Cybersecurity Thought Leaders Gather at Nasdaq to ReThink Cyber
Back in September, Equifax, one of the three largest credit agencies, announced a cybersecurity breach. Cybercriminals accessed 145.5 million U.S. Equifax consumers’ personal data, including their full names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and, in some cases, driver’s license numbers. At least 209,000 consumers’ credit card credentials were compromised. This attack joins a number of recent attacks that targeted large private and government institutions, raising concerns that this is just the beginning of 21st century warfare — cyber warfare.
In this increasingly challenging environment of cyber attacks, Chief Information Security Officers are struggling with the asymmetry of such attacks and are looking for cutting-edge solutions. Although one of the biggest cybersecurity concerns is protecting their organization’s privacy, the format of gathering and sharing information amongst peers can actually prevent others from making similar mistakes.
Two years ago we had an idea — what if we could create a safe space to host some of world’s best talent in cyber along with leading CIOs/CISOs and allow them to discuss challenges that only they would understand?
On October 30th, we partnered with Nasdaq and portfolio company, Team8, Israel’s leading cybersecurity foundry, for the Third Annual ReThink Cyber Summit in New York City. Hosted at the iconic Nasdaq MarketSite, the event featured talks and fireside chats from cutting-edge cybersecurity entrepreneurs, key executives from Fortune 500 companies, and high ranking government officials. We rounded out the evening with a cocktail hour complete with a special guest performance by Nasdaq’s very own cover band.
As in previous years, ReThink Cyber attracted leading minds in the global cybersecurity community. More than 180 CIOs and CISOs from companies and organizations such as Bank of America, Citigroup, Time Inc., Target, Harvard University, and the NYPD participated in discussions surrounding the biggest challenges facing industry today.
Speakers such as the NSA’s Former General, Keith Alexander, the FBI’s Former Deputy Director, Sean Joyce, and CIOs from Colgate-Palmolive and Comcast shared how both the US government and the private sector view imminent cyber threats and stressed the importance of partnering with emerging cybersecurity startups to provide complex and agile security solutions. Lastly, Geoff Brown, the CISO of New York City, summarized the event: “we need to rethink cyber and embrace distribution with blockchain…with defensive insights gathered and applied at machine speed, and we need to apply public/private partnerships in a new way challenging the private sector to take a leading role.”
ReThink Cyber is the perfect embodiment of the engagements we lead through our Value Creation Team. Bringing together the world’s smartest people to tackle the world’s hardest problems creates magic — leading to new ideas, partnerships, and deals. As there is no industry untouched by cyber threats, we expect to drive more collaborations within this important ecosystem.
