On 26th and 27th of March I was invited to participate in the [Cyber Security for Critical Infrastructure 4.0 https://www.cybersenate.com/new-events/2019/3/26/critical-infrastructure-cyber-security] conference organized by Cyber Senate in Amsterdam. It was a very nice conference, organized brilliantly by Alex Matthews and James Nesbitt. Chris Blask was in charge of the coordination of the conference, and we all enjoyed a nice flow of the talks, panels and breaks.
One thing that was very clear to me from the beginning, is in how much better position Cyber specialists are in the area of Critical Infrastructure. That must be attributed to the above average alignment of the business needs of critical infrastructure (integrity and availability) and cyber security fundamentals. I heard with elevated interest the presentations from Menno Vlietstra and Sergey Galagan who very eloquently explained what led them to the setting up of a Cyber Security department in their respective companies. I did not find a single panel or presentation to be boring or of inappropriate level, while I very much enjoyed the presentation delivered by Franky Thrasher on Threat Intelligence. A fascinating subject for sure.
It was also very interesting to me to hear from Bobby Singh about how the Toronto Stock Exchange has its ERM function intertwined with cyber risk, during our panel discussion.
Overall it was a very well organized conference, in a good location and with all presentations being well above average and to the point.