Boston CISO Executive Summit

Today’s CISOs face daunting challenges. As the business leader in charge of adding value to the company, finding the right talent and inspiring technology innovation, there’s an incredible amount of pressure. It’s no surprise that CISOs are experiencing burnout at unprecedented rates. While taking care of employees is important, how can CISOs make sure they are taking care of themselves to help make their careers sustainable while maintaining a sense of well-being? 

Join this keynote to explore:

• Evidence-based strategies that can help alleviate burnout
• How to recognize the signs and symptoms of toxic stress and burnout
• How to remain engaged, energized, and focused during turbulent times

In the ever-challenging world of cybersecurity, CISOs are in a state of stress and hypervigilance.  But your humanity matters now more than ever. Now is the time to explore new strategies to maintain your well-being so you can so you can remain a resilient leader.

Join this interactive benchmarking session to dive deeper into:

• How stress is really impacting your life
• Your body/mind maintenance
• Small everyday habits that can make a big difference

Prioritizing and eliminating the cyber risks that matter most is the ultimate goal of security leaders. But how do you validate that your efforts are hitting the mark? It all comes down to well-crafted measurements: metrics that are reliable and easily understood by all stakeholders across the business.

In this session, we will discuss:

• Cybersecurity risk assessment essentials and which risks truly carry weight
• Concrete approaches to determine effectiveness of security capabilities
• Creating simple "metric cards" to communicate across stakeholders

Shadow AI introduced a new layer of risk in a time when security leaders are already grappling with the formidable challenges of managing hidden technical debt and uncovering shadow IT. Today’s digital landscape requires a new approach to risk and governance – one that identifies the shadows already existing in your organization and stops future shadows emerging as you harness the power of emerging technologies.

Join this session to discuss:

• Uncovering existing hidden technical debts and shadow IT that inhibit agility, innovation and security
• Establishing centralized risk frameworks and governance that are enforceable and scalable
• Involving the C-suite and end users in establishing and understanding protections to deter rogue IT and AI

Connect with like-minded peers in a one-on-one setting through Evanta’s Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.

Is it possible to combat the information security talent shortage and improve cyber resilience across 351 municipalities at the same time? The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is taking a unique approach to do just that.

Join this session with the Commonwealth's CISO & Chief Risk Officer, Anthony O'Neill, and Deputy Chief Risk Officer, Christine Horan, as they share how they're:

• Leveraging community partnerships to spark interest in security careers from students of all ages
• Connecting the dots between building future security leadership skills and addressing current security skills gaps
• Building a sustainable pipeline of local cyber talent that will benefit public and private organizations across the Commonwealth

While the vast majority of infrastructure has been upgraded and modernized to secure the shift to the cloud, enterprise IT teams are still missing an equally seamless access method to safely deliver those now cloud-native apps and data. While traditional browsers have become the de facto access point for the majority of business critical applications, they lack the deep inspection capabilities and hyper-granular security controls enterprises need. This results in security teams surrounding their browsers with layers of tech to meet those needs.

Join this breakout session to discover:

• Why traditional cloud security methods undermine your modernization efforts and end-user experience
• Embracing technological momentum to adapt to a "more-with-less" security landscape
• How enterprise CISOs are using this solution to bolster cloud security

As more and more organizations adopt a Zero Trust architecture (ZTA), many initiatives overlook the increased prevalence of API-based access to sensitive application functionality and data. As CISOs move forward in their ZTA journey, how can they extend these principles to their API strategy to ensure security from the network layer to the application layer?

Join this session to discuss:

• Breaking the kill chain by stopping infection vectors and protecting against lateral movement
• Shielding sensitive data and limiting how APIs interact with data
• Increasing real-time visibility across the business to mitigate threats

Economic trends have tightened purse strings everywhere, leaving CISOs and security leaders to demonstrate ROI and defend their budgets. But ROI is notoriously tough to quantify when the primary return for security investment is reduction in risk. As a result, bridging the gap between security investments and actual business impact can be easier said than done, particularly if your cybersecurity spend doesn’t clearly map to organizational goals.

Join this session to discuss:

• Identifying the right metrics for quantifying security ROI and business impact        
• Positioning security as a business enabler, rather than a cost center
• Aligning security investments to organizational goals