Archives: Seminar

The Value of a Reliable CMDB & Practical Steps to Get There

  Presented by ServiceNow

Why have a CMDB? What is needed to build one? How do I maintain one? Why do CMDB projects sometimes fail or end up incomplete? What are the major best practices? What pitfalls should I avoid? The concept of CMDBs has been around for over a decade now. Some CMDB projects are successful. Some fail, are abandoned, or never really get there. This presentation first revisits the value of spending the effort to establish a functional and reliable CMDB. We then discuss a road map, practical best practices, pitfalls and do’s and don’ts in order to successfully establish a reliable and maintainable CMDB.

Quantification of Information Security Risk and Assessing Financial Impact

  Presented by Tolgay Kizilelma, Ph.D. • CISO at UC, Merced

Risk management is an integral part of information security programs. These programs usually are based on frameworks to improve the information security posture of an organization, and to reduce risk. Questions from decision-makers, such as “How much risk do we have? Which activities and gaps should be addressed and prioritized?” are not easy to answer. The presentation will focus on understanding, analyzing, and quantifying information security risk in financial terms, ensuring business-IT risk alignment resulting in informed and cost-effective business decisions.

A business-IT leader with twenty-five years of industry experience covering the whole IT spectrum. He is currently leading the cybersecurity efforts as the Chief Information Security Officer at University of California Merced. After almost two decades in private sector, Tolgay joined UC and initially worked for UC Agriculture and Natural Resources leading statewide infrastructure projects and help desk, network, systems, and information security teams. He is an advocate of lifelong learning and teaches graduate business analytics courses at Saint Mary’s College of California. His current research interests are cybersecurity, business analytics, and educational IT programs. He has various industry certifications, an MBA, and PhD focusing on information security, quality, and patient safety.

The Current Malware Threat Landscape & Enterprise Grade Remediation

  Presented by Malwarebytes

Malware has become one of the biggest threat challenges faced by security and IT teams. Malwarebytes Labs conducts extensive proprietary research and analysis. The findings are periodically published to help security teams better understand the nature and evolution of these threats.

This presentation will cover key findings from our newly released annual report. It will highlight malware category trends and discuss new and emerging threats to be on the watch for. There will also be a discussion of industry best practices and technologies that can help your business to prevent, detect, and remediate these threats.

Attendees will leave with insight into the current malware threat landscape, as well as an understanding of steps they can take to mitigate breaches.

Changing Culture: Turning Adversaries into Allies

  Moderated by INTERFACE Advisory Council

It is often said that the human element is the biggest challenge when it comes to
cyber security. In your office, you have so many users on your network that must be
part of the solution. IT departments are often facing challenges in forging positive
relationships with users. What are the approaches that help? There are ways to
encourage positive relationships that will help change the culture of a company. Join
the INTERFACE-Sacramento Advisory Council to get firsthand experience on what
you can do to improve this dynamic. Bring your questions for this panel discussion
to help create more allies in your office.

Panelists:

  • Adam German • CISO – California State Controller’s Office
  • Tony Thomas • Director, Technology – Merced Union High School District
  • Christopher Geraghty • Associate VP, Enterprise Architecture – Synchrony Financial
  • Maisha Dottery • Chief Strategist – California State Treasurer’s Office

Cloud Security Myths Busted!

  Presented by Keson Khieu • Cyber Security Strategist

Cloud promises scaled computing at great power, for no time and effort. Security is
included, right? Wrong! This talk demystifies Cloud Security by busting the four
most common myths. It also offers a clear view of what cloud security is, and how to
properly protect what’s in the cloud. Don’t get caught in the deluge of hacks without
proper cloud security. Bring your questions for this interactive discussion with a
leading local IT Security end-user that has been through the same challenges you
are facing.

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.

Welcome to the New Age of Converged Secondary and Primary Storage

  Presented by StorageCraft

Managing storage continues to be complex, and often expensive. Something needs to change, and it certainly won’t be a dramatic increase in staffing. Fortunately, object storage is the answer. By eliminating the use of legacy RAID, object storage, can be the foundation for a scale-out converged storage solution that solves both data protection and primary storage challenges. Want to recover a multi-TB VM in less than a second? No problem. Want to protect files from ransomware? No problem. Need an enterprise file serving, archiving, or virtual server storage solution? No Problem. Attend this session to learn how object storage is changing the landscape for IT admin and the technology of the future.

Security Automation in the Cloud

  Presented by Trend Micro

Cloud Computing brings greater simplicity around provisioning and deployment. The challenge is how to properly apply security without creating complexity.

With automation, one can use traditional technical controls to provide comprehensive coverage. This approach is not simply paying “lip service” to compliance requirements.

In this session we will discuss the drivers for such automation and look at what is traditionally considered detective controls in a preventative way.

Changing the Perception from the “IT Person” to a Technology Leader

  Presented by Monty Low • Director of IT, Arizona Coyotes

Focused discussion about the perception of the IT Department to Executives and how the technology leadership role is evolving into a focal point of every business.

Originally a Canadian hockey nut migrated to the US to pursue my dreams in pro sports and technology. Currently Director of IT at the Arizona Coyotes Hockey Club, leader of the NHL Technology Group and FBI Phoenix Citizens Academy member.

Evolving Your BC/DR Strategy to Protect Today’s Multi-Cloud Environments

  Presented by Unitrends

We are living in a “Less is More” world. IT Professionals are facing more work, projects, and risks than ever before, while having less time, money, and a shrinking tolerance of downtime. External threats such as malware and natural disasters present significant risk to organizations without the proper BCDR strategies, but they are far from the only causes of data loss. Data continues to grow at an exponential rate and not only on-premises. As organizations are rapidly adopting cloud-based solutions in the form of IaaS, SaaS, and PaaS, they must also consider data protection strategies to address native gaps within these platforms. Join Adam Marget, Technical Solutions Specialist, Unitrends, as we explore the evolving landscape of data protection, cloud’s growing role, BC/DR strategies to safeguard all workloads, and best practices in planning your DR approach.