Ben Dumke
Lawrence University - Network & Systems Manager
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Ben Dumke is the Network & Systems Manager at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, where he leads a team responsible for networking, servers, desktops, and application deployments. Before transitioning to higher education, Ben spent over two decades in K-12 where he supported a wide range of Microsoft technologies and IT infrastructure. In addition to technology, Ben supported budgeting, long-range planning, and several construction projects. He has contributed to national K-12 cybersecurity initiatives through his work with K12SIX.org, contributing to their Incident Response Runbook and Essential Cybersecurity Protections. Ben also serves on the WiscNet and NEWAITP Board of Directors and is a volunteer Incident Responder Lead for the Wisconsin Cyber Response Team. He has presented at BrainstormK20, WiscNet events, the Wisconsin Governor’s Cybersecurity Summit, and the Midwest Management Summit.
Area of Expertise
Dungeons & Downtime: Creating Engaging Tabletop Exercises for Cyber Resilience
Tabletop exercises don’t have to be boring or burdensome. In this session, you’ll learn how to design and run tabletop exercises for IT and cybersecurity incidents that both educate and energize your teams. We'll explore options like Backdoors & Breaches for ad hoc tabletop sessions as well as facilitate a structured tabletop exercise.
Participants will leave with practical tools, templates, and techniques to craft exercises that reveal gaps, improve coordination, and turn “what if” moments into confident action plans.
Preparing for a Cyber Event
It will happen at some point. You will experience a major technology outage. Ransomware, buggy updates, and natural disasters are examples. How prepared are you for these events? This session will help you define a cyber event and create strategies to prepare. We will help you identify assets, assess risk, and prioritize mitigations. Incident Response, Business Continuity, and Data Recovery Plans each play a distinct role when an event occurs. We will discuss how these concepts complement each other as part of an overall security strategy. Finally, we’ll test plans with tabletop exercises.
Microsoft Defender: Addressing Real-World Security Issues
Join us to learn how Lawrence University addressed real-world security issues with Microsoft Defender. We'll walk through the basic implementation and capabilities of Defender and share the vulnerabilities we found, misconfigurations, and unsupported software. You will also learn how to prioritize, plan, and address security issues in your environment.
Lessons from the Frontlines: Strengthening Security with Limited Budget
Cybersecurity doesn't need to break the bank. Starting with a detailed account of an actual incident, we'll talk openly about the state of security for anyone on a low budget. After, we'll focus on practical, low-to-no-cost strategies to bolster security across accounts, devices, and infrastructure. Presented in a "baseline, good, better" rubric, these simple yet effective measures—rooted in NIST standards and adapted from K12SIX.org—are designed to significantly reduce risk and improve your institution's security posture no matter your budget.
Building a Cyber Range
Dive into the art of building a cyber range—a hands-on home lab for testing and improving your cybersecurity skills. This session explores setting up a lab environment, crafting realistic scenarios, and using scripting to simulate attacks. Discover the benefits of continuous practice, learn to identify Indicators of Compromise (IoCs), and implement changes to harden defenses. Gain practical insights based on real world customer attacks to strengthen your team’s ability to prevent, detect, and respond to cyber threats.
Defender for EndPoint: More than just Anti-Virus
Defender for Endpoint (MDE) is more than just an antivirus solution; it's a comprehensive tool to enhance your organization's security posture. In this session, you’ll learn how to leverage MDE to monitor and assess device health, identify, and respond to vulnerabilities informed by global threat intelligence, and implement prioritized security actions. We’ll share practical advice and real-world examples of issues that Defender found in our environment. Additionally, we’ll explore how MDE reports and recommendations can guide your decision-making and improve overall security awareness.
Exploring the Extended Feature Set of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is more than just antivirus. In this session, you’ll learn how MDE can help drive meaningful security improvements across your environment. We’ll explore how to monitor and assess devices, stay informed about emerging vulnerabilities through threat intelligence, and use built-in reports and recommendations to prioritize actions that reduce risk. Whether you're looking to strengthen endpoint protection or gain better visibility into your security posture, this session will provide a comprehensive overview of MDE’s extended capabilities.
Defender for Office 365: Protect Email and Collaboration Tools
Defender for Office 365 protects organizations against threats including phishing, business email compromise, malware and more. In this session, we’ll focus on the settings available to protect your environment from these threats. We'll explain the functions of protections available like Safe Links, Safe Attachments, Impersonation Protection, and Zero-Hour Auto Purge. We will show how to monitor and report on threats. In addition, we’ll show how to setup phishing and security training for your organization.
Microsoft Defender - Mastering the Basics
This session starts with covering security basics. We will discuss the major features of the Microsoft Defender suite. We will explain and demonstrate the functionality of specific Defender features tying them to strong security recommendations.
2025 GOVIT Leadership Summit & Symposium Sessionize Event
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