Cristian Balan
Lecturer of Cybersecurity
Professor Cristian Balan is a cybersecurity lecturer at SUNY Plattsburgh and the coordinator for the Center of Cybersecurity and Technology. He has taught in both the SBE and Education departments in the area of technology. Recent courses are MIS275, MIS418 Cybercrime, MIS440 Managing Information Systems, MIS419 Information Assurance and Network Controls, and MIS420 Data Privacy.
In the past, Professor Balan was an assistant professor in the computer and digital forensics program at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont. He also taught computer networking and information security. He has extensive consulting experience working with the law enforcement community in system administration, information security and digital forensics. He is an active member of the Albany Chapter of Infragard, an FBI sponsored organization, and was the chief of the Vermont Army National Guard Computer Network Defense Team.
Major Balan and his team responded to cyber incidents on the VT Army National Guard computer networks and the larger U.S. Army network. Major Balan is a retired National Guardsman with 31 years of experience with the last 16 years spent in the information assurance field. In December of 2010, Major Balan completed a one year tour of duty in Afghanistan with the 1-172nd Cavalry Squadron, 86th Infantry Combat Team (Mountain) as their signal officer in charge of all computer and radio communications in Parwan Province, north of Kabul. MAJ Balan holds DOD Certification in Information Assurance Level III both technical and management. Professor Balan holds the CISSP Certification from the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium, Inc. [(ISC)²], the Certified Hacking Forensic Investigator designation from the EC-Council and the AccessData Certified Examiner digital forensics certification. He is the owner and managing consultant of NY Computer Networks, a 16 year old consulting firm specializing in managing cyber risk for a wide range of clientele in both the public and private sector. Professor Balan advised incoming first year students and the 2nd year students in managing information systems at SUNY Plattsburgh and has experience working with incoming students and their first year needs.
Professor Balan graduated from SUNY at Plattsburgh in 1999 with a B.A. in Mathematics, in 2001 with an M.S. in Teaching Secondary Mathematics and in 2003 with a C.A.S. in School Leadership. He has managed information systems for large organizations to include school districts, Department of Defense and state and local government departments. Mr Balan’s research interests include remote digital forensics, intrusion detection and incident response.
As a manager, Cristian Balan believes in constant professional development for his team members and participation in industry events. He endears a hands-on, lead from the front management style and quickly builds effective teams to respond to security incidents. He actively works with the industry associations and is a regular presenter at security conferences. Cristian Balan’s latest interests span remote forensics, digital evidence triage and malware analysis. Cristian Balan is interested in exploring industry opportunities in managing incident response teams, digital forensic and malware teams along with consulting at the C-level in cybersecurity.
In the classroom, Professor Balan has an informal style of presentation with a great deal of student participation and sprinkled with real life examples from his experience managing information systems. Drawing from the student experience with computers and Internet usage he challenges his students to think outside the proverbial box, to question technology and its impact on society and human behavior.