Creating a More Secure Digital Community With Lisa Easterly of San Diego Cyber Center of Excellence (CCOE)

Startups get the party. Startups get the party started. Startups get the party. Startups get the party started. You want tech and tacos? Tacos and tech you know we got tacos and tech is on smash border green guacamole keeper captains counting beans Contador quentan frijoles found us trying to raise some queso la vida San Diego school of rappy rapping fire tortillas round jalapenos in these modern times a crappy my coding yoga posse fold the body origami we be surfing coronado eating tacos el gordo, the taco standing puesto lucha libre and sombrero Got a shout out to cost angels by the ocean watch the sunset La Jolla shores Entrepreneurs trying to get funded When San Diego Startup Week is popping in the summer Oceanside, the Tijuana Estee be full of hustlers from couch surfing to penthouses right on the beach Tech leaders believe stars are within reach we interview and founders who be shooting for the moon SD Tecos with your host, Neil Bloom. Startups get the party. Startups get the party started. Startups get the party. Startups get the party started.

Welcome to the Tacos and Tech Podcast. I'm your host, Neil Bloom, and I'm thrilled to have you here. On the Tacos and Tech Podcast, we interview builders of technologies, of companies, of communities, and we do it weekly, so thanks for tuning in. Every Tuesday, a new interview, and on Fridays, we talk about what's new in the San Diego tech ecosystem from a news perspective. So make sure you join us there as well, too. We also have a tech newsletter that comes out every other week@freshbroodtech.com you can subscribe to listen to it without further ado. Enjoy this episode. I'm thrilled to have on Lisa Easterly, President and CEO of the San Diego Cyber center of Excellence, or ccoe. Lisa, thanks for joining on the pod.

Oh, it's a pleasure to be here, Neil.

Yeah, it really is a pleasure to have you on, especially for how long we've known each other as well as your family, which turns out Matt, your husband, and I went to undergrad together. And in a totally different life, you and I met in the San Diego greater tech ecosystem. I think maybe kind of as CCOE is spinning out of the edc.

Yes, it's such a small world here in San Diego. I love our ecosystem.

Yeah, absolutely love it as well too. We're excited to get to know what CCOE is focused on. Do you want to give us a quick overview of What CCOE is, of course.

So CCOE is a San Diego based nonprofit that mobilizes businesses, academia and government to grow the regional cyber economy and create a more secure digital community for all. So by capitalizing on San Diego's unique strengths, our programs really aim to increase regional cyber resiliency, seed and diversify the talent pipeline and drive collaborative cyber innovation. Wow.

A lot to take on. I know you wear many hats in wrangling a lot of the community together kind of goes with the job and part of your superpowers. So want to kind of get to know like, how'd you. I don't think you were born to be a cybersecurity specialist. How did you fall into this world a bit?

So I actually came into this world a bit by serendipity. Back in 2014, I just had my first son and I realized I was not going back into the office grind. And about that same time, my colleagues at the San Diego Regional EDC had recently released a study on the fledgling cybersecurity industry here in San Diego. And the leaders were really primed to collaborate on the challenges and opportunities that were identified by the research. And I was asked to consult on Standing up the nonprofit industry accelerator to support and. Well, now the rest is CCOE history. So before joining, I cut my teeth in economic development as vice president for San Diego Regional edc. And they're a nonprofit driving the growth of the local innovation, military and tourism economies. I also learned valuable lessons about cultivating tech clusters as a founding board member and education and outreach chair for CleanTech San Diego. They are a nonprofit stimulating innovation and adoption of clean technologies as well as sustainable industry practices. And then last but not least, I spent about 10 years in business development at global corporate, law and wealth management firms that really honed my communications and marketing skills and got me battle ready. Got it.

So you've been building community, kind of very purpose driven, you know, specific communities for a while, whether it's, you know, from the BD lens or similarly as kind of a connector at the EDC in that regard. So it totally makes sense to jump in on starting something new. It's a new challenge. Starting a nonprofit though, is no joke. I've definitely gone through that. You know, what was that like actually taking something that was semi incubated right at the EDC and now said, hey, go, go grow it from on its own little entity?

Yeah, well, you know, eight years ago, CCA was basically born out of the efforts of the San Diego Regional edc. And it was to not to just rally leaders to fight the impending budget cuts for the DoD, but to counteract that economic impact by accelerating a new hub of employment and innovation and cybersecurity. And so the great part was I came into a really great group of people that were ready to rock and roll. They, they had purpose because the EDC's initial economic impact study had identified 100 cyber firms with an economic impact of about $1.5 billion at that time and about 6,600 workers, half of whom were employed by war. And so they were really primed to collaborate and develop something. And because San Diego is so good at creating these kind of clusters and then driving support around them with these industry associations, we had a really great template and really good support from organizations like EDC, BioCom Connect, Cleantech, that provided a great template. So it was, it was fun from the very beginning because we just had a lot of really great people rolling up their sleeves and ready to rock and roll. And, and so you want to know what the number one PA point was identified by, by the research and by the initial crew?

I have a feeling it's talent related workforce.

So with Rear Admiral Ken Slat, who is a former NAVOR commander at the helm and one of my most fabulous mentors, alongside our founders like ESET, Qualcomm, FICO, Centeg, Loctin, Morrison, Forrester and Navor, CCOE's launched as both a membership association as well as a foundation. And first and foremost, it was to attract and nurture talent. Followed right behind by creating new business opportunities and really fostering collaboration here in the cyber community. And so now our board and members represent all aspects of the cyber ecosystem with large companies like Booz Allen, MasterCards, Risk Recon and Sharp Healthcare, cool startups like Haiku and Cyber Catch, we've got the infrastructure partners like the port and the airport, the academic and research institutions including National University and sdsu, municipalities like the cities of San Diego, Carlsbad and Vista. And then you can't forget the state and federal government partners like, you know, the California Governor's Office of Planning and Research, U.S. department of Homeland Security and the FBI. So together we're moving the needle on challenges and opportunities, you know, facing the industry. And we're having a really good time doing it.

Yeah, and you're making an impact. I mean, you're taking data that was shown saying, hey, there's a gap here. You rallied everyone to say, let's should we fix this gap? Yes, we should. And now, I mean, not only have you started to close the gap you started to really grown the industry right from, I think I would love to know, kind of like what's the eight years later, what's the community like now in San Diego?

Oh, it's, it's been remarkable growth and we absolutely cannot take all credit, but man, has it been fun supporting it. So we've grown right alongside the region's cybersecurity industry, which now includes more than 870 cyber firms and is continually anchored by Navvar. The cluster now accounts for more than 24,000 thousand jobs and has a total economic impact of 3.5 billion annually. So that's equal to hosting nine Super Bowls or 23 Comic Cons for all of you Marvel fans like me out there. And what's cool is the best part about our region and what's neat about kind of these clusters is they have a tendency to advance the next generation technologies. And we're seeing that in cybersecurity with AI and machine learning and according to CCOE and San Diego Regional EDCs most recent studies, so we've kept those up biennially. Local cybersecurity firms here are developing AI at a rate three times the regional average to identify, escalate and resolve threats. So a lot of really good growth. And we've really expanded our purview to both grow the regional cyber economy and now create a more secure digital community. For all you know, cybersecurity is now everyone's business. I keep telling everybody. With the FBI reporting a 300% increase in cyber crimes across all industries since the pandemic began and the average cost of a data breach has climbed over $4 million. That's brutal for the small to medium sized businesses that are, you know, our region's economic engine. So to address CCP has developed new programs like the small business cybersecurity program that we have in partnership with the cities of Carlsbad and Vista and soon to be San Diego, where we actually any business with less than 100 employees can get their risk recon snapshot, their cyber hygiene score. They can have ESET cybersecurity employee training. They can have cyber catches incident response simulator. They get an FBI briefing and then have connectivity again to this robust industry of over 870 firms. We're also really, really excited about our new project with the city of San Diego. We're going to be opening the physical and virtual doors of the San Diego Regional Cyber Lab this fall. This is a project that was a joint support from a DHS grant to the city as well as a DoD grant to CCoE through the state of California, which allowed us to really together the technical and executive leaders of the cybersecurity industry and come up with the resources that we needed to support municipalities, infrastructure as well as local businesses. And then bringing in the defense community to really get us to a point where we are have a shared defense mechanism where we can exercise together and train together and have resources for the community. So that's one of our most exciting new and next steps. And then we're also connecting the cyber industry to the region's key sectors and supply chains through the launch of our new SMB advisory and purchasing groups. And then of course, our continued partnership with the FBI Sector Briefing series. So a lot of really fun stuff coming down the pipeline. And of course, we cannot forget about workforce as, you know, talent still number one paid point with a shortage of, you know, cyber professionals to the tune of about three and a half million globally and more than 60,000 here in California. So not surprising to you, Neil. I know this is not unique to cybersecurity, but we've really found homogeny creates easier access for bad actors. And with women, minorities, neurodiversity only accounting for about a quarter of the industry, we're opening the aperture with programs that not only seed, but diversify these talent pipelines. So we're really excited about some of those new programs and could share too with listeners some of the things that they can also potentially, after the fact, go check out themselves. They're complimentary and easy to access.

Yeah, that's awesome. Wow. You're attacking it from so many different angles too. From especially like under 18 programs as well, and then all the way to getting cities who obviously are interested in helping their businesses. We actually talk repeatedly on this podcast about how vulnerable small businesses are to cyber. You know, it could literally shut down a business. So it's great to hear you helping in that regard as well, too.

Well, what's scary there too, unfortunately, is a lot of these small businesses are the unfortunate entry points to larger companies or supply chains that they're part of. So they become the casualty and then, then it also gets into some of our key sectors like defense and life sciences and, and tourism and. And so forth. So it's, it's really about regional cyber resiliency and not. We're no longer the days where you only have to think about your cyber hygiene.

Totally. So take me through a little bit of the talent piece of like closing the gap, because there's a mix of recruiting good talent to the region from other places. And then there's obviously developing local talent to make sure that we're increasing that. Like, where are we, where are we doing well and where do we need more work?

You think so? I think again, you know, this industry is about 75% white males across the board all over the globe. And so we really are looking to open that aperture and bring in women, underrepresented populations, neurodiversity. That again, coming at this from a different background, whether it's a background of experience or a background of geography, it provides a team the ability to look at, you know, your attack surfaces and look at the larger threat landscape differently. And cybersecurity also is not just for techies. That's the number one myth I always like to buzz. Cybersecurity is about being able to communicate and being able to see problems and approach them differently every day, to kind of be an air traffic controller, stay calm under pressure and be really good at, you know, tech operations, communications and pretty much everything else under the business umbrella. And so what we're really looking to do, we've created kind of, since the very beginning, talent pipelines with all the regional colleges and universities. With that, we developed initially a job board that was one of the first in the region. And I know there's so many great ones now that we feed each other and feed into. We also created with Journeys Map, the cyber career map. And what it is, it's kind of like a Google map. I'm here, I want to get there. So whether you are a student or a transitioning service member, or a seasonal, you know, seasoned professional with their eyes on the next, you know, level, it gives you an opportunity to say, this is where I am, this is where I want to be. It provides everything from certifications to 2 year degrees, 4 year degrees, work based learning opportunities and everything in between, including what's really fun now is we've partnered with Haiku, which actually has a gamified cyberpunk program, a suite of products that actually allows you to kind of play in the world of cyberpunk and get skills that can be applied and then you can show those through a resume that is actually generated through the program to employers. So a lot of kind of fun ways to come at it. But some of the ones that I think are closest to my heart are the ones that really, again, bring new people into this field. And so we've partnered with San Diego Workforce partnership and EDC on cyber hire, which is bringing nearly 200 underrepresented students into the pipeline. We also have great partnerships with the Girl Scouts where we get to bring all of the Girl Scouts together. We actually did one full Saturday morning where we had K through 12, so beginners all the way to seniors. We went through each of their three cyber badges in three hours with 20 industry representatives that actually led the badge programs was a blast and introduced these girls to opportunities within the industry through the eyes of those actually doing the work, which was just phenomenal. And then last but not least, we've been working really closely with the national foundation for Autism Research to develop a training and internship program for adults with autism. And so this has been a really cool program that we've seen a lot of traction where it provides a nine month training that was designed by the industry and then they go into a three month internship and if all goes well and this follows NFAR Tech's program, they've got about an 85% hiring rate. So really excited. Again, open the aperture and bring as many people because as we say, cybersecurity is everyone's business and we all need to be thinking about creating greater regional resiliency. Huge.

Wow, that's awesome. Haiku. Is that Eric Basu's new gaming company?

And it's fun.

That's cool. I got to jump on that. So that's cool to see. Also like, so Eric had a cybersecurity company, Sentech. Right. Sold it and went and worked on the next thing.

Yes. He was retired for about, I don't know, 22 seconds I think it was.

Sounds right for him for sure. But that's what you love to see is companies building, growing, exiting and starting the next one, you know, kind of that. And usually talent develops because of that as well too. Seeing the full lifecycle, which is huge, which is how we've, you know, increased the number of cyber firms like nearly almost 10x in the last eight years. Do you consider San Diego like a, a prominent. Are we like a top 10 or top five cyber hub in the US or world?

Absolutely. And one of the reasons too is, you know, we, we talk about Navar, the US Navy's Naval Warfare Information Center. Navor up until very recently because you know, the commercial industry has grown so much employed, you know, half of the cyber industry. And not only are they kind of the workforce juggernaut, but they also invest a tremendous amount of money in R and D that helps really develop next gen technologies. And so they are the cyber command here. And so that's provided such fertile ground to develop this industry in partnership with the academic and research institutions which have really always been kind of the lifeblood of all of our innovation ecosystems. And you have just this really great kind of service provider background as well, where you have, you know, these really great law firms and accounting firms and PR firms and so forth that really know how to kind of support these ecosystems and help them grow. And so I think cyber, because it's one of those special disciplines that crosses every industry. If you are, you know, have any type of data and are connected to the Internet, you are now in the business of cybersecurity. And so I think collectively we've been able to grow this industry out of necessity, but also because San Diego really knows how to do this right. We know how to bring together industry, academia and government to propel next generation technology. And like I said, it's super cool to see a fledgling industry eight years ago that now is incubating the next generation of technology to be able to be talking about AI and machine learning and 5G and IoT and all those really cool buzzwords that are coming out of cyber. It's really again, the development of what comes next. You bring all these brilliant minds together and they just keep growing the pot.

Absolutely. So a company, let's. How can us like, let's say a startup get involved? Like, what's the great, what's the right entry point to engage with CCoE?

Oh, this is good timing. So we are actually launching a SMB advisory group now. So CCoE, as we kind of talked about, was started by a lot of these pillars of the community and we really want to be on the pulse of what's happening with our, you know, cyber SMBs and the startup community. And so we actually have a new advisory group coming together that is going to have a seat on our board to stay on the pulse of what they need, from talent to, you know, additional investment to business, attraction to connectivity and so forth. We are also launching a purchasing group. So with the fabulous template that Biocom has, you know, really been successful with over the last many, many years, we are creating something similar where we're going to be able to tap into all of these great resources that are in our cyber community and provide them at discounted or banded or complimentary rates to the larger business community here in our region. And so this provides an opportunity for those smaller companies, again to be able to provide their products and services. And it provides the opportunity for these larger companies to create greater resiliency and also just economic growth for our entire region. And so this is a great Opportunity for these companies to get involved. And again, all of the different programs that we talk about with talent, with, you know, our economic impact programs, these are all complementary to participate in. So we would love as many folks to check out the cyber career map and see if that's something that might help them, whether they're at the beginning of a career, whether they're looking at cyber as a potential, as a second, third or fourth career, or looking to upskill, you know, within the IT realm. There's so much opportunity here. And we want to keep all of these great minds in our backyard.

Absolutely. We absolutely do. And make sure that they're cross pollinating, sharing ideas because everyone's putting in their own 10,000 hours on something. If we could be sharing our learnings and saying, you know, hey, we don't have to go and learn 10 years worth of learnings. Here's the playbook. Absolutely. This is the way to do it through with you guys as the connector. So it totally makes sense. The best thing to do that is to bring everyone together and have tacos, obviously, because San Diego is also a taco hub. You being a longtime San Diego. And do you have a favorite spot or like, do you have one for a certain time of the day?

So I actually, you know, I really had to think about this because there's so many good ones. But recently, my favorite taco spot right now is Casa de Bandini up in Carlsbad because it so reminds me of the Mexican restaurants I grew up with in Miami. And seriously, my entire family's addicted to the chips and salsa. But I also love the taco stand in Encinitas when my boys can brave the line. But every so often we just end up at Mr. Moto across the street when they just can't hang anymore. So. Yeah. But yeah, lots of really great taco spots here. You can't go wrong. You probably could eat tacos every day if you wanted to.

You for sure could. And I'm sure Mr. Moto's got like a taco flavored pizza. Right?

Like they have to. They get a lot of that. You know, the spillover.

Yeah, like that. I didn't want to stand in line at the taco stand for sure. Is like a common thing for all businesses. Yeah. No great, great ones to add. I don't think Casa de Benigni has actually been mentioned before. So a new entry to the taco and taco database that we'll put in there, but love it. So glad to, to be collaborating here with you. And in the community. As always. Let's go do like a cyber night or another event together because I think we're due for sure.

Love it. I think we're all had enough of these virtual programming. We'd love to see eye to eye.

Yeah, for sure. Well, Lisa, thanks so much for not just being on the podcast, but what you're doing and bringing this huge community together. And we're excited to continue to collaborate with you. So thank you.

Oh, my pleasure. Thank you much, Neil. And please keep us posted for future opportunities and additional taco nights. We're always up for a margarita. Cheers.

We're in. Let's do it. Thanks.

Thank you.

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