Houston CISO Executive Summit

Lisa Thompson is a high-altitude mountaineer and former healthcare executive who beat cancer months before standing on the summit of Everest. Lisa later became the first all-American woman to summit K2, which is considered the deadliest mountain in the world. In her talks and book, “Finding Elevation,” Lisa shares the experience of climbing the toughest mountains in the world and the importance of teamwork, resilience and defining boundaries.

Join this keynote session to learn about the importance of:

• Embracing change and overcoming challenges
• Creating a supportive environment inside and outside the office
• Defining clear roles and goals to build a strong, communicative team

Delivering business critical applications safely is a delicate balancing act. The user experience is frequently compromised as application, infrastructure, and security teams negotiate the adoption of new services. Unfortunate trade-offs are sometimes necessary to address operational needs for the sake of maintaining security, but these trade-offs can make certain use cases unfeasible or diminish their value to the organization.

In this session, we will discuss:

• Revolutionizing workspaces by balancing productivity, security, availability and user experience
• How quickly new technologies like the enterprise browser can be adopted to provide a competitive advantage
• Strategies for reducing the effort required to deliver applications and enhance organizational operations

CIO-CISO partnerships are built on trust and thrive when leaders invest in each other throughout the organization. When the goals of each executive do not align, a cohesive approach becomes crucial. A well-disciplined, integrated and communicative strategy can help to avoid program failures and vulnerabilities, safeguarding both systems and the business.

Join this session to hear insight and seek input from your peers in the Houston CIO community on:

• Overcoming communication challenges and competing priorities
• Ensuring security is represented as a holistic element of the organization
• Strengthening the IT-Security partnership to fuel innovation and accelerate new technology deployments

This session will be moderated by Sean Barnes, a longtime member of Evanta's Houston CIO and CHRO communities and the former VP of Corporate Operations at Nine Energy Service. Sean is now President at WSS Solutions and the host of "The Way of the Wolf" podcast, and will be recording this conversation to air on a future podcast episode.

Cyber-physical systems (CPS) come in many forms including industrial control systems (ICS), operational technology (OT) devices, and Internet of Things (IoT), to name a few. As they connect to each other and to enterprise systems, the attack surface is significantly expanded and securing these very systems that join the physical and digital worlds is no simple task.

Join this session to discuss:

Identifying and managing the risks of cyber-physical technology

Understanding the parallels in your approach to IT and CPS security without neglecting the differences

Innovative practices to adapt security controls to business operational realities

Early adopters confirm, AI-implementation isn't for the faint of heart (or the light of checkbook). Yet the expectation to welcome this booming tech advancement into your organization remains. Today, studying the efforts of those same early adopters proves the easiest first step in drawing up your own AI road map.

Gather with your CISO peers to:

• Compare your varying stages of AI-adoption progress
• Share what you've learned through that progress so far
• Gather proactive tips on clearing hurdles to come

Establishing a secure data governance and protection program that successfully aligns with business priorities is paramount. How can security leaders support and enable the digital processes, interactions and transactions that drive their business? By establishing a secure, modern governance framework that protects high quality data throughout its lifecycle.

Join this session to discuss:

• How to align security objectives with data governance principles
• Strategies to ensure availability, integrity and confidentiality in data while mitigating risks for the long term
• The importance of complying with data-focused regulations while creating value from a data governance framework

CISOs are under immense pressure to protect the enterprise from increasingly sophisticated threats. The stakes are high, and the challenges are numerous. However, the risks posed to the CISO as an individual, are often overlooked. New laws and precedents expose cybersecurity leaders to personal liability, and watching the news isn’t helping. How can CISOs protect themselves and their families in this new era?

Gather with your CISO peers to discuss:

• How you're approaching protecting yourself in this state of heightened liability
• How the increasing personal risk for security leaders is affecting the industry
• What you've learned from previous cases of CISO liability and what you're watching for next

When it comes to success, people tend to offer silver bullets or single keys. However, true long-term success is achieved through multiple conversations and continued strategic relationships across the business – which is exactly where the BISO role can add tremendous value to a CISO's team.

Join this session to hear how ConocoPhillips is leveraging a team of BISOs to:

• Improve collaboration between business units and the security team
• More effectively identify and mitigate risks
• Ensure its security posture is aligned with the rest of the business