Executive Summit

This is a private reception hosted by and for members of the Toronto/Eastern Canada CISO Governing Body, as well as peers, supporting partners and speakers the evening before our full-day CISO Executive Summit. Join us for an evening of peer networking, dinner and drinks at a Toronto landmark - the Hockey Hall of Fame, located in the heart of downtown Toronto.

New, special demands constantly arise for decision-makers who steer the fortunes of companies. Recently, business success has become linked to IT infrastructure. Seamless and secure connectivity is the key to unlocking innovation and accelerating business outcomes. To reach this state, enterprises are transforming their networks and security to a zero trust architecture augmented by AI/ML capabilities, thereby reducing risk, eliminating cost and complexity and increasing agility.

Join this session and learn:

• How zero trust architecture secures users, workloads, IoT/OT devices, and your business partners by addressing critical security shortcomings of legacy network architecture
• How to reduce network complexity without exposing your organization to new risks
• How AI/ML adds defensive and business analytics capabilities that have the power to turn IT into the engine propelling business success forward

Incidents happen all the time, but not always for the same reason. Sometimes bad actors exploit vulnerabilities. Other times, it's your untested response plan slowing things down. It could be your team's tooling is mismanaged, delaying remediation.

Work with a room of your peers to consider and solve three incident response scenarios in this highly interactive, solution-focused session where you'll:

• Discuss the leading challenges of incident response
• Consider what you can do to bolster your incident response playbook
• Gain perspective and an advantage on the modern threat landscape

Security awareness continues to be a key tool for CISOs in the defense against attacks. Yet, it’s difficult to successfully embed a security culture into your organization and keep at the top of the business agenda year-round.

Join this interactive breakout session to see how your peers feel about the efficacy of their own security awareness and culture programs and participate in an open discussion about:

• Making the business case for security awareness and culture initiatives
• Developing a strong culture program
• Measuring and demonstrating the impact of a strong security culture 

In these times of rapid technological advancement, data stands as the cornerstone of innovation. As we navigate through the information age, it's evident that data residing in the cloud represents the fastest area of growth. To maintain pace with the agility of cloud operations, it is imperative to discover and adopt strategic approaches and robust architectures.

Gather with your C-level peers to:

• Start solving the challenge of data visibility in the cloud
• Determine who in your organization should own data security (CISO? CDO? CPO?)
• Discuss how automation and agility can be accomplished through tooling or processes

Generative AI ("Gen AI") is the buzzword of the moment, and it has the potential to bring about transformative changes in the business world. However, it also poses significant risks, such as ad hoc employee adoption that creates new attack surfaces, as well as increased risks to privacy, sensitive data, and intellectual property. Nevertheless, there are ample opportunities for CISOs to capitalize on this AI boom. 

Join this boardroom for an open, benefit-focused discussion on leveraging Gen AI to your advantage, including:

• Sharing AI uses cases that benefit your cyber team
• Striking the balance between security risks and AI innovation
• Questioning the limits of where AI can assist your team

Connect with like-minded peers in a one-on-one setting through Evanta’s Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.

CISOs spend a considerable amount of time and energy quantifying and qualifying security posture for boards of directors/executive leadership. But what if the way risk is being reporting to the board just isn’t resonating? That was exactly the scenario Joanne Coles found herself in when she joined Onex as VP of Information Technology & Cybersecurity.

In this session, Joanne will share highlights, examples and lessons learned along her year-long journey to revamp board reporting, then invite her peers to participate in an open conversation about:

• Discovering where and why disconnects are happening
• Reviewing, redefining and repositioning risk and security metrics
• Using storytelling concepts to ensure reports resonate with the board

In this peer-led session, you’ll weigh in on some of the day’s more prevalent CISO experiences and affirm/deny a few common security maxims. 

Join this interactive session and: 

• Kick start conversations on some of the security field's hottest topics
• Consider opposing takes on today’s debated issues
• Engage in a friendly debate with your peer leaders

With seemingly constant news of high-profile breaches and increased concerns related to AI and ML, it’s never been more critical for organizations to be able to reassure key stakeholders, customers and employees that they are capable of safeguarding their data and privacy. How can CISOs support and enable the digital processes, interactions and transactions that drive their business, while ensuring that their digital footprint remains secure?

Join this peer-driven roundtable session to discuss and share best practices for:

• Establishing a data-centric strategy when protecting your data
• Getting more from your existing tech stack to close gaps in your data security strategy
• Accelerating visibility, classification, and actionable insight across all types of enterprise data

Problem-solving is a core element of cybersecurity, making CISOs some of the best equipped-executives out there to handle adjusting strategies quickly. To close out 2023, members of the Toronto CISO Governing Body Co-Chair group take the stage to share stories about how they have had to change their strategies this year.