For the past eight years, the Cyber Security Summit in Minneapolis has brought people with different viewpoints on cybersecurity issues together to hear from experts, learn about trends and discuss actionable solutions. Our 2018 Summit was no different and we’d like to thank you once again for joining us!

In addition to the annual 2-day Summit, this year we hosted multiple half-day events on Tuesday. These sessions focused on healthcare & medical device cybersecurity, DevSecOps for practitioners, GDPR and cybersecurity for small and mid-size businesses.

Feedback from attendees

Here’s what attendees had to say about Cyber Security Summit 2018:

“Excited to be back in #Minneapolis for the CyberSecurity Summit! Proud to be a part of this great event, and looking forward to talking to Small/Mid-Sized Biz about comms strategies for cyber events. Let’s do this! @cs_summit #SMBs #cybercomms #CyberSecMonth” – @DealyMahler

“Great GDPR talk today at the Cyber Security summit Mpls @cs_summit” – @AbstractForward

“That’s a wrap! Thank you to all the folks at the @cs_summit for another great conference, to the fantastic speakers & the CSS advisory board, our faculty/students/alumni, and everyone who stopped by to chat with us! #CSS18 #cybersecurity” – @UMNTLI

Keynote takeaways

We were privileged to have leaders in cybersecurity from across the nation leading our sessions, speaking on panels and as our keynotes. If you missed a session or want to recap what was discussed, visit our website for all speaker slides from the 2018 Summit.

For many, the keynote by internationally renowned security technologist and author Bruce Schneier was a Summit highlight. During his one-hour presentation, Schneier touched on many topics, including the growing risks in the cybersecurity industry, reasons why software’s design makes it easy to hack, shifting themes regarding data authentication, as well why the internet will soon no longer be regulation-free.

After the keynote, Schneier held a meet-and-greet with attendees and signed copies of his newest book “Click Here to Kill Everybody.”

Visionary Leadership Awards dinner

This year we decided to change the format of the Visionary Leadership awards from a simple ceremony to an evening dinner. We also decided to expand the awards, with a goal of recognizing innovative people in the cybersecurity industry at all levels of experience.

The dinner, held on Wednesday night, was kicked off by awards committee chair Chris Buse (Deputy Legislative Auditor, Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor and former CISO of the State of Minnesota) and co-Emceed by Kathy Orner (Vice President, Chief Risk Officer of Carlson Wagonlit Travel) and Jason Witty (Executive Vice-President and Chief Information Security Officer at US Bank).

Upon receiving their award, each honoree had the opportunity to give a short speech.  Congratulations to this year’s winners; we are grateful for your contributions to the security industry and honored to work alongside you.

– Academic Leader Winner: Faisal Kaleem, Metropolitan State University, Professor, Department of Computer Science and Security; MN Cyber, Executive Director

– Application Security Winner: Target Product Intelligence team lead by Jennifer Czaplewski, Director

– Emerging Technologies Winner: Todd Carpenter, Adventium Labs, Chief Engineer

– Global Security Leader Winner: Bradley Brekke, Mayo Clinic, Chief Security Officer (Interim)

– Governance Champion Winner: Col. Stefanie Horvath, Minnesota Army National Guard, Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Minnesota Department of Military Affairs; Minnesota IT Services, Executive Director Enterprise Services

– IT Audit Winner: Steen Fjalstad, Midwest Reliability Organization, Security and Mitigation Principal

– Security Awareness Program Winner: Chrysa Freeman, Code42, Manager, Security Governance Risk & Compliance Awareness

– Security Operations Winner: Neal Dawson, State of Minnesota IT Services, Vulnerability Management Director

– Student Winner: Richard Ketelsen, Metropolitan State University, Student

– Visionary Program Leader Winner: Jim O’Conner, Cargill, Chief Information Security Officer

Cyber Security Summit 2018 was a great success and we are looking forward to another successful and educational event in 2019. Be sure to follow our social media channels (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) and check back on our website for upcoming details regarding next year’s Summit.