Archives: Seminar

State of Alaska IT Transformation

  Presented by Bill Smith • Chief Information Officer, State of Alaska

The State of Alaska is currently engaged in centralization of services and transforming the structure of Information Technology delivery. This presentation will provide insight into the driving factors of transformation, a description of the current state, as well as an overview of future plans.

Bill Smith began his current role as State of Alaska Chief Information Officer in November 2019. In this position, he is responsible for the direction of the Office of information Technology, managing all information technology services and related resources within the executive branch of the State, and providing strategic oversight of the State enterprise systems and infrastructure.

Bill has over 28 years of experience leading teams of all sizes in both the public and private sectors. During his successful career in the United States Army, he was a lead participant in several high-level Headquarters, Department of the Army projects involving operational forecasting, and national force structure. Additionally, he was called upon to direct combat military operations and develop an innovative aviation organization and training program to meet critical Army intelligence collection requirements.

Bill chose to stay in Alaska after he retired from the Army and entered the private sector with a major Alaska-based broadband and communications provider. Over the course of several years, he served in senior product, project and program management roles, covering the spectrum of technology solutions provided to business, consumer, and government agencies in Alaska. In his role as the Senior Manager of Customer Support, Bill redesigned the company’s service assurance manager program to provide improved and deeply engaged customer support to strategic partners.

Bill and his wife Jo have three children and have resided in Alaska for over 13 years.

Vendor Management and Data Privacy

  Presented by AT&T

Among rapidly evolving technological advancements, the emergence of AI-enhanced malware is making cyber-attacks exponentially more dangerous and harder to identify. In the near future, we will begin to see supercharged, AI-powered cyber-attacks leveraged at scale. To protect against Offensive AI attacks, organizations are turning to defensive cyber AI, which can identify and neutralize emerging malicious activity, no matter when, or where, it strikes.

In this session, learn about:

  • Paradigm shifts in the cyber landscape
  • Advancements in offensive AI attack techniques
  • The Immune System Approach to cyber security and defensive, Autonomous Response capabilities
  • Real-world examples of emerging threats that were stopped with Cyber AI

Surviving the Hack!

  Presented by INTERFACE Advisory Council

In 2018, the Mat-Su Borough was the victim of major cyber-attack. In this session, Eric Wyatt, Director, Information Technology & CIO for the Mat-Su Borough will take you behind the hack. He will outline what happened, the response to the attack and how he survived this incident on a professional level. Also, Eric will be joined by several other Alaska IT leaders that were a part of the coordinated response. You will learn key tips on avoiding and detecting these attacks and also find resources that are available you may not be aware of.

Panelists:
Eric Wyatt • Director, Information Technology & CIO, Matanuska-Susitna Borough
Rob Barnett • VP, Information Technology, Olgoonik Development, LLC
Doug Miller • Sr. Management Consultant, Wostmann & Associates
Daniel Monarch • Cyber Security Specialist, Matanuska-Susitna Borough

One Company’s Journey to a Modern Data Center Environment

  Presented by Structured

When the facilities team at a healthcare organization in the Pacific Northwest announced to the IT team that they were undertaking a campus remodel project and they needed the on-prem data center for office space, the IT team quickly sprang into action to find a new home for their DR environment. From learning of this management decision, to performing a due diligence assessment of their ability to use a DRaaS solution, into an RFI and RFP process, and coming to agreement on a contract, this was one of the most rigorous evaluation projects the company has undertaken. This presentation will describe that journey of evaluation and discovery, including the rest of the story which describes the onboarding process and challenges faced along the way. Craig Rhodes is an experienced professional actively engaged with various clients providing Data Center and Program Management consulting services.

Master the Edge: How to Achieve Context-Aware, Zero Trust Network Access

  Presented by Structured & Aruba

Have you been tasked with implementing Zero Trust Network Access but are unsure of how to go about it? Are you confused about how to achieve “minimum access”? Are you struggling with employing “continuous adaptive risk & trust assessment” on your network? If so, attend this session. Learn how to deploy an open, multi-vendor Enterprise security framework that gives security and IT teams an integrated way to gain visibility, control, and advanced threat defense. See how security prioritization and machine learning helps organizations leverage existing third-party solutions to better protect investments and implement proactive risk controls.

Why Protecting Crypto Keys is More Important Than the Data They are Protecting

  Presented by nCipher

In Part 1 Mr. Beutlich talked about the history of cryptography. As Brad discussed, throughout history, the weakest link of every encryption solution (no matter how simple or complex) was exchanging and protecting the cryptographic key. In Part 2 of this series, Brad will discuss in detail why, in the 21st century, the creation and protection of a crypto key is even more important than it’s ever been. Join Brad for another lively presentation on how important it is to protect crypto keys.

What You Don’t Understand About Crypto Can Hurt You

  Presented by nCipher

For over 2000 years, governments, armies, businesses and lovers have been encrypting messages. For the same amount of time, the keys used to perform the encryption have been the weakest link in the chain. After 2000 years, technology has advanced such that the keys can be protected but many companies don’t understand how important it really is. Mr. Beutlich will explain in an entertaining (and sometimes graphic) fashion why protecting the encryption key is more important than the encryption itself.

Offensive AI vs. Defensive AI: Battle of the Algorithms

  Presented by Darktrace

Among rapidly evolving technological advancements, the emergence of AI-enhanced malware is making cyber-attacks exponentially more dangerous and harder to identify. In the near future, we will begin to see supercharged, AI-powered cyber-attacks leveraged at scale. To protect against Offensive AI attacks, organizations are turning to defensive cyber AI, which can identify and neutralize emerging malicious activity, no matter when, or where, it strikes.

In this session, learn about:

  • Paradigm shifts in the cyber landscape
  • Advancements in offensive AI attack techniques
  • The Immune System Approach to cyber security and defensive, Autonomous Response capabilities
  • Real-world examples of emerging threats that were stopped with Cyber AI

Shifting from ITSM to ESM as a Way to Enable and Transform the Enterprise

  Presented by ServiceNow

As a member of IT, have you found yourself doubting your relationship with the rest of the organization as you’re perceived as a cost center rather an equal part stakeholder with a common goal? Do you find yourself struggling to collaborate with the rest of the organization as the tech debt in your organization has created seemingly insurmountable silo’s? If you feel any of this describes your work environment and how IT may be perceived, please join the discussion in how the concepts of IT Service Management need to shift to a more inclusive Enterprise Service Management strategy. Ultimately, driving more effective technology purchasing, collaboration across the enterprise and re-branding of IT as an organizational enabler.

Network & Security Architectures of the Future

  Presented by Fortinet

This will be a talk focused on examining data center and enterprise architectures of the future. Where do existing products and features fall within data center or enterprise designs? Where do hybrid clouds fit in? How will Cybersecurity products and offerings continue to evolve?