Charlotte Cybersecurity Conference

As AI reshapes the digital world, cyber threats are growing in scale and complexity. This session explores the essentials of cyber risk insurance—who’s at risk, why coverage matters, and how AI is transforming both the threat landscape and defense strategies. Learn how to leverage AI for proactive protection and align insurance with evolving risks to safeguard your organization.

Current security models are failing to keep up with the speed, complexity, and scale of modern software. Security professionals are doing their jobs—and yet, attacks still get through.

In this session, hear the story of four people caught in the aftermath of a breach: a developer, a SecOps lead, an AppSec engineer, and a compliance officer. All working in good faith. All stuck in a broken system. This talk will introduce a new blueprint for modern software defense, modeled on the smartest of cities that have instrumented infrastructure to see, adapt, and respond in real time. Walk away with a prescriptive framework – based on context, coordination, and culture – that teams can use to stop guessing and start defending.

As digital infrastructure becomes increasingly complex and interconnected, the traditional boundaries between networking and security are dissolving. This talk explores the foundational principles of security—defining risk, the core triad of confidentiality, integrity, and availability—and how these principles underpin every secure system. We’ll examine the critical role of identity in modern architectures and trace the historical evolution of networking alongside the reactive development of security controls. With this context, the session will delve into the challenges of implementing a true Zero Trust model in today’s dynamic environments, where perimeter-based defenses are no longer sufficient. Finally, we’ll explore how the advent of 5G technology exemplifies the convergence of networking and security, enabling orchestration, automation, and policy enforcement at unprecedented scale and speed. Attendees will leave with a deeper understanding of how integrated approaches are shaping the future of secure, resilient networks.

Most cybersecurity executives think they understand AI’s impact on their threat profile—automated scanners, intelligent reports, enhanced SOC capabilities. They’re missing the real revolution. AI isn’t just automating existing security tools; it’s democratizing custom exploit development that was previously limited to nation-state actors and elite criminal groups.

Through a real-world penetration testing case study, this presentation reveals how AI has fundamentally eliminated the technical barriers that have long protected proprietary systems and custom protocols through security through obscurity. More critically, it demonstrates why every “accepted risk” in your risk register that relies on attack complexity as a mitigating factor requires immediate re-evaluation. Attendees will leave with insights for updating their risk frameworks to address a threat landscape where complexity no longer provides meaningful protection.

The cyber threat landscape is evolving at an unprecedented pace, driven by the convergence of nation-state and criminal actors, the rise of AI-enabled threats, and the growing sophistication of ransomware and fraud campaigns. This session distills key findings from the Microsoft Digital Defense Report, offering a strategic overview of the most pressing cybersecurity challenges facing organizations today.

Generative AI has ushered in a new era of data creation, processing, and consumption, presenting both innovative opportunities and substantial security risks. The emergence of shadow AI (unauthorized or unmanaged AI tools) and the persistence of dark data (unmonitored and unsecured information) are key challenges in this landscape. Consequently, organizations must adapt their data security strategies. This session explores how modern data security solutions are evolving to address these emerging threats.