The Camden Conference and Merrill Memorial Library in Yarmouth will host Dr. Lori Sussman on Thursday, February 23 at 6 p.m. The program will be on Zoom. To register for the Zoom link: https://forms.gle/sZVVsJ9Sd2QoSyU29  

In the coming year, the United States and its allies will face an increasingly complex and interconnected global security environment marked by the growing specter of great power competition and conflict, while collective, transnational threats to all nations and actors compete for our attention and finite resources. Dr. Sussman will provide a glimpse of both nation-state and transnational criminal threats via cyber crime. She will discuss the growing threats that are increasing in number, scale, and sophistication. These cyber attacks fuel a virtual ecosystem that threatens to cause greater disruptions of critical services worldwide. These nation-states and cyber criminals are driven by their strategic interests, the promise of large profits, reliable safe havens to operate, and the decreasing technical barriers to entry for new actors.

Lori Sussman, Ed.D., is an Assistant Professor of Technology and Cybersecurity at the University of Southern Maine. She was part of the fourth class at the United States Military Academy to admit women and is a West Point graduate. Lori retired from the U.S. Army as a highly decorated colonel. Her military leadership experiences include 15th Regimental Signal Brigade Commander, 2nd Infantry Division Battalion Commander/CIO/G-6, Presidential Communications Officer, Joint Staff J-6 Executive Officer, and Assistant to the Army Chief of the Staff, among many demanding tactical assignments. Upon leaving service, Dr. Sussman spent time in large and small companies, most notably Cisco Systems and HPE. She is also an entrepreneur, having created several consulting businesses. In these varied roles, Dr. Sussman has managed a spectrum of highly complex organizations engaged in developing, integrating, deploying, and sustaining state-of-the-art technology and security solutions for clients. The Epsilon Pi Tau Technology Honor Society Awarded Dr. Sussman with the Warner Minilecture Award in 2020 and 2021 for her research about Cybersecurity Ambassadors. In 2021, Governor Mills named Dr. Sussman as one of eleven veteran aides-de-camp. Her research areas include cybersecurity education, cybersecurity training and awareness, gender equity in technology and cybersecurity, and technology and cybersecurity leadership.