A lot of people have been asking us about ThreatLAB2014. Slots for attendance have been filling up fast and we are hard at work developing the exciting scenarios for the interactive portion scheduled for day one. In case you haven’t heard, the ThreatLAB2014 event will highlight the complex threats facing U.S. innovation. It will be a combination of traditional keynote speakers and panel discussions coupled with interactive scenarios during which our attendees will have the opportunity to learn critical intelligence techniques to better understand holistic vulnerabilities associated with corporate espionage incidents impacting three fictional companies. (Spoiler alert: the vulnerabilities are not just limited to the traditional “cyber” threat and ALL could have been avoided had there been an emphasis on being proactive rather than reactive.)
In fact, the real reason why we at Secure Halo (along with our partners) came up with the ThreatLAB 2014 concept was because we needed a fun and interesting way to tell the market what we have been saying since our founding in 2006: cyber-centric solutions are fundamentally limited when it comes to responding to cyber threats. This is because isolated investments in expensive technology hardware and software ignore the role of people and processes. What about human behavior inside an organization (think insider threat)?; Or the role of external dependencies, such as suppliers, sub-suppliers, or contractors (think the Target breach)?; Or even the financial and business constraints affecting security investments (think every organization everywhere). This is why we advocate a holistic approach to risk assessment – one that is “proactive” at its core and that considers the evolving risks in dependent business functions. It also can deliver a more cost-effective and more resilient approach to security that explores all the internal and external forces affecting a security posture.
For our ThreatLAB 2014 keynote, we are lucky to have John Powell, who was the general counsel for American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC) in 2011 when the company fell victim to a devastating corporate espionage event where an employee – in exchange for an apartment in Beijing, $1.7 million, and gifts for his girlfriend – sold out his company by providing AMSC’s competitor with crucial source code relating to its proprietary wind turbine technology. As a result of this insider threat, AMSC’s market capitalization was reduced by 90 percent, its annual revenue plummeted by 75 percent and its workforce was decimated by 70 percent. John’s presentation, “Sinovel Trade Secret Theft: Case Study of AMSC’s Successful Litigation and Conviction After Purported Chinese Corporate Espionage of AMSC Trade Secrets,” will serve as a valuable, albeit somber learning experience for ThreatLAB 2014 participants as they begin to transition to problem-solving mode and start the scenarios.
This is going to be an awesome event. Did I mention it is going to be in Las Vegas and that accommodations at the amazing Monte Carlo Resort & Casino are covered for participants? This is one event you don’t want to miss.
For more information on attending ThreatLab2014, please visit the website or send me a note through our website or Twitter. We hope to see you there.
