IANS Fall Forum Tracks Announcement

We don’t want to be the first ones to point out that summer is coming to a close, but as sad as that may be, it’s also exciting because it means the beginning of IANS’ fall Forum season! We have four great end user Information Security Forums lined up for the second half of the year (there are still spots available so register now) and our Faculty are busy putting the finishing touches on their tracks.

The first of the fall Forums is the New England Information Security Forum right here in Boston on September 20-21, 2011. In keeping with the first half of the year, track leaders include:

• Aaron Turner, facilitating Information Protection roundtables
• Dave Shackleford (who will also be giving the opening keynote), leading discussions on Operations topics
• Marcus Ranum, heading up Security Organization and Management. Marcus will be assisted by fellow Faculty, Gunnar Peterson
• Randy Sabett, joined by Diana Kelley, directing collaboration on the legal aspects of information security risk and compliance

This year's Forum will also feature a fifth track on Application Security led by Faculty member Ron Ritchey. Check back next week for descriptions of Ron's sessions!

In addition, the New England Forum will feature an exclusive CISO track for senior level security executives who are also IANS clients. We are thrilled to announce that the CISO track will highlight facilitated discussions by guest presenters Richard Bejtlich and Grady Summers.

Kicking off the morning will be Richard’s session on “Mitigating the Advanced Persistent Threat.” IANS continually hears from our clients that APT and cyber crime is a constant, nagging concern (if not for their own company… yet, then because of headline news read by company executives), and it is the CISO’s job to deal with real, perceived, and impending APT issues. Thus, during his session Richard will provide advice and real-life use cases on what he’s seen, what’s worked, what doesn’t, and what CISOs can do to deal with APTs at their own organizations. Following the short presentation portion of the session, CISOs will collectively discuss:

• How to keep up with industry-specific threats
• Tactics and techniques to detect and mitigate APTs
• The real implications of APT incidents

Later in the day Grady Summers will lead CISO participants through a follow-on discussion on managing cyber security at a board level. With today's threats consistently making front-page news, even the most traditional boards are starting to ask about cyber security. To be prepared for such an event, Grady will walk participants through varying scenarios on handling:

• What works and what’s not effective with regard to board communication on information security
• What audit committee chairs at some of the world's biggest companies are saying about security
• Why you might not be doing your job if you're trying to "speak the language of the business" to your board

We’re looking forward to hearing the group’s thoughts on these topics and gathering the data that all of IANS’ clients can use to improve their own information security posture.

It’s shaping up to be our best event yet, so please join us in Boston - or one of the cities closer to you - to be part of the conversation!