Archives: Seminar

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.

Defense in Diversification: Improving Cybersecurity via Smart Consolidation

  Presented by ExtraHop

Ask any analyst, reporter, or financial observer, and they’ll tell you that the security market is ripe for consolidation. For years, security vendors have proliferated, buoyed by high valuations and ever-expanding enterprise security budgets. While this rush to innovate has resulted in better and more sophisticated threat defenses, it has also created a complex web of tools which already overworked, overwhelmed, and understaffed security teams must manage.

This tool sprawl is one reason that so many in and around the security industry believe that an era of consolidation is coming. According to ESG Research, 66 percent of businesses are actively working to consolidate their security portfolio. For many in the security industry, a security platform that essentially puts your “SOC-in-a-box” is an ideal solution to the tool sprawl problem.

But this approach is not without peril. If the security industry consolidates to the point that there are just a few platform solutions, this will not only stifle innovation, it will result in a monoculture — and monocultures are notoriously susceptible to disease. If every organization uses an identical or nearly identical set of security tools, breaking into one means breaking into them all. And once threat actors figure out how to break in once, they’ll have the keys to every organization. Just like the world banana population —itself a monoculture — is currently being wiped out by a fungus to which is has no natural resistance, a single cyber threat could take down a vast number of organizations.

Ohh La La: I Wish That I Knew What I Know Now When I Was Younger

  Presented by Max Davis-Johnson • CIO at Boise State University

Reflections and speculations on the future of technology and how do we survive, adapt, and even thrive.* With apologies to Rod Stewart and Faces

Max Davis-Johnson has an outstanding record of transformative and innovative leadership in both Higher Education and Industry.

Max is CIO at Boise State University, a position he assumed in 2010. He served previously as Deputy University Technology Officer at Arizona State University for five years and was the Directory of Administrative Computing at Northern Arizona University from 1998 to 2005.

Prior to that, Max worked for 19 years in the Architectural Engineering Construction (AEC) systems industry as a software developer, project manager, consultant, and business developer.

Max is a graduate of the University of Kansas.

Innovation and Evolution: BC/DR for Today’s Multi-Cloud Environments

  Presented by Unitrends

We are living in a “Less is More” world. In a landscape that’s rapidly changing, IT professionals are managing more work, projects, and risk than ever before. While external threats such as malware and natural disasters cause significant downtime and data loss without proper BCDR implementation, organizations must also be prepared to safeguard from within. Data continues to grow at an exponential rate, and not only on-premises. As cloud-delivered solutions such as IaaS and SaaS are rapidly adopted by an increasing number of organizations, and the workforce itself is becoming increasingly dispersed and mobile, organizations must consider data protection strategies to address gaps in BC/DR outside the traditional data center. Join Adam Marget, Technical Specialist from Unitrends, as we explore the evolving landscape of data protection, cloud’s growing role, BC/DR strategies to safeguard local, remote, and cloud-based workloads, and best practices in planning your DR approach.

Illuminating Behavioral Patterns to Assist Technology for Insider Threats

  Presented by Vanguard Infrastructures & HPE

Today, intellectual property theft is responsible for the greatest transfer of wealth among the countries of the world and frequently involves utilizing the company Insider. The security of the company is every employees’ responsibility. Technological innovations in Machine Learning can identify both the human and machine insider threat. In addition, employees must be educated as to what to look for when looking for the Insider Threat. Sensitizing your employees to scenario indicators, elicitation techniques involving behavioral manipulation, and the other principles can create a security force multiplication that will provide greater protection for your company. Vanguard Infrastructures is presenting information and strategies to incorporate the eyes and ears of your employees in the hunt for the insider.

Current Developments in Cybersecurity Litigation

  Presented by Brad Frazer • IT Lawyer at Hawley Troxell

Despite enterprise use of best IT and security practices, routine deployment of software patches and widespread engagement of consultants and outside experts, hacks still occur—regularly. There appear to be no perfect solutions to enterprise network security, given the breadth of the hackers’ skill sets and the value to them of that which they seek: the PII, PHI and IP that resides on your or your cloud host’s servers. We have learned through sad experience that the real cost of a hack is in the remediation, which often comes only after the lawyers have gotten involved. Recent hacks have spawned much, much litigation, and there are lessons to be found in those court proceedings. This interactive session will offer a survey of recent data breach/cybersecurity litigation and present best practices that an enterprise CTO, CIO or CISO might take away from those cases.

Achieving Your Best ROI on Today’s 3rd Generation Security Solutions

  Presented by Fortinet

The old adage of having just a firewall, let alone a limited featured stateful firewall of the 1st Generation of Security Solution, does not achieve a high enough Security posture to mitigate your Risk. Today, we are past our 2nd Generation of Point solution, where “Defense In-Depth” was the trend leading to 20+ individual solutions that gave you the illusion of protection because you had so many, or one solution was a “back-up” for another. Today, with our broad networks (expanded WIFI, SD-WAN, BYOD, IOT), we know that not to be the case. The more complex your Security environment and populated with multiple non-integrated vendor solutions, the more likely for there to be a chink in your protection for a hacker to exploit.

The goal is share with everyone how you can achieve the best ROI by implementing today’s 3rd Generation of Security Solution, where internal segments, points of inspection and simplification of point-solutions are key features to the Integrated Security Fabric which all leads to Automation. Thus improving your Security Posture, Simplifying and Reducing the number of Solutions needed, and all why doing this at internal LAN network speeds, because as many Network Admins know, Slow is Broken.

Leveraging AI to Defend Against Insider Threats in Your Digital Landscape

  Presented by Vanguard Infrastructures & HPE

The single largest vulnerability to a company’s intellectual property (IP) is their employee or the trusted insider; the person with the keys to the kingdom. However, recent media and government disclosures have expanded this threat to include machine compromises installed during manufacturing. So, the threat could come from the trusted insider or the machine an unwitting employee is utilizing. Too few companies have a strategy to adequately combat these vulnerabilities, mainly due to a lack of knowledge the events are taking place. Vanguard Infrastructures presents a strategy that marries observed human behaviors, demeanors, actions, etc., with artificial intelligence and machine learning to assist companies by providing data and creating visibility into network events that might be a threat to the company. This presentation’s goal is to put more power into the hands of the company to protect their IP, identify potential problem behaviors of trusted employees and machines, and assist the company in ensuring their future.

Moderator:

  • Troy Cooper • Vanguard Infrastructures CEO Co-Founder

Panel Experts:

  • Vijay Richard • Vanguard Infrastructures Exec VP Co-Founder
  • Chris Kaufman • Vanguard Infrastructures Chief AI Strategist
  • Ann Hinkle • Vanguard Infrastructure Chief of Security Services
  • Scott Olsen • HPE Enterprise Architect

A Look at Grand Rapids IT/Cyber Security Networking, Growth, and Education

  Presented by Andrew Rozema • Department Head at Grand Rapids community College Computer Information Systems Department

Join us for a discussion regarding the various Associations, groups, and GRCC, which afford Grand Rapidians many educational and networking opportunities to advance themselves and their careers. As Western Michigan continues to grow, there are many ways that you can advance your career and benefit from. Bring your questions to set yourself up for career success!

Andrew Rozema is the department head of the Grand Rapids Community College Computer Information Systems department, an Assistant Professor, and the director of the Grand Rapids Community College Center for Cybersecurity Studies. Prof. Rozema led GRCC’s efforts to earn the NSA DHS Center of Academic Excellence designation, and now mentors and reviews other institutions as they do the same.
After 20 years in various IT, security, and managerial roles in industry, Prof. Rozema focused his attention on educating the next generation of IT and cybersecurity professionals.

As an educator Prof. Rozema teaches cybersecurity related courses for Grand Rapids Community College, the ISC2 as well as serving as a mentor for students with the SANS Institute and as an instructor for the ISC2.

Prof. Rozema holds a Bachelor of Science in Information Assurance and Security from Capella University, and a Master of Computer Information Systems with a focus on Security from Boston University. Prof. Rozema has done postgraduate work with the SANS Technology Institute and is currently a student in the interdisciplinary Ph.D. program at the Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security (CERIAS) at Purdue University.