Columbus 2021

Join Alethea Duhon discussing CISA’s Cyber Security Priorities for the Next 5 Years & Areas for Partnership

Among rapidly evolving technological advancements, the emergence of AI-enhanced malware is making cyber-attacks exponentially more dangerous, and harder to identify. As AI-driven attacks evolve, they will be almost indistinguishable from genuine activity, and conducted at an unprecedented speed and scale. In the face of offensive AI, only defensive AI can fight back, detecting even the most subtle indicators of attack in real time, and respond with surgical actions to neutralize threats – wherever they strike.  

In this session, discover: 

• How cyber-criminals are leveraging AI tools to create sophisticated cyber weapons  
•  What an AI-powered spoofing threat may look like, and why humans will not be able to spot them 
•  Why defensive AI technologies are uniquely positioned to fight back  

The SolarWinds SUNBURST attack was a rude awakening for many security teams, and it won’t be the last time Security leaders face tough questions about how an adversary evaded defenses and stayed hidden. With threats persisting inside the network for months, security teams need a new plan. In this session, CISO Jeff Costlow discusses strategies, including revising existing mental models and incident response processes, to build resilience in the fight against advanced threats.

With the Passwordless Decade well underway, more and more organizations are asking the question: Why is now the right time to move beyond passwords?

George Avetisov, CEO of HYPR, will discuss the rise of organizations moving to the cloud, how the perimeter fades and the attack surface gets larger. Modern tools such as SNIPR and Modlishka make it easier for hackers to launch large-scale automated attacks, bringing credential re-use and two-factor-authentication attacks to record highs. 

How did we get here, and will mainstream adoption of passwordless security have an impact? We will explore how the rise of virtual desktop infrastructure and a remote workforce has affected workstation login and review how the evolution of authentication has impacted organizations’ identity and access management systems.

In this session, you’ll learn:

Over the past few years, the number of organizations that have adopted cloud-based systems has grown exponentially, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In turn, cloud security has become a critical issue for IT security executives and their teams. McAffee reported an increase of 630% in attacks by external actors targeting cloud services between January and April of 2020. This uptick in cloud security breaches is projected to persist even after the pandemic as many companies continue to utilize the cloud and leverage its benefits.

While migrating to the cloud offers numerous advantages, it also poses certain threats and challenges. In a recent report by Oracle & KPMG, over 90% of IT Professionals felt their organization had a cloud security readiness gap. A significant concern for many who are adapting to a cloud-based workforce is misconfigurations and gaps in cloud security programs. Additionally, cloud-based infrastructure requires adopting new security policies and processes. Many companies believe their existing security teams lack the necessary skillsets and knowledge that the cloud environment requires, especially as organizations turn to multi-cloud, hybrid cloud, and distributed cloud models.

This panel will highlight the areas where cloud systems can leave enterprises vulnerable, ways to minimize common misconfiguration errors, and other best practices to mitigate threats when migrating to the cloud. Our lineup of Industry Experts will provide their expertise on developing a robust cloud security strategy that addresses these issues and insight on how to stay secure in the future of cloud security.

Cloud security is hard, not least because cloud platforms change so quickly.  This talk presents several lessons learned from security teams struggling to get their arms around the sprawl of modern infrastructure, using practical analogies from pandemics and earthquakes.

Insider Threat has become increasingly problematic to businesses as the frequency and cost of these threats have risen over the last several years. In a global study conducted by Ponemon Institute in September of 2019, there was a 31% increase in overall cost of Insider Threat and a 47% increase in the total number of Insider Incidents from 2018.

Today, Insider Threat poses an even greater risk to businesses in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Forrester Research, Inc. reported that in 2020, a quarter of all security breaches were caused by an insider and estimates that in 2021, Insider Threats will account for 33% of security breaches.

This panel will discuss the various factors that contribute to this increase in Insider breaches, how remote work has impacted the malicious & non-malicious Insider Threats facing businesses, and the implications this has on enterprises today. Our lineup of Industry Experts will offer their insight & provide best-practices on how businesses and their IT Security Teams should address these risks and adapt in order to defend against Insider Threats.

Resource-constrained organizations do not have the luxury of 15+ security analysts running 20+ security tools in a 24X7 manned operation, yet they still have to defend against the same aggressive cyber-attacks. Smaller IT and Cyber Teams must have a different mindset, and take a different approach to protect their environments. Built from a newly published mid-market peer-based study, this presentation will delve into the strategies and processes that are working and failing for small teams including:

–          What organizational and defensive strategies are working best for smaller teams

–          What are the core defensive security tools a small organization must have deployed

–          How organizations can determine the operational viability of a security tool for their environment

–          How technologies and delivery methods like AI and SaaS can be a positive and a negative for a small team

Join industry veteran and CyGlass VP of Marketing Bill Munroe, for this engaging look into how smaller teams are successfully defending their organizations from cyber-attacks, and equally important, how and why others are failing.

In 2020, there was an unprecedented growth in ransomware attacks and this trend shows no signs of slowing down. Rather, these attacks are evolving and becoming more harmful as cyber criminals become more organized and effective. It is predicted that in 2021, businesses will fall victim to a ransomware attack every 11 seconds with an estimated cost of over $20 billion – 57 times more than in 2015, making ransomware the fastest growing type of cybercrime.

As a result, companies are transitioning from the traditional “trust but verify” method and implementing a Zero Trust model, requiring all users to be authenticated and continually authorized in order to be granted access and maintain access to company data and applications. By leveraging various technologies & techniques such as multifactor authentication, IAM, least privilege access, and microsegmentation, the Zero Trust model reduces the risk of a ransomware attack and minimizes the potential damage from a breach.

This panel will highlight where enterprises are most vulnerable to becoming a victim of ransomware and how utilizing a Zero Trust model minimizes this risk. Industry experts will discuss best practices to avoid a ransomware attack including adapting the Zero Trust model, what to do if your company is being held for ransom, ways to mitigate the damage caused by an attack, and how to recover afterwards.

Zero Trust is a concept and goal for keeping your organization malware and ransomware free. Join Sean Brehm from CrowdPoint as he applies Military Science to Data Science and the Blockchain to build an effective Cyber Defense In Depth.

Prior to defending an organization against a determined attacker, their techniques must be understood. This presentation provides an adversarial viewpoint to inform network defense leaders how the attackers see their organizations and are able to be successful with their objectives, even when well defended. The presenter will draw upon over 17 years of personal experience as a Red Team operator and leader to illustrate how your organizations are viewed, through the eyes of an adversary.