By Tim Crothers and Catharine Trebnick, Co-Chairs, 2020 Cyber Security Summit
October 15, 2020

It’s kick-off time! Next week the 10th annual Cyber Security Summit will get underway, and there’s still time for you to be a part of it.

With all the challenges 2020 has thrown at us, the Summit has never been timelier. This year’s theme is The Ripple Effect, and when we selected it, we had no way of knowing just how relevant the concept would be. Our lives have become even more intertwined this year, and the need for smart, innovative security has never felt more important. Every decision, every action, every step we take to secure ourselves and our organizations creates a cascading effect throughout the ecosystem around us.

This year’s Cyber Security Summit content is designed to explore those different facets of cybersecurity, so we can gain new insights into those connections and ultimately aid us all in better defending the organizations we represent. Regardless of your role in this industry, the Summit offers compelling content for you.

On Monday, a series of technical sessions is designed for anyone wanting to learn from hands-on practitioners actively solving current cybersecurity challenges. You can expect to hear innovative ideas on how to tackle some of the trickiest problems we face, and walk away with fresh perspective on how to improve your own work. Thanks to our partnership with the Twin Cities Cybersecurity Collaboration (TC3), Monday’s technical sessions are complimentary and more robust than ever.

Following the technical deep dive sessions, the full Summit kicks-off Tuesday and Wednesday with keynotes and presentations designed to view the big picture in a strategic way, but with the same action-oriented outcomes. When we all see the view from up top, we have a better understanding of how our role fits into the broader effort. That’s when the ripple effect becomes a tool we can use to our advantage, rather an incidental byproduct of our own limited perspective.

If you’ve already registered to attend this year’s Summit, we thank you. To our sponsors, whose support makes this possible even under impossible circumstances, we thank you.  One of the best parts of the Cyber Security Summit year after year is learning from our peers and getting fresh inspiration for how to solve some of our daily challenges. That boost of innovation never fails to recharge our batteries, and we encourage you to come experience it for yourself.

Tim Crothers is a seasoned security leader with over 20 years of experience building and running information security programs, large and complex incident response and breach investigations, and threat and vulnerability assessments. He has deep experience in cyber-threat intelligence, reverse engineering, computer forensics, intrusion detection, breach prevention, and applying six sigma/lean process to information security … full bio

Catharine Trebnick serves as Vice President, Senior Research Analyst at Dougherty & Company. Ms. Trebnick sector focus is Security, Cloud and Network Infrastructure and Unified Communications. Ms. Trebnick began her career on the Wall Street at Thinkequity in 2005. Catharine’s expertise stems from working for industry icons Time Warner Telecom, Level 3 Communications, Lucent Technologies, and AT&T. … full bio