Archives: Seminar

The Digital Divide Revisited

  Presented by Matt Behrens • Chief Technology Officer for the State of Iowa

In the years since the National Telecommunications and Information Administration released its report FALLING THROUGH THE NET: A Survey of the “Have Nots” in Rural and Urban America, unequal access to information and communications technologies has been recognized as an important problem in the United States. Broadband policies have been the centerpiece of such efforts at both the state and federal level, but more work remains. The Federal Communication Commission reported that broadband has not been deployed to all Americans in a timely fashion, noting in 2018 that “24 million Americans still lack fixed terrestrial broadband” access at speeds of 25 mbps up/3 mbps down. According to the Pew Research Center, one quarter of all rural residents believe that access to high speed internet is still a “major problem.”

What are the factors influencing access to information and communication technology adoption in the United States? What can we do to help ensure everyone is able to participate in our information society? In recent years, researchers have come to define the Digital Divide in broader terms, examining not only basic access to physical internet connections, but also how and why people make decisions to use them. By understanding these emerging perspectives, a new generation of strategies can be developed to prepare our nation for the digital future.

Matt Behrens has held many different technology and leadership positions in government and higher education for the past twenty years. He currently serves as Deputy Chief Information Officer and Chief Technology Officer for the State of Iowa Office of the Chief Information Officer where he leads strategic technology initiatives including the implementation of Iowa’s broadband incentive programs. Matt has been a Council of State Governments Henry Toll Fellow, an adjunct instructor at Drake University, and is a frequent speaker and panelist on topics ranging from technology trends to information security. He also serves on a number of boards and advisory groups including the Grandview University Business Advisory Board, the NTIA State Broadband Leaders Network, and the Norman Borlaug Heritage Foundation. Matt currently studies state-level broadband policy as a doctoral student at Iowa State University. He also holds an MBA with Distinction from the University of Iowa and a master’s degree in Human Computer Interaction from Iowa State University.

Remote Working: How to Control the Uncontrollable 

  Moderated by INTERFACE Advisory Council

Join our panel of IT experts as they discuss what is working and what is on the horizon for Security and Remote Working.

Panalists:

  • Ryan Sinnwell • Senior IT Manager, Infrastructure, The Weitz Group
  • Robert Nitz • Director of Information Security, Multi-State Lottery Association
  • Mike Badeaux •VP, Information Security, American Equity Investment Life Insurance Company

Adapting to Fight Back: How Cyber AI Neutralizes Never-Before-Seen Threats

  Presented by Darktrace

In a world that is increasingly digital, cyber-attack has become the most significant risk confronting today’s businesses, smart cities, and critical infrastructure. Online crime cost the world more than half a trillion dollars last year, while recent attacks have managed to influence the U.S. presidential election and disrupt the Ukrainian power supply. This troubling state of affairs is the product of several fundamental weaknesses with the traditional approach to cyber defense, which relies on predefining what threats look like at a time when criminals launch never-before-seen attacks daily. Moreover, these attacks increasingly strike at machine-speed, preventing security professionals from responding before their damage is done.

SD-WAN: Delivering a WOW Customer Experience for Every Application

  Presented by Silver Peak Systems

Adoption of cloud services has driven enterprises to re-think WAN architecture. Architectures based on traditional, manually-programmed routers can’t keep pace. A business-driven SD-WAN can provide secure direct connections from the branch to SaaS/IaaS across the internet, significantly increasing application performance resulting in a superior end-user QoEx (Quality of Experience). By integrating SD-WAN, WAN optimization, routing and security in a single unified platform, enterprises can simplify branch WAN edge architecture, accelerating time to value and dramatically reducing operational costs. From a centralized SD-WAN orchestrator, application priorities and QoS and security policies may be configured and assigned to automate traffic handling across the WAN. A single mouse click distributes SD-WAN configuration parameters to all sites, improving operational efficiency and minimizing the potential for human errors that can negatively impact application availability and enterprise security. This session will describe why SD-WAN adoption continues at a breakneck pace because of the user productivity, agility and cost savings benefits that a business-driven SD-WAN delivers.

MFA in the Enterprise

  Presented by John Schroeder

Multifactor Authentication (MFA) is an old technology solution with new life in protecting users and organizations from credential theft. Major platforms including Microsoft 365 and Google now offer MFA through smartphone apps and cloud accessibility.

Successful implementation of MFA adds layers of security to reduce risk of credential attacks, password re-use, privileged accounts, third-party access, and remote work.

This presentation will focus on use cases for the technology and practical considerations of implementing an enterprise solution for all types of users.

SecOps: Importance of Config. Mgmt. for Reducing Business Risk in Hybrid IT

  Presented by Micro Focus

In today’s IT world, hybrid and multi-cloud environments are the new reality and becoming increasingly more complex. Most organizations manage different technologies with vendor-provided solutions, but the reality is that using disparate solutions for hybrid environments can lead to inefficiencies and even gaps in security. The more vendors involved, the complex this becomes.

Why Encryption Is More Important Than Ever in Deterring Cybercrime

  Presented by Micro Focus

With the advancement in capabilities such as Artificial Intelligence, predictive learning analytics and data warehousing, cyber criminals Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTP) have reached levels of sophistication that enables them to gain an edge over traditional Information Security methods used to secure the enterprise. In this presentation, we will show how using Format Preserving Encryption can protect an organization’s data, with minimal impact to business and reduce the capabilities of cyber criminals to compromise sensitive data, including from previous hacks.

During this presentation, we will cover:

  • Historical notes of compromised data and why it affects you.
  • An overview of tools used by cyber criminals
  • Strategies that can be used to protect your environment
  • A Live Demo of Format Preserving Encryption

How to Build a SOC with Limited Resources

  Presented by LogRhythm

In a perfect world, your organization would staff a 24×7 Security Operation Center, and have no trouble finding the budget or talent to do so. But the truth is, most organizations can’t afford a 24×7 SOC. The cost of having well-trained analysts onsite at all times outweighs the benefits.

If your organization is making do with an informal Security Operation Center, you may be facing delays in responding to incidents. You may even fear that incidents are going unnoticed. It’s a dangerous situation.

Organizations need to think of security operations as a critical business process. Effective security operations are the first line of defense when it comes to preventing cyberattacks. To accomplish this, organizations need mature programs that leverage people, processes, and technology to rapidly detect and respond to sophisticated attacks.

The purpose of this presentation is to provide you guidance and a framework that you can apply to building, assessing, and maintaining your security operations center to ensure its success throughout the business lifecycle.