{"id":29361,"date":"2024-03-01T06:00:48","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T12:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bankbeat.biz\/?p=29361"},"modified":"2024-03-06T12:36:42","modified_gmt":"2024-03-06T18:36:42","slug":"amazing-outside-directors-2024-ashley-podhradsky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bankbeat.biz\/amazing-outside-directors-2024-ashley-podhradsky\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazing Outside Directors 2024: Ashley Podhradsky"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you ask Ashley Podhradsky to explain a cybersecurity concept or the current threat landscape, she offers you a cheerful warning: \u201cI could spend all day on this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

What she manages to pack into the next five minutes of conversation is a crash course in social engineering, the techniques bad actors use to manipulate a target into revealing security credentials or other privileged information. It\u2019s also an eloquent example of her ability to balance her deep knowledge with explanations that make sense to the layperson.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ashley
Ashley Podhradsky<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Any bank would be lucky to have a director like Podhradsky, who brings a Doctor of Science degree in Information Assurance. Fortunately for Brookings, S.D.-based First Bank & Trust, she works at nearby Dakota State University in Madison, S.D., where she\u2019s vice president for research & economic development.<\/span><\/p>\n

For contributions to First Bank, particularly in the realm of cybersecurity, Podhradsky has been named a 2024 \u201cAmazing Outside Director\u201d by <\/span>BankBeat<\/span><\/i> magazine.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe brings a lot of awareness to the board about what\u2019s coming down the pipe,\u201d said Chris Kreul, chief technology officer at the $4.5 billion First Bank. \u201cShe always asks intriguing questions and lets us know what she\u2019s seeing at the university level in the different programs she\u2019s involved with.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Podhradsky checked a couple boxes when she joined the board: She was based in Madison, where one of First Bank\u2019s predecessor charters was based and where the bank still has a significant presence. Her cybersecurity background impressed chair Van Fishback, who\u2019s also part of the ownership group. Podhradsky gave several presentations to the board on cybersecurity, which quickly led to a seat at the table.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is rare to find a board member with that level of technical knowledge,\u201d said Kristina Schaefer, the bank\u2019s chief risk officer and chief administrative officer, who also works closely with the institution\u2019s directors.<\/span><\/p>\n

Schaefer and Kreul both praised Podhradsky\u2019s ability to quickly and clearly relate complex information and concepts to those without a tech background. Kreul highlighted Podhradsky\u2019s work with social engineering, which has helped improve First Bank\u2019s management of its employees\u2019 security behavior.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGood hackers, they don\u2019t hack in \u2014 they log in,\u201d Podhradsky said. It\u2019s far easier for bad actors to gain access by stealing credentials or tricking employees into letting them in. \u201cThey just have to get you to give it to them, and it\u2019s really not that challenging\u201d she said. \u201cOne of the most important preventative things that you can do is you can treat every piece of communication like it\u2019s a phishing piece of communication.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Another arena in which Podhradsky helps bolster First Bank\u2019s security is in external audits. Before she joined the board, some of the cybersecurity audits were disjointed, Kreul said, with useful information sitting in different analyses and no one comparing different results to get a big picture view. \u201cShe pushed to have the tests integrated,\u201d he said. \u201cIf there\u2019s a failure in social engineering, let\u2019s use that failure to explore why it happened. How can we learn from this and improve our cybersecurity posture?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At Dakota State, Podhradsky works with a digital forensics lab which investigates those kinds of social engineering attacks. Before teaching, she also spent a decade working on digital forensic investigations for financial institutions through a separate organization. She brings the knowledge gleaned at the lab back to the bank.<\/span><\/p>\n

First Bank\u2019s involvement with DSU goes beyond Podhradsky\u2019s presence on the board. It\u2019s frequently hired graduates from the school, particularly for IT roles, and it\u2019s been fruitful for both sides.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe very much cares about doing the right thing and is always very helpful,\u201d Kreul said. \u201cShe wants to prepare the next generation for what the future holds.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Part of that work preparing the next generation of cybersecurity workers has been the CybHER Security Institute, which Podhradsky founded in 2013. The nonprofit is dedicated to educating and raising awareness of girls and women in cybersecurity from middle school to college and beyond into professional careers. Podhradsky wanted to help offer girls and young women the kind of mentorship and support she didn\u2019t always have when she was growing up.<\/span><\/p>\n

First Bank has supported Dakota State with donations, including for the CybHER initiative.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAny time you have a board member with a unique skillset who\u2019s very involved in the community, that\u2019s a great opportunity to make sure you\u2019re serving your community well, too,\u201d Schaefer said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The partnership between the two institutions is also useful because it helps model the different kinds of work possible at banks. \u201cThere can be some stereotypes about what a banker looks like,\u201d Schaefer said. \u201cIt can be hard to show people that it\u2019s not just loan officers who work in a bank but that we need skilled IT workers, today more than ever. This helps with that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For Podhradsky, her work with First Bank has also been a way to ensure the strength of South Dakota\u2019s communities.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to say that I\u2019m a cynic, but you wouldn\u2019t think that most organizations could emulate that behavior all the time. And they really do,\u201d she said. \u201cThey really do value and appreciate and have mutual respect for all the players within the organization.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you ask Ashley Podhradsky to explain a cybersecurity concept or the current threat landscape, she offers you a cheerful warning: \u201cI could spend all day on this.\u201d [Continue] <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":409,"featured_media":29362,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[114],"yoast_head":"\nAmazing Outside Directors 2024: Ashley Podhradsky - BankBeat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bankbeat.biz\/amazing-outside-directors-2024-ashley-podhradsky\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Amazing Outside Directors 2024: Ashley Podhradsky - 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