The second is they may cost too much. Automation is often brought in because the cost of production goes down,” Naumaan said.

AI isn’t quite making huge policy decisions or stopping hackers in their tracks, but it’s making a difference, Naumaan said.

“It’s not that automation is trying to replace people, but that it’s increasing the efficiency of the system and providing more opportunity. Does it result in job displacement? Yeah, it does. But new types of jobs come up. In this point of time related to cybersecurity, there’s more demand than there is supply,” Naumaan said.

In a world of fake news, pundits and super-PAC lobbying groups it can sometimes be hard to figure out what is the motivation behind a piece of information or even what is real.

Bias is one thing everyone has, diversity in the intelligence community and careful self-examination can help people leave behind bias and becoming superb intelligence employees , said Erik Kleinsmith, associate vice president for strategic relations, intelligence, national and homeland security and cyber for American Military University.

How can intelligence officials make sure they are doing their job properly? Kleinsmith said the importance of diversity in the intelligence community helps weed out bias and create the best product for the government.

“Have somebody that’s not from your background [look at your work], that’s why diversity works so well in the workplace, you have someone with more diverse thought from you. I’m a white male in my 50s. I’m going to want somebody who is younger, who is from a different background or somebody without any military experience to take a look at the product,” Kleinsmith said.

The intelligence community is in a strange spot now that the internet is coming to a point where it needs to regulate some of its searches.

To build on diversity, Kleinsmith tells intelligence professionals to do something else first. He said intelligence feeds from everything else like the financial sector, tactics, law enforcement and lawyers too. Those types of  backgrounds bring different points of view to the table to evaluate pieces of information and the work of peers.

“There has to be almost a concerted effort to identify bias and trust within sources and evaluate them. We can’t just do a quick search and know that this source is going to give us the right story,” Kleinsmith said. “With critical thinking it’s a concentrated effort to get students of intelligence or even practitioners to think more actively about: how are they writing something, how are they reading a particular source, how are they doing their searches as they go through to identify what may be a leap of logic, or what seems to be a fact, but has been twisted or contorted to fit whatever narrative.”

At the same time, companies like Google are starting to crack down on misleading sites and sources, Kleinsmith said the regulation on searches can accidently add bias as well.

You have to be aware “of the bias within the meta-searches or within the engines that you are using, any kind of software used to pull information in, they are going to have a technical bias or even an algorithm change to optimize a certain viewpoint over the others. It’s just one more layer you now have to worry about,” Kleinsmith said.

The solution is self-awareness, Kleinsmith said. Everyone in the intelligence community needs to be aware of their bias and where they come from so they can check that bias and find others to offset it.

Kleinsmith said there is no substitute for education when it comes to identifying one’s strengths and weaknesses, and it provides a solid backbone for intelligence work. He mentioned how even years after finishing his degree at American Military University, Kleinsmith still goes back to the background knowledge he cultivated there to inform his work today.

Right now Hurricane Florence is pummeling the Carolinas with rain and wind. At the same time the biggest wildfire in California state history was just recently contained.

Natural disasters are a part of life, but the increase in fires and hurricanes are putting a larger emphasis on training and education for emergency managers.

“Every time there is a major incident the doctrine changes, lessons are learned and there’s not a major disaster in this country where we have not done a lessons learned or redrawn the policies from that,” said Chris Reynolds, certified emergency manager and dean and vice president of academic outreach and program development at American Military University (AMU).

Reynolds, who has been on the ground assisting in disaster relief since the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995, says training and experience are not only important in responding to upcoming emergencies, but also in developing policy and doctrine for future disasters.

“Experience is only gained through time and effort, boots on the ground, hands actually doing the job. Tying in the educational component, what we do at AMU, our students are practitioners and it’s interesting to note that they have years in the field… they bring that real world experience into the classroom … it’s not teaching the experience, it’s honing the education,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds added that pairing education and training together grounds decisions for emergency managers, allowing them to make solid policy that may save lives down the road.

“You are combining the strengths of the experience and the education,” Reynolds said. “When a lightbulb comes on in a student, you can see it. When they can say ‘I have experience in this field or I’ve participated in this type of response before,’ they can take that experience, tie it to the doctrine that they’ve learned in the course or the theory they learned in the course, they are going to make that better decision.”

Reynolds notes that emergency managers then take those smart decisions to their jobs in the government or their community.

No manager is an island, however, and Reynolds is working to keep emergency managers close so they can make even better policy and doctrine decisions as a group.

The Masters of Disaster student group and disaster management community at AMU brings together more than 3,000 emergency disaster experts from the government, academia and industry.

“These are individuals that represent the entire strata of emergency management, from the highest level emergency management positions in large cities and metropolitan areas to small area, the rural parts of the country,” Reynolds said.

The group, which operates on LinkedIn, encompasses firefighters, doctors, police officers, nurses and everyone else in the emergency management realm.

“The main purpose is not just to network with one another, but we also talk about doctrine, talk about things going on in the field, we have numerous discussions, we have an active jobs and career board where folks can find their job or career,” Reynolds said.

But, the most powerful thing the Masters of Disaster group did, according to Reynolds, is build a critical field database after the earthquake in Haiti. The group put the call out to volunteer. More than 130 people with emergency management backgrounds and critical skills were able to help with the disaster.

“That was done over the matter of a week. I’m very proud of our Masters of Disaster group. That facilitated that entire operation and it made us very much involved in a major incident that was happening essentially right next to Florida,” Reynolds said.

It seems the intelligence community is more salient than ever these days. Almost every news channel has some story about the FBI or CIA each day. That’s not to mention the Mission Impossible and James Bond movies that end up on the silver screen with regularity.

But what does it take to be an intelligence officer in this rapidly changing world, which now encompasses the domains of cybersecurity and outer space?

“One of the critical characteristics, and this is universal, is the idea of finding young people that have a high degree of integrity,” said Executive Director of the International Spy Museum Chris Costa during our discussion, Building a Career in Today’s Intelligence Community. The retired U.S. Army colonel previously served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director of Counterterrorism for the White House National Security Council.

Integrity isn’t the only characteristic that will give aspiring intelligence officials a leg up; Costa says humility is a key attribute.

“Recognizing that it takes a team and you fail and succeed based on the team. Life experience is certainly helpful if you have time overseas and you can pursue other languages and understand other cultures. I think importantly it’s crucial to understand you have to have an insatiable curiosity for the world around you,” Costa said in his interview with Federal News Radio.

Costa followed his intellectual curiosity in the 1990s when he worked on, and eventually received, his master’s in strategic intelligence from American Military University (AMU).

Costa said what he learned in school framed the world around him, especially when 9/11 rocked the United States.

Taking a class on terrorism “contextualized 9/11 for me. At the same time it allowed me to go much deeper, explore the literature and understand terrorism. All sides of terrorism, right-wing terrorism to the jihadist fight that was playing out live, literally,” Costa said. “Flash forward many years later I would be the special assistant to the president for counterterrorism. The learning that I did with AMU to finish that Master’s degree and understand terrorism took me into a policymaking realm. No one was better prepared, and I say that with humility, to understand terrorism.”

While understanding terrorism was important for the 2000s, warfare and intelligence domains have now found their way into to the cyber realm.

Costa says for those interested in the intelligence field, cybersecurity and cyber are great places to invest time and interest. But he also says there are characteristics and studies that are and always will be timeless to the intelligence community. Critical thinking and the integrity and humility Costa mentioned will forever be the most integral parts of what it takes to join the intelligence community.

Of course there’s always room for inspiration as well and Costa has just the trick to instill passion for intelligence in people of all ages.

As the Executive Director of the International Spy Museum, he brings the message of the intelligence community to people all over the world.

“What a great platform to walk through the museum and see the artifacts that speak to something that happened in intelligence history and then tie it to current events ongoing,” Costa said.

The International Spy Museum is moving to a new location in Washington with more room for exhibits. Costa says the new museum will tell the whole intelligence story from “covert action and propaganda” to “human intelligence and the relationship between spies and spymasters.”