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CIOs Discuss Cybersecurity Essentials

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Thursday, 01 April 2021 03:19

Toronto – March 31, 2021 – The digital landscape changed as organizations moved workers from inside their corporate networks to their homes and into the cloud. Unfortunately, malicious actors learned to take advantage of the new environments, and cybersecurity incidents increased dramatically.

In addition to the accelerating velocity of attacks, the looming spectre of strict legislation means that traditional security approaches may no longer be suitable. Statistics indicate that cybercrime poses an existential threat to businesses not adequately prepared.

Companies entrust their CIOs to protect their data assets from unauthorized parties and manage evolving compliance requirements. Unfortunately, the speed at which threats are changing and the complexity required to mitigate risks, pose significant challenges for resource-constrained IT departments.

With these principles in mind, The IT Media Group brought together 12 cross-industry IT executives for a virtual roundtable entitled ‘Cybersecurity Essentials for the New Normal.’ The session provided an opportunity to focus on the top cybersecurity issues that organizations face.

Moderating the roundtable was Jeff Ishii, Chief Technologist at The IT Media Group. Also participating were executives from the session sponsor, ActZero, Chief Operating Officer, Chris Finan, and Mid-Market Executive, Daniel West.

The interactive session included a combination of live-polling and panel discussion about the challenges and best practices for the following topic areas:

1. The new threat landscape

• How attackers are exploiting the new normal
• The real costs of a data breach

2. The escalating challenges

• Addressing the talent deficit
• Tool and process complexity

3. Evolving cybersecurity strategies

• The promise of AI/ML
• Leveraging cloud-based services

4. Maturing the organization

• Measuring and improving security capability
• The essential cybersecurity roadmap

Following the roundtable, Chris commented, “It was fascinating to hear how executives were dealing with the emerging threats. To solve these problems, organizations need to clearly understand the risks, do the fundamentals better than the adversaries, and develop playbooks to be able to mitigate those risks when they occur.” He added, “Teams are still struggling to find the right signals in all of the noise. With our investments in artificial intelligence and human analysis, we provide a seamless interface that reflects an organization’s context, focuses on the risks that really matter, and address their overall compliance strategy.”

Dan observed, “It was exciting to listen to the IT executives talk about continuous improvement, risk management, and how they are trying to find the right people, processes, and partners. Security really is top of mind for every organization.” When asked how companies can solve their challenges, Dan added, “Leaders need to think of cybersecurity as an ever-changing landscape. We apply our broad experience by helping companies to assess their maturity against a number of frameworks and provide them with advice on how to improve their security posture.”

All participants will receive a strategic insights report highlighting tactics and best practices discussed during the roundtable.

For more material about how The IT Media Group fosters collaboration amongst the CIO community, please visit our events page. Interested parties can subscribe to our Youtube channel to watch a host of CIO roundtable highlights and executive interviews covering leadership, technology, and operations topics that address compelling issues.

The IT Media Group is an award-winning producer of events and content for senior IT executives. Based in Toronto, our leadership team includes some of the most experienced and well-respected media, technology, and business professionals serving Canada's IT executive community.