Brandon Wales was designated by President Trump as the Acting Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), on November 17, 2020. As Acting Director, Mr. Wales oversees CISA’s efforts to defend civilian networks, manage systemic risk to national critical functions, and work with stakeholders to raise the security baseline of the Nation’s cyber and physical infrastructure.

Prior to this, he was CISA's first Executive Director, serving as the senior career executive overseeing execution of the Director and Deputy Director’s vision for CISA operations and mission support. He was responsible for leading long-term strategy development, managing CISA-wide policy initiatives and ensuring effective operational collaboration across the Agency.

From August 2017 to December 2019, Mr. Wales served in multiple positions in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary’s office. He started as Senior Counselor to the Secretary for Cyber and Resilience, where he served as the Secretary’s senior advisor on cybersecurity, emergency management, incident response and building a more resilient nation. In January 2019, he was asked to serve as Deputy Chief of Staff (Acting), developing and advancing the Department’s strategic priorities. In June 2019, Mr. Wales assumed  the role of Chief of Staff (Acting), assisting the Secretary in overseeing the Department, ensuring close coordination across its operational components and managing interagency relationships.

Prior to the joining the Secretary’s office, Mr. Wales was the Director of the DHS Office of Cyber and Infrastructure Analysis (OCIA). OCIA provided integrated analysis of cyber and physical risks to the Nation’s critical infrastructure.

From 2009-2014, Mr. Wales was the Director of the Homeland Infrastructure Threat and Risk Analysis Center (HITRAC), an all-hazards analytic resource for public and private sector partners covering the full-array of risks facing the infrastructure community. As the Director of HITRAC, he also oversaw the Department’s advanced modeling, simulation, and analysis program, leading a team of researchers conducting ground-breaking and forward-leaning analysis of some of the Nation’s most complex infrastructure challenges.

During his time at the Department, Mr. Wales has been called upon to support a variety of Department-wide initiatives. When the Department began working on the first Quadrennial Homeland Security Review in 2009, Wales was asked to lead the review of the counterterrorism and cyber security mission areas. Following the release of Executive Order 13636, Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity, in February 2013, Mr. Wales led the effort to identify critical infrastructure at potential catastrophic risk from cybersecurity incidents.

Mr. Wales’ contributions have been recognized with an Exceptional Performance Award from the Director of National Intelligence, a DHS Secretary’s Award for Excellence, and a DHS Distinguished Service Medal, the Department’s highest civilian award.

Prior to joining the Department in 2005, Wales served as a national security aide to United States Senator Jon Kyl and as a Senior Associate at a Washington-based foreign policy and national security think-tank.

Mr. Wales received his Bachelor’s degree from George Washington University and his Master’s degree from The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Lindy became CEO of the National Cyber Security Centre in October 2020 following more than two decades of national security policy and crisis management experience. She was previously a Director-General in the Northern Ireland Office and at the Department for International Development (DFID). After starting her career in the private sector, Lindy served across government both at home and abroad, including postings in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Andreas Könen is the Director General Cyber and Information Security. Previously he was the Head of Directorate IT II IT and Cyber Security; Secure Information Technology and ÖS III Cyber security in the field of law enforcement and domestic intelligence by the German Federal Ministry of the Interior. Prior to this, he was the Vice President of the German “Federal Office for Information Security (BSI)”.

Mr Könen, a graduate mathematician, joined the BSI in 2006, taking on the post as the Head of the Executive Staff of the BSI, Director General. In 2009 he became the Head of the Division “Security in Applications and Critical Infrastructures” and subsequently Head of the Department “Security Consulting and Coordination”. Prior to the BSI, Mr Könen held various positions in the field of information technology within the German Federal Administration, including executive functions.

Scott is the Head of the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security. The Cyber Centre is the single unified source of expert advice, guidance, services and support on cyber security for government, critical infrastructure owners and operations, the private sector and the Canadian public.
Scott began his career at the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) in 1999 and has held various positions including Assistant Deputy Minister of IT Security, acting Assistant Deputy Minister of Corporate Services and Chief Financial Officer, Director General of Cyber Defence and a variety of positions of increasing responsibility across CSE, primarily in the Signals Intelligence and IT Security domains. He previously worked at the Privy Council Office as a National Security Policy Advisor in the Security & Intelligence Secretariat.
Scott holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Electronic Systems Engineering, a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, and a Masters of Business Administration.

For the last 3.5 years Ami Levin has been leading the cyber security global promotion activities at the foreign trade administration, within Israel's ministry of economy and industry. In addition, Ami is director of trade and investment promotion and oversees the operation of Israel's trade offices throughout Europe.

Prior to that, Ami has served two terms of 4 years each on diplomatic missions, as Israel's economic attaché and head of trade office in Spain and in Switzerland. Ami is a graduate of the ministry of economy and industry cadets training course. He holds a B.A and M.A in international relations and economics, both from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Ami is a proud father of two and enjoys hiking outdoors, cooking and reading.

Today's security environment has grown too complicated. Clients have too many tools, too much data, and too few resources. Typically, the security operations center analysts take 200+ days to detect an attack and another 70+ days to respond.

To transform, we must think differently. We can follow the example set by other major technology areas and our adversaries: leveraging open & collaborative practices to react faster and respond more intelligently.

This session will address how Open Security can be the next frontier for Security and transform security operations. We will discuss how using an open platform to integrate existing security tools across a hybrid environment can generate more in-depth insights,  help analysts respond faster to incidents and become more proactive with an open threat hunting approach.

Sridhar Muppidi is an IBM Fellow and CTO for IBM Security, driving the technical strategy, architecture, and Research for IBM Security, comprising products and services offerings. He is one of the industry-recognized technical experts and thought leaders with a proven track record of blending technology vision with business acumen, resulting in innovative security solutions for enterprises' digital transformation journey. He is a results-oriented technical leader with 20+yrs experience in building security products, delivering solution architecture for clients, driving open standards, and leading technical teams.

He has an MS and a Ph.D. in computer science from Texas A&M University and now serves on TAMU's board of directors. He is an IBM Master inventor with 50+ issued patents and has published numerous technical articles, blogs, conferences, and journals. Sridhar is passionate about open security initiatives and outdoor activities.

Dr. Dorit Dor is one of the world’s leading women in cyber. She has been serving as Vice President of Products for Check Point Software Technologies for more than 25 years. In this role she leads an organization of over 1,400 employees and manages all of Check Point’s products, research and development.

Dr. Dor was named one of Israel’s most influential women by Forbes Israel, for her leadership role in one of the world’s leading tech industries. She is a member of the World Economic Forum and her research about graph decomposition, median selection and geometric pattern matching in d-dimensional space has been published in several influential scientific journals. In 1993 she won the Israel National Defense Prize.

Dr. Dor holds a Ph.D. and M.S degree in computer science from Tel-Aviv University, in addition to graduating cum laude for her Bachelor of Science degree.