Going further together

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In today’s fast-changing digital economy, cybersecurity should be top of mind for business leaders everywhere as threats soar worldwide. Costly ransomware events, data breaches and cyber-attacks continue to paralyze major organizations and make global headlines.

The list of disruptive incidents in 2022 alone is alarming and keeps growing. Ransomware remains the leading threat to large and medium businesses and leaked or stolen credentials continue to be a driving force behind security breaches.

As businesses take on the critical challenge of managing cybersecurity and protecting customer data, collaboration between professionals has become more important than ever. Striving to make a difference in the battle against cybercrime is the International Information Integrity Institute (i-4). This global knowledge forum brings together leaders in the world of information security to address today’s threats and emerging trends.

Members hold senior roles in large global organizations, including CISOs, CIOs, CEOs, heads of global cybersecurity, and chief risk officers. As part of its commitment to trust, collaboration and education, i-4 conducts research on critical issues and regularly publishes its findings, insights and best practices to keep members and businesses up to date on today’s unprecedented challenges and risks. 

The organization recently completed it’s 100^th forum and continues to build on a 36-year history of experience and a record as the world’s longest-running strategic cybersecurity ‘think tank’ and peer-to-peer knowledge exchange for cybersecurity leaders. 

The most recent forum was held in Santa Clara, California, in October. It featured speakers and CISOs from leading organizations. Topics covered include Cyber supply-chain readiness, CISO best practices for leading through a major cyber event, and Getting best value from the forum and the i-4 program.

“i-4 is where the people who do cybersecurity for a living can meet and talk to each other,” says Del Heppenstall, Partner at KPMG in the UK. Previous discussion topics have included:

• Vulnerability management and testing
• Insider-threat assessments
• Data encryption
• Cyber insurance procurement
• Security vendor management
• Zero-trust networks
• Incident and recovery management
• Network security

The institute was formed in 1986 by the late cybersecurity professional, researcher and lecturer Donn B. Parker during his time at the Stanford Research Institute. It aimed to help recognize the advantages of fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing among organizations to keep businesses up to date on emerging issues. Initial forums focused on emerging challenges of the day, such as technology-related risk management, board engagement for governance and the fast-evolving security culture.

Members also shared their approaches to emerging legislation as the first data-protection laws were drafted, as well as addressing supply-chain risk — which remains a significant challenge to this day. As today’s increasingly sophisticated attackers target third parties as a backdoor to their intended targets, a more-proactive strategy is required. Several members have now adopted a more time-sensitive, intelligence-led monitoring strategy that can invoke a defensive ‘digital-distancing’ to limit contagion from a compromised business partner.

It’s always tricky to predict what will happen in the rapidly evolving world of cybersecurity, but i-4 will remain focused on providing timely insights and thought leadership on the critical security challenges businesses everywhere are struggling to manage. Future topics that will be in the i-4 spotlight include:

• Cyber resilience and how to enhance operational resilience in today’s environment
• The next-generation Security Operations Centres (SOCs) and the use of AI
• Future proofing cyber capabilities with AI/ML technology and embedding security into business innovation
• Pragmatic adoption of Zero Trust, SASE and cybersecurity mesh models as businesses become data-centric and perimeter-less while maintaining legacy and on-premise infrastructure
• Collaborative dynamics between data privacy and cybersecurity functions as they become integral components of the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) agenda

i-4 focuses on sharing real experiences, case studies and potential digital solutions to help ensure that you are ready to face ever-changing information-security challenges. It is the hope that attendees will take away real learnings from the sessions and discussions with their peers.

To learn more about i-4, please visit www.i4online.com.