Carl Eyler Knows Change Is Good, but Basics Are Better
In the field of cybersecurity, Carl Eyler has seen it all and done most of it, too. Now, he’s giving back to the industry and his alma mater as a faculty member and the director of the National Cybersecurity Institute (NCI) at Excelsior University.
Eyler earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems from Excelsior University (then Regents College) in 1996 and went on to earn a Master of Science in Cybersecurity from the University of Maryland, University College. He joined Excelsior as a full-time faculty member in 2022 and teaches in both the Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Cybersecurity programs. He assumed directorship of NCI in February 2024.
“There is an overwhelming need for cybersecurity professionals in today’s world,” says Eyler, in a news release announcing his role as NCI director. “The National Cybersecurity Institute moves Excelsior University to the forefront of this important field by training the experts of the future, building on the University’s innovative degree programs with state-of-the-art resources and providing experiential learning opportunities.”
“AI is a great thing, but it can be used maliciously so we need to put controls in place.”
During Eyler’s 13 years in the U.S. Army culminating with assignments in the Department of Defense Cyber Emergency Response Team and through his 25 years in cybersecurity and information security governance within the global finance industry, he’s witnessed the field evolve from programming with punch cards to cybersecurity issues shaping policy at the federal level. It’s that breadth of experience combined with a desire to help prepare the next generation of cybersecurity professionals that led him to become an educator.
Eyler knows that keeping pace with the rapidly shifting technological landscape is one of the biggest challenges facing the cybersecurity industry, and despite the constant evolution, he believes the basics are still the best weapon against cyberbreaches. “The technology is constantly changing, so we’ve got to be able to respond to those new challenges. But what I tell people is security hasn’t changed; the controls haven’t changed,” he says. “The basics are still the same. You need to make sure you have good controls, good governance, and education, keeping everybody aware of what the threats are.”
Now, as the dawning of the artificial intelligence (AI) era makes us all more conscious of potential security risks, Eyler is uniquely positioned to offer his insight.
“AI is a great thing, but it can be used maliciously so we need to put controls in place,” he says. You don’t put in PII (personal identifiable information) because the tool has literally no idea whether it’s good or bad, or private or not. It’s just a tool.”
Alongside the challenges each new advance brings, there is ample opportunity, too, and Eyler remains excited for those entering cybersecurity at this exciting time, impressing on his students how diverse the field truly is. “Everybody says ‘cybersecurity’ and thinks hackers sitting at a desk and penetrating and trying to break in. That’s not all cybersecurity, and not everybody is inclined to the technical aspect, but there’s a people aspect to it,” says Eyler. “There’s governance; there’s backup and recovery and testing and training. There’s a whole gamut of cybersecurity. All these jobs are out there, and there’s a field for everybody within cybersecurity. You just need to find your right niche.”
