Ahead of this year’s Intelligence Analytics Summit, May 22-24 in Washington, D.C.

, we
spoke with Donald Freese, Deputy Assistant Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation,
Information and Technology Branch. Mr. Freese graciously gave us a glimpse into what
his session on “Cyber Analytics: Leading Quality Through The Human Dimension” will
discuss in even greater detail at the summit. He also touches on where he sees the
future of intelligence analytics within the next 2-5 years, and what he is looking
forward to about the summit this May.

Drive Distinctive Service

“Understanding constituency models where analysts are embedded to
add value to an organization holistically to manage risk, viewing the
business or government agency mission in fully engaged partnerships.”

Understand Brain Chemistry

“The Cyber Security and Threat Analysis environment can be one of
overwhelming data volume and risk velocity; humans are susceptible to
fatigue and burn-out if brain stimuli and behavioral drivers are not
understood and optimized. We review the latest research and the cost
benefit analysis of investing in threat analytics.”

Balance Reason and Intuition

“Cyber Risk is difficult to quantify and there is no single way to
continually quantify risk without understanding what threat potential
exists. There are no technical or logical silver bullets exist to ‘fix’
security, human machine interface remains a key driver for the
enterprise and the mission.”

Focus on Why
“Security is not a goal unto itself; the effective and high impact analyst
will understand the mission and vision of the enterprise and work
within a team to fully support “Why” the entity exists. This elevates the
constituency concept to a new level and ensures that C-Suite members
begin to understand the ROI of a strong analytical program.”

Collaborate to Disrupt
“Incident response is a ‘reactive posture’; the true impact of an intelligence
program is measured in terms of analysts who are skilled enough to be
proactive and predictive, driving disruption opportunities ahead of a breach.
Traditional analysts are trained to study the threat and report, while Cyber
Threat Analysts tend to be fascinated by (inflexible) technology which will
theoretically detect the threat in a network. We discuss the essence of
‘actionable intelligence’ and how to integrate analytic disciplines and cultures
– into a team to disrupt of the threat.”
Where do you see the future of intelligence analytics within the
next 2-5 years?
“Analytics will be enhanced through the developing renaissance in
mathematics that is occurring that is driven by the enormous investment capital
pouring into research universities. Advanced computing and the concepts of neural
networking and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are currently being marketed. However,
these concepts and terms are not well defined, proven and are often vendor driven
and have a completely different profile in academia.

The impact ‘players’ in this area are the data scientists and companies who enhance
next generation analytic systems that are adaptive, leveraging machine learning (not
AI) enhancing human perception and understanding of complexity. This will increase
the efficiency of the required human element who through reason and intuition will
always be required to defeat attackers. (Actionable intelligence aided by technology in
teams that support a larger mission than ‘security’).

I also believe engineers who embrace human machine interface and leverage the
strengths of both will potentially emerge as market leaders. Industry and government
must partner to develop threat solutions that satisfy the mitigation need against the
increasing velocity of cyber risk.”

“The [Intelligence Analytics Summit] is well constructed in terms of

diverse speakers and skill sets coming together; I am looking forward to
hearing more about issues that drive human behavior from a market
perspective and which companies or agencies may be working on this
dimension of a highly technical arena.”
-Donald Freese, Deputy Assistant Director, FBI, Information and Technology Branch

Speaking Session: May 22nd

“Cyber Analytics: Leading Quality Through The
Human Dimension”
Donald Freese
Deputy Assistant Director
Federal Bureau of Investigation View Agenda
Information and Technology Branch