GSX+ Opens with a Focus on Global Leadership and Security
The 2020 Global Security Exchange (GSX+) will be different from previous years as it begins in an all virtual format. But it continues to offer a wide range of educational programs to provide attendees with the opportunity to learn from a wide spectrum of leaders and experts.
With the theme of “A World View: Global Perspectives on Leadership and Security,” education sessions on Monday, 21 September, highlight an international view of managing security teams across a variety of industries.
In July, Security Management spotlighted how the National Football League (NFL) and its security team responded to the coronavirus pandemic. The Q&A with Cathy Lanier, senior vice president of security for the NFL, showed how the league is considering long-term methods to dealing with the COVID-19 virus and pandemic protocols that are shaping the new normal in the United States.
“The list of things we have to consider here is so much greater, especially for sports leagues, where you have competition involved with the pandemic,” Lanier explained. “And there are so many unknowns about this that create additional complexities that you have to think through.”
And as professional football players in the United States find their footing this fall and focus on the game, the security team performing behind the scenes is ready to compete against the unknown variable of how intensely the virus will re-emerge between November 2020 and March 2021. Depending on the impact of the coronavirus’s “second wave” and other possible factors, Lanier said she and her team will have multiple response plans to scale up and down.
For more on planning out responses to a worst-case scenario, GSX+ attendees can sit in on “Expect the Unexpected: A Playbook for International Major Events” on Monday morning.
In the education session, Edgar Moreno, vice president of global security for NBC Universal, Telemundo Enterprises and Latin America, and Philip Walker, program lead for the U.S. Department of State’s Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC), will discuss their firsthand experiences in navigating large, international events.
In Security Technology’s September 2020 issue, Cody Cornell discussed how security operations centers can support an organization and security specialists during a crisis, especially as the present environment presents a greater opportunity for anxiety and burnout.
“In the time since my days on the front lines of security, these issues have only been exacerbated by more alerts being generated by the myriad of threat detection and prevention tools that teams must leverage, an evolving and growing surface area to protect increasingly sophisticated bad actors, and a massive cybersecurity skills shortage,” Cornell writes in “Managing a SOC in a Time of Crisis.”
“If all of that isn’t stressful enough, today’s security analyst is often working from home and trying to manage personal stress in an unprecedented situation,” he added. (For more on avoiding burnout and building personal resilience during crises, check out Security Management’s online exclusive “Leadership in the COVID Crisis: The Importance of Building Personal Resilience.”)
Monday’s 12:25 p.m. GSX+ session “The GSOC of the Future: What’s Next?” looks at how these resources can support security teams and organizations on a global level, providing clients with 24/7 resources.
In the session, Dan Gundry, director of sales and marketing at Vistacom Control Room Solutions; Kevin Wilson, senior director of enterprise technology and security at Asurion; Rob Hile, general manager at GC&E Systems; and Ryan Schonfeld, CEO at RAS Watch, will discuss how GSOCs all over the world can effectively operate at a high level while delivering support to security teams. The speakers will also elaborate on planning and building a GSOC, as well as what future GSOCs may look like.
As we continue looking to the future, it’s difficult to imagine one that has not somehow been influenced by the coronavirus pandemic. In the 10:15 a.m. session “COVID-19 Related Privacy & Security Issues—Views from Europe,” learn how Europeans are reassessing their organizations’ readiness in dealing with large-scale screening, contact tracing, monitoring employees’ travel, and a security shift as the coronavirus generates a mass exodus from the traditional office to home offices and dining tables.
Ady van Nieuwnhuizen, partner at Fieldfisher; Axel Petri, senior vice president at Deutsche Telekom; Eduard Emde, head of health, safety, and security for ESA European Space Agency, ESTEC; and Werner Cooreman, senior vice president of security at Solvay, will touch on the primary facets European employers are focused on—including duty of care, privacy, collaboration, and shifting healthcare priorities—and the lessons learned.
