June 5, 2018
Premier Cybersecurity Event Brings Together 1,300 Cybersecurity Professionals in Albany to Discuss Latest Cybersecurity Trends
Tuesday, June 5, 2018
New York State Chief Information Officer Robert H. Samson kicked off the New York State 21st Annual Cybersecurity Conference, New York's premier cyber security event, in Albany, NY. The event, taking place on June 5 and June 6 at the Empire State Plaza, brings together 1,300 cybersecurity professionals from state and local government, academia, and the private sector, and other individuals interested in learning about cyber, discussing emerging developments in the industry, and understanding best practices designed to improve the security of our State.
The annual Conference is hosted by the New York State Office of Information Technology Services (ITS), in partnership with the University at Albany School of Business and the New York State Forum, Inc. The conference aligns with the State's longstanding commitment to protect New Yorkers and businesses from cyber threats and improve New York's cybersecurity posture.
"In this rapidly evolving digital age, cyber security is of paramount importance to every organization and individual," said New York State Chief Information Officer Robert H. Samson. "New York State is well-prepared to address cyber threats thanks to the leadership of [former] Governor Cuomo, and opportunities for us to collaborate with our government and industry partners at the New York State Cybersecurity Conference help us keep pace with the current trends in cybersecurity. We must all work together to keep New York safe from cyber threats."
New York State Chief Information Security Officer Deborah Snyder said, "We all have a role to play when it comes to cybersecurity. In New York, we are doing our part to protect New York's information, systems and critical infrastructure from cyber criminals. The Annual Cybersecurity Conference helps us raise awareness of the importance of cyber security and educate our many partners within New York State on the most effective cybersecurity strategies to safeguard their organization's information."
Joan Sullivan, Executive Director of The NYS Forum, Inc., said, "Every day we learn of new cyber threats aimed at government, industry and individuals. It is important that we understand what is happening and make sure that we are protecting our valuable assets. This conference is a unique opportunity for all of us to learn from each other regardless of our level of expertise."
Dr. Sanjay Goel, School of Business at the University at Albany, said, "Cybersecurity continues to be a key challenge and this conference is instrumental in improving awareness of challenges and new developments in the field to a broad set of audience. The interaction between researchers and practitioners is a key element of the conference where researchers are able to ground their research in reality and practitioners get a glimpse of advances in the field."
The 2018 conference features over 45 sessions, many of them including interactive discussions led by subject matter experts in government and private industry. New to the conference this year is a Security Escape Room which directly engages attendees in solving security-related challenges and puzzles, and a mobile event app for attendees to use to get the latest conference information.
Brigadier General Steven J. Spano (USAF, Ret.), President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) for the Center for Internet Security(r) (CIS(r)), delivered the opening keynote address entitled "Leading in the Age of Innovation." His remarks focused on answering the question of how we establish relevant and effective controls in a period of constant change. He underscored the need for collaboration, agility and accountability to help balance risk.
Top researchers in academia are presenting papers on information security at the 13th Annual Symposium on Information Assurance (ASIA) which runs in conjunction with the conference.
The conference offers two keynote addresses on the second day. V.S. Subrahmanian, the Dartmouth College Distinguished Professor in Cybersecurity, Technology and Society, and the Director of the Institute for Security, Technology and Society at Dartmouth College, will present a talk entitled "CCAFE: The Country Cyber-Attack Forecasting Engine." Greg Witte, Senior Security Engineer for G2 Inc and a member of the ISACA Cybersecurity Task Force, will discuss how to balance the need for driving digital business transformation with effective cybersecurity governance in his talk "Driving Governance and Risk Management in a Digital Transformation Era."
The conference will also offer several training opportunities on June 7.
For more information on the 21st Annual New York State Cybersecurity Conference, visit the conference website. For highlights of the event, follow us on Twitter @NYSITS.
About ITS
The New York State Office of Information Technology Services (ITS) was created in 2012 to transform IT services in an effort to make New York State government work smarter for its citizens and enable the state to be accessible for businesses through the use of technology. ITS provides statewide IT strategic direction, directs IT policy and delivers centralized IT products and services that support the mission of the State. ITS operates data centers 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to support statewide mission-critical applications for over 50 Agencies, over 17 million citizen accounts, 120,000 employee accounts, 60,000 phones, 99,000 desktops and laptops, and 3,433 Virtual Desktop remote connections. ITS operates a secure network of over 1,600 miles of fiber to deliver telecommunications, Internet and Intranet services, enterprise email systems and support, IT training, networking, data storage and processing to State government entities in addition to developing new services in support of citizens, businesses and State Agencies.
For more information, visit https://its.ny.gov and follow us on Twitter @nysits.