Cyber security remains top priority for enteprises across the globe. We saw some of the concerns surrounding cyber security getting voiced and addressed at the CLOUDSEC 2017 on 13th September 2017. IT and security leaders around the world discussed the multi-faceted threats facing their enterprises. The three cyber attacks this year, namely WannaCry, Petya, and the more recent Locky, are proof that organizations need to level up their security preparedness. A total of 600 executives attended the conference and deliberated on various cyber security related topics during the one-day conference, which saw participation from top enterprises, security experts, and industry leaders.

 

The opening address was delivered by Dhanya Thakkar, Managing Director- APAC, Trend Micro, who talked about the role of the CIO as one of the key drivers of risk mitigation, and to lead necessary change and transformation. 

 

The session by Bill McGee, SVP, Hybrid Cloud Security at Trend Micro provided insights on the latest and upcoming trends in cloud computing, which may challenge current information security mindset and practices. McGee provided recommendations on how businesses can leverage cloud computing trends without compromising the security of their networks and infrastructure.

 

The keynote session was delivered by Gulshan Rai, National Cyber Security Coordinator (Ex-Officio Secretary), Government of India, who talked about how the need for good cyber security will require the cooperation of the industry. He spoke about the need for collaboration between the Indian government and security industry bigwigs.

 

The other noted experts and industry leaders who participated in a keynote panel discussion titled ‘Turning security into competitive advantage in the era of Fast-IT’ included Simon Piff, VP of Security Practice at IDC, Myla Pilao, Director, TrendLabs Research at Trend Micro, Vishal Salvi CISO, Infosys, Jayantha Prabhu, CIO at Essar Group, Sunil Varkey, VP & CISO at Wipro Technologies, and Christophe Durand, Police Senior Superintendent at Interpol Global Complex for innovation (IGCI). The session was moderated by business story-teller and event facilitator, Vijay Ramachandran.

 

Speaking at the event, Nilesh Jain, Country Manager, India & SAARC at Trend Micro said, “The CloudSec event elevates the question of how ready and prepared organization are when faced with trivial or even big security incidents.”

 

The speakers at the event raised important questions on a number of cyber security threats such as ransomware, cloud security, shadow IT, among others.

 

Vishal Salvi, CISO at Infosys, said, "The advent of ransomware tells us how important cyber security is for digital evolution today. We can expect the tech evolution and innovation to change dramatically, but we can definitely change the way we look as experts and start having that influencing capacity in terms of being able to engage the stakeholders, give the right messages, get the right budget and make sure that we are working very closely with the CIO and technology teams to build necessary controls."

 

Other important speakers at the event included Mayur Danait, CIO at Lupin, Arun Kumar Parameswaran, Managing Director at VMware India, Mohit Pande, Country Manager-India at Google Cloud, and Mr. Rajiv Chandra, Chief General Manager-Information Systems at HPCL, among others.

 

The evening keynote session was delivered by renowned author and commentator, Gurcharan Das.  He addressed a packed gathering of industry leaders, practitioners, and CISO and cited examples from The Mahabharata and drew comparisons with the digital age. He discussed the importance of communication among leaders and selecting the right people for business and security. 

 

The action-packed day ended on a high note with dinner and cocktail.