On April 17, the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) partnered with Nasdaq to host its spring Cybersecurity Summit at the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square. Experts from industry, government and the nonprofit sector convened to highlight overlooked approaches – from adapting response plans to building communications protocols – in order to reduce uncertainty and recover beyond IT.

To commemorate the event, on April 15 NCSA’s Executive Director Kelvin Coleman was invited to ring the Nasdaq Closing Bell. Kelvin shared inspiring remarks and officially closed the Nasdaq Market at 4pmEDT. The ceremony was broadcast on news networks and shared “live”  on MarketSite building for passersby to watch. In addition, it was viewed more than 1,100 times on Facebook – please take a look here.

Lou Modano, Nasdaq’s chief information security officer and Kristin Royster, senior vice president, Global Information Security at Bank of America and vice chairman of NCSA’s board of directors kicked off the event on Wednesday morning with opening remarks. Shortly thereafter, Kelvin sat down with Matthew Travis, deputy director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) at DHS for a compelling fireside chat. Mr. Travis discussed the critical role of the recently launched CISA and how DHS plans to collaborate with the private sector to achieve their key objectives. In addition, he reminded guests that companies of all industries and sizes can utilize CISA’s free resources when an incident occurs.

Following the fireside chat, industry experts conversed about “How to Reduce Uncertainty After A Breach”. Points including how advances in technology are allowing teams to detect incidents quicker and remedy those security flaws, the opportunities and challenges of this rapidly evolving landscape along and how to adapt incident response plans were highlighted.

This panel – moderated by Ann Beauchesne, CEO of Ridge Global Cybersecurity Institute –included Tyler Shields, vice president of strategy at Sonatype; Michael Siegel, principal research scientist and director of cybersecurity at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Tim Vidas, senior distinguished engineer, Office of the CTO at Secureworks – shared insights on the current threat landscape, what attackers are doing that organizations need to be aware of and that people need to have a plan in place. They also addressed the option of considering cyber insurance when developing risk management strategies.

The last discussion of the day entitled “Incident Response Recovery Beyond IT” was moderated by, Andrew Derboben, senior director of security operations at Nasdaq. Andrew spoke with Matt Barrett, chief operating officer at CyberESI; Gerald Beuchelt, chief information security officer at LogMeIn and Lisa Plaggemier, chief evangelist at Infosec. This group highlighted how to think about the impacts of a breach in a holistic, comprehensive way and advised attendees to consider the communications aspect of an incident and create a crisis communications strategy and full-fledged response plan. In addition, they explained the value of conducting tabletop exercises with the stakeholders. Lisa reiterated importance of having a “soft-skilled” person at the table, who can translate technical concepts between security analysts and executives.

Following the morning event, Nasdaq Host and Multimedia Producer Lyanne Alfaro conducted a Facebook Live interview with Gerald on key ways senior leadership can implement an effective incident response plan and enable a culture of cybersecurity. The conversation has already been viewed more than 600 times. You can watch it here.

Ten media representatives attended the event. Several stories have already been written and Thatcher+Co. – NCSA’s communications firm – is currently conducting proactive outreach to identify upcoming articles.

NCSA is grateful to our dedicated supporters and extends a tremendous thank you to Platinum Sponsor, Dell; Gold Sponsors, Check Point Software Technologies, LastPass, CompTIA and Generali Global Assistance; Silver Sponsor, Fasoo; and all who helped to make this event possible. In addition, like to extend our thanks to everyone who attended. We look forward to continuing to collaborate with you in promoting safer, more secure internet and hope you can follow along with our upcoming NCSA/Nasdaq Cybersecurity Summits.