2018 ICMCP National Conference

2017 was the year of security awakenings. It started with an assessment report from US intelligence community "Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections" in January. In April, Facebook released another report called "Information Operations" shifting all of security community's focus on data and privacy. If things were not intense enough, Cambridge Analytica scandal came to surface and the focus shifted to third party security. And Just to top it all off GDPR was dropped on all of us in May 2018 and then it really became clear - Data , privacy, third parties and not to forget Incident and Breach response. 2017 incidents were not just data breaches, they were revelations and scandals that helped us assess gaps in our domain as a whole. The Equifax data breach was a prime example. When we zoom into the threat landscape, we continue to see social engineering, phishing attacks used to either gain valuable information or mine resources, like cryptomining.

SO now the big question is, what can we do about it? Well the first thing is clear - we need to make better use of the tools we have AND need to build better tools. For example, Facebook started to utilize machine learning and use the data they gather to combat against misuse and abuse by various third parties.

And yes, it is not just about tools, we need better processes and things like GDPR, no matter how painful they seem to adopt globally, they serve a purpose of standardizing our approach and our thinking towards Data.

If there is one positive thing in all of 2017 -2018 data and security scandals - was it became known to the masses - cybersecurity is HOT. Along with our security issues as industry 2017-2018 we also recognized what an enormous gap we have in terms of diversity and inclusion. We need to continue to bridge this gap along side. We need diversity, diversity of all kinds: race, gender, religion, various backgrounds - technical/non-technicals etc. In fact, we no longer have to convince young people technology is cool.. most of them are growing up with iphones and social media. We just need to get them interested in getting into Cyber. This conference shall be marked as a huge step forward and attempt to make that gap smaller. This panel will discuss these issues and more.