News

By Chris Tribbey

On Oct. 21 in Boston, senior level executives, cyber security solution providers and information security experts will all be on hand at the Cyber Security Summit, a C-Suite conference that will tackle everything from the Sony Pictures hack to the government’s cyber security problems with China.

The annual summit will bring see solution providers show off tools for protecting businesses, see government intelligence officials share their insights, and offer an overview of current and emerging cyber threats that threaten both businesses and consumers.

The day kicks off with briefings by Joseph R. Bonavolonta, assistant special agent in charge of counterintelligence, cyber, tech and security for FBI Boston, and Erik Yunghans, a threat prevention consulting engineer for Palo Alto Networks, before the first panel of the day: “The Relationship between Cyber Security and The C-Suite & The Boardroom.” The panel will tackle how effective cyber security management requires coordination between a company’s board of directors, CIOs and CSOs.

Junaid Islam, president and CTO of Vidder, Jodie Kelley, SVP and general counsel for The Software Alliance, Corey Lancaster, director of IT security services for CenturyLink, Jim Penrose, EVP of cyber intelligence for Darktrace and Marty Ward, VP of product marketing for Sophos will be on hand.

The second panel of the day — “The True Costs to a Company’s Brand / Reputation after a Cyber Attack and the importance of Cyber Security Insurance and an Incident Response Plan & Team” — has a scary reality to address: the worst may be yet to come for cyber attacks on businesses, with known, and unknown costs associated with breaches.

Shawn K. Dorsey, lead investigator of Synamtec’s incident response services, Paul Fletcher, cyber security evangelist for Alert Logic, Roberto Medrano, EVP of Akana, Garin Pace, head of cyber liability underwriting excellence for AIG and Kevin Peterson, director of security and network transformation for Zscaler will be on the panel.

After a security briefing by Curt Dukes, chief of the information assurance directorate for the NSA, the day will conclude with two more panels: “Corporate Espionage and Insider Threat – Monitoring Outlier Behavior that Indicates Malicious Intent” and “What Emerging Risks are likely to become Major Threats?”

The first sees experts look at the true nature of insider threats and the data they actually go after. Representatives from PhishMe, Kaspersky Lab, Endgame, BalaBit and Vectra Networks are on the docket. The final panel covers the best ways to protect against cyber threats using customized solutions, depending on your company’s needs. Representatives from the NSA, Varonis, Black Duck Software, Intel Security and Illusive Networks will be on the panel.