Australia’s private and government sectors, like their counterparts around the world, are under constant threat from cyber security attacks.
And, despite strong defensive initiatives to combat these attacks, in just 12- months to the end of June last year, the Australian Cyber Security Centre (CERT) responded to nearly 15,000 security incidents affecting Australian businesses.
The 14.804 attacks on businesses in the private sector over the 12-months were reported by CERT along with 1,095 cyber security incidents on government systems over the period - all of which were considered serious enough to warrant operational responses by CERT.
So, with cyber security such a hot topic in Australia and around the world, it’s against this backdrop that the issue will be on the agenda for discussion and debate at the 2nd annual CISO Leaders Summit at Melbourne’s Edhiad Stadium on Thursday 16 February.
{loadposition peter}To be staged by leading B2B event management company Media Corp International (MCI), the CISO 2017 Summit will be given an insiders view on the global security environment from a number of local and international security experts, including keynote speaker, Christian Karam, the Singapore-based Director of Cyber Threat Intelligence at UBS Bank.
Under the disconcerting title – ‘Plan, Pray or Pay’ - Karam, a former Lead Cyber Threat Researcher and Head of the Cyber Research Lab at INTERPOL, will talk about the increasingly threatening security environment faced by the world today.
In a preamble to his address at the CISO Leaders Summit, Karam says that CISOs around the world are confronted with a “very challenging, evolving and aggressive threat landscape”.
According to Karam, the security response by organisations has moved from the “reactive model to more preventive, adaptive and investigative activities with an increased interest in threat intelligence capabilities”.
As Karam warns, “Blocking the attack is important but less compelling compared to blocking the attacker”.
“Identifying and profiling threat actors becomes key for organisations who intend to measure their defence matrix while mapping it to the attackers’ capabilities.”
And, Karam has a caution for CIOs grappling with the challenge of combatting cyber security threats.
“Such challenges cannot be overcome “unless CISOs drive a strong security driven philosophy,” he says.
Christian Karam’s subjects of expertise are threat intelligence, threat research, cryptography, cybercrime and underground economy as well as cryptocurrencies crime and blockchain technology.
He holds degrees in Information Security Engineering, cybersecurity and is currently pursuing advanced research in the areas of threat modelling and threat analysis He is also a member of the INTERPOL Global Cybercrime Experts Group and an advisor for several security and blockchain based startups.
Karam is one of an impressive lineup of speakers at this years CISO Leaders Summit 2017 which includes:
• Ian Gibson, Chief Information Officer, SuperChoice: ‘Securing the Cloud: It’s security Jim but not as we know it!’
• Syed Asghar, Information Security Governance Manager, Vodafone: The Importance of Asset Management - How to reduce IT Security with Asset management
• Anthony Lim. Director Asia Pacific, Cloud Security Alliance: Mobile Application & Security Testing
• Stuart Mort, Director of Cyber Security, Optus: “Strategy Unabridged”
• David Fisher, Global Head of Technology Risk & Information Security, ANZ Bank: Cyber Security Essentials: Collaboratively Securing our Ecosystem.
Security experts from CyberArk and Crowdstrike will also join the lineup of speakers at CISO Leaders 2017.
At the CISO Leaders Summit, the international and Australian speakers and “thought leaders” are being brought together by MCI as part of the event management company’s approach in selecting what it says are “the absolute leaders within each of their respected fields”.
As Media Corp International Australian CEO Tyron McGurgan says the Summit provides attendees with a huge amount of networking opportunities through breakfast, luncheons, cocktails, gala dinners and opportunities for informal introductions.
McGurgan says around 65 IT Security leaders from across Australia will attend the Summit with around 120 industry representatives, while 15 leading technology suppliers will also be on site.
He says the Summit allows both “buyers and sellers” the opportunity to engage with one another onsite in a series of prearranged business meetings.
To register for the 2nd annual CISO Leaders Summit go to the website.