By Godson Umejiego, Senior Correspondent, USA

The Global Cyber Innovation Summit (GCIS), renowned as the “Davos of Cybersecurity,” returned this year to bring together a preeminent group of leading Global 2000 CISO executives, cyber technology innovators, policy influencers, and members of the cyber investment community to catalyze the industry into creating more effective cyber defenses.

The “invitation-only” Global Cyber Innovation Summit—featuring representatives from Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), National Security Agency (NSA), and the Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD)—gathered in Baltimore for two days of high-level strategy, policy, and technology discussions on the future of cyber threats and defense. The Summit was kicked off with opening remarks from State of Maryland’s Secretary of Commerce R. Michael Gill and a special welcome by State of Maryland’s Governor, Larry Hogan.

“The National Security Agency supports the mission objective of the Global Cyber Innovation Summit and has been featuring Rob Joyce as a contributing thought leader since the program’s inception in 2019,” stated an NSA spokesperson.

“This conference is unlike any other in the cybersecurity realm, convening the community’s thought leaders from Fortune 100 CISOs, CEOs of innovative cybersecurity companies, venture capitalists, policy makers and the intelligence community to raise the level of dialogue and facilitate collaboration on how we as a community meet the challenges of the ever-evolving threat landscape and move the future of cyber forward in actionable ways,” said Chairman of the GCIS forum and the founder of cybersecurity venture capital firm, AllegisCyber, and co-founder of DataTribe, a cybersecurity and data science startup studio, Bob Ackerman.

GCIS offers a confidential cybersecurity venue for top-tier intellectual discourse and collaboration amongst peers. The Summit included a series of keynote presentations, panel discussions, fireside chats and briefings by cyber security practitioners and thought leaders operating at the very cutting edge of the industry.

Topics this year included “National Security – Call To Action”; “Cybersecurity In 2021 & Beyond”; “NSA: The Cyber Defense Strategy”; “ONCD: The Cyber Defense Strategy”; “Mission Critical: The Emergent Cyber Response To Support Cyber Innovation”; “Cyber 2022: The State of the Market & The Call To Action”; “Transforming Businesses – The Interplay Between The Board and The C-Suite”; “Mission Possible: Preparing For The Next Wave of Cyber Attacks”; “Offense To and Defense”; “Dodging Debacles: Growing Concerns Around Supply Chain”; “Nation State Threats Are On The Rise: Are We Prepared to Disrupt a Possible Attack?”; “In Cyber War….And Peace: The Rising Threat Horizon and Creation of Digital Trust”; “The New Frontier & Changing Threat Landscape: The Impact of Current Events on Cyber Security in 2022 and Beyond”; and “It’s A Matter Of Trust: The Cloud Security Approach.”

Overseeing the strategy and direction of the Summit is GCIS Chairman, Bob Ackerman, and a 17-member advisory council that includes:

• CSO of AIG, Rich Baich
• CISO of TikTok, Roland Cloutier
• Partner at Mayer Brown Law and former General Counsel of the NSA, Rajesh De
• CISO at Blackstone, Adam Fletcher
• SVP and CISO American Express, Fred Gibbins
• Founder of Tenable Network Security, Ron Gula
• Managing Partner of In-Q-Tel, George Hoyem
• Co-founder of DataTribe, Mike Janke
• CISO at PayPal, John Nai
• Director for Vigilant at Deloitte, Douglas Powers,
• CSO of Aetna, Jim Routh
• Former CISO of Cisco, John Stewart
• Programme Officer, Cyber Initiative, Eli Sugarman
• CISO of Google Cloud, Phil Venables
• CISO at Delta Airlines, Deborah Wheeler
• CISO at Southern Company, Tom Wilson
• Chairman of the Chertoff Group and former US Secretary of Homeland Security

Honouring 8 Disruptive Innovators, Michael Chertoff

As part of the Summit, eight early-stage disruptive cyber security companies—dubbed the “Disrupt 8″— were awarded by the community and selected to deliver “TED talks” that describe the most challenging, emerging industry problems and their innovative, over-the-horizon solutions.

The 2022 GCIS Disrupt 8 Award Recipients:

-Badge

-BlackCloak

-Deep Fence

-NetAbstraction

-Prevailion

-SightGain

-SixMap

-Strider

This year’s Global Cyber Innovation Summit took place April 27-28, 2022 at The Sagamore Pendry Hotel, Baltimore, MD.

The date for the 2023 Global Cyber Innovation Summit has been set for April 24-27, 2023 and will take place at The Sagamore Pendry Hotel.