For our first featured speaker interview, we took a few minutes to chat with Chris Valtsos.
Chris Veltsos is an associate professor in the Department of Computer Information Science at Minnesota State University, Mankato where he regularly teaches Information Security and Information Warfare classes. Beyond the classroom, Chris is also very active in the security community, engaging with community groups and business leaders. Chris has presented at regional and national conferences, and provided input for groups like NIST, ISACA and the SANS NewsBites newsletter. Chris regularly consults in the field, including performing security assessments of academic institutions for the Advance IT Minnesota center.
Chris will be presenting his session “Are we there yet? Information Security Grows Up” at the 2012 Secure360 Conference.
What’s the topic of your presentation at Secure 360?
For years, security wanted a seat at the grown-ups’ table. Now that we finally have it, what’s next? The evolution of the field necessitates that we information security professionals also evolve our language, our models, and our measures, to properly communicate the risks that we seek to manage. And while the risks have evolved over the years, so has the amount of sharing and reporting from the security community. Yet, as the breach reports and security reports point out, we are still failing to properly implement and monitor some of the most basic aspects of security.
What do you hope that the audience will walk away understanding from your session?
How far the field as come, but also, how much further we need to go.
If you’ve been to Secure 360 before, what’s your favorite Secure 360 memory?
My favorite memory of Secure360 is the sense of camaraderie that one can experience attending this conference. Great speakers, attentive audiences, and friendly vendors.
Who do you most want to meet / see at this year’s Secure 360?
Secure360 has continually been able to bring some a rich mix of national-level information security speakers while also providing a platform for emerging local talent to get their start. This year is no exception.
My prediction: Twitter will be abuzz with the comments of Secure360 attendees.
What’s your favorite technology that you use on a daily basis?
Virtual Machines. In an age where the next click can get you infected, VMs can help restore a balance to the ongoing cat-and-mouse game of protecting against the next piece of malware or Zero-day.
You can learn more about Chris by visiting his blog Dr. Info Sec, following him via Twitter at twitter.com/drinfosec, or by visiting his LinkedIn Profile.
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