Unexpected but truly appreciated honor today — I received an Award of Excellence at the FutureCon Boston Cybersecurity Conference. I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished, but the real story is that none of this happens alone. Cybersecurity only works when the entire organization treats it like a team sport, and I’m lucky that the City of Worcester embraces that.
I’ll admit, after all of the October events, and the never ending threats, I was feeling a little cyber-tired. The energy at FutureCon was exactly what I needed. Great conversations, new contacts outside the GovTech circle, new ideas, and more notes than my team probably wants to hear about on Monday.
I loved Peter Chestna‘s session on software security — incredibly sharp, and turns out he’s a fellow Central Mass guy whose brain I’ll absolutely be picking.
It was also helpful to hear ShanShan P.’s reminder that as much as AI has evolved, we still need to take a case-by-case and risk-based approach. When precision counts, generative AI has the potential to hallucinate confidently and improvise in all the wrong ways.
Huge thanks to Kim Hakim and the team at FutureCon CyberSecurity Events for putting on such a fantastic conference. Kim, looking forward to giving you a tour of Worcester next year. 😉
Feeling energized, grateful, and ready to get back to work.