ISACA addresses next steps for cybersecurity and the cloud at EuroCACS/ISRM Conference

The 2013 European Computer Audit, Control and Security (EuroCACS) / Information Security and Risk Management (ISRM) conference will take place at Hilton London Metropole on the 16th - 18th September 2013. The "New Era, New Edge" event is hosted by ISACA- a non-profit, global association serving more than 110,000 IT governance, assurance, risk and security professionals—and will address hot industry topics such as data privacy, the consumerisation of IT, bring your own device (BYOD), cloud services and social media. Keynote speeches will be given by Amar Singh, chair of the ISACA London Chapter Security Advisory Group, and John Meakin, chief information security officer and head of risk for RBS.

In the opening keynote speech, Singh will give his insights into the future of cloud computing. Singh’s engaging and interactive talk will include his professional view of the cloud and why he believes every organisation should consider embracing it. Singh’s presentation will present the most appropriate, cutting edge strategy to gain the full benefits of the cloud without, metaphorically speaking, losing your pants.

"The intelligence agencies of the most powerful nations on the planet are, or are at least pretending to, embrace the cloud or the logic of the cloud," said Singh. "Not a day goes by without stats and figures claiming the cloud’s growing omnipresence. However, perhaps most interesting is that a very high percentage of new apps for consumers and for the commercial enterprise are being developed in the cloud for use with the cloud. Apart from huge operational implications for organisations, this trend poses interesting challenges and opportunities from the information security governance, risk and compliance context."

Closing keynote speaker, John Meakin, Ph.D. and chief information security officer for Royal Bank of Scotland will discuss the cybersecurity shift: what works, what does not and the hidden silver linings in the cloud of cyber. Meakin will pick out the key challenges of the evolving cybersecurity threat, emphasising the fundamental changes in approaches to enterprise security that it demands. He will blend his own experience with that of other experts at the conference and beyond to illustrate some of the pitfalls and effective strategies that the new threat environment is teaching us. He will also pick-out the positives and for more effective security opportunities that the same experience is slowly revealing. There may be a beam of sunlight out there in the cloud.

"As pressure mounts on businesses of all sizes to optimise their spend on IT and to reach ever more global and disparate markets, the opportunities of cloud services to support this cannot be ignored," said Meakin. "The job of the information security professional, therefore, has to be looking for solutions that make cloud uses the right balance of opportunity and managed business risk. Equally, as the demands on limited security resources grow apace with the new threat environment, security professionals can and should look to the cloud as an effective place in which to implement some key, baseline security services."

Open to risk managers, auditors, security professionals and senior executives, the conference will feature panels and facilitated discussions led by presenters from companies such as CISCO, Deutsche Post AG, Dell Software, Deloitte, HSBC, Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) and many more. In addition, assurance, risk and security perspectives will be presented in four different tracks that cover:
· Consumerisation - including mobile security, data privacy, data analysis, IT law and cybersecurity
· Information - including big data, third party/vendor management, identity management, APT risk management, as well as a special presentation by the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)
· Technology - covering cloud-based business continuity, cloud assurance, vendor management and data leak prevention
· Delivery - examining BYOD, COBIT in banking, compliance, travel document security controls and COBIT 5 case studies