I was able to attend the City Security And Risk Network (CSARN) conference on organisational resilience today. It was a very well put together one day event with speakers from a broad range of companies and backgrounds such as the Police Force as well as military and traditional consultancies.

The key focus of the day though was of course on elements of organisational resilience such as incident and crisis management, the terrorist threat, global travel planning and the associated risks (in this case played against a backdrop of maintaining operations during the Arab Spring) and of course business continuity management. The speakers were knowledgable, and approachable during breaks for further questions. Justin Crump did a cracking job of maintaining order throughout the day and ensuring the audience was engaging well with the speakers.

Halfway through the day there was a panel discussion focussed on “building and embedding effective cyber security structures”, and I was pleasantly surprised to have been asked last week to be on the panel itself. (Cue jokes for how far down the list they had to go before they got to me etc…). Also on the panel with me was Geordie Stewart (who I am also speaking with at RSA and Paul Simmonds (Co-editor, Cloud Security Alliance “Guidance” v3 Co-founder & Board of Management, Jericho Forum Former CISO, AstraZeneca). I felt it came across as a very well balanced discussion, with some very insightful and focussed questions from the audience. I had been primed that the audience was not that well versed in all things “cyber”, but that didn’t really come across which made for a very enjoyable and engaging discussion.

We covered topics such as sources of cybercrime (state sponsored, organised crime and so called chaotic actors), what our thoughts were on the biggest threats coming out of the “cyber” threat and what we could be doing better at international levels. When each asked what the single take away from the discussion, mine was a rather glib, if valid, “plan for failure”; another strong take away to my mind was “get the basics right, everything else comes second”. Again, it sounds glib and from the school of the bleeding obvious, but over complicating any challenge is so easily done.

If I had one piece of critical feedback (well, two actually) it was that towards the end the presentations seemed to move into blatant sales pitches; now I understand sponsors need to get a return on their sponsorship, but it was the wrong forum to my mind for sales pitches. Secondly, I wouldn’t do something like this again on a Friday; it felt like half the audience had left come 2 o’clock, which can’t have helped the afternoon speakers at all!

I thoroughly enjoyed myself though, have some great key takeaways specifically for my business continuity planning, and I hope have planted the seeds of being able to return again in the future as a solo speaker!

My thanks to Acumin and CSARN for giving me the opportunity to be on their panel, especially alongside two people whom I admire in the industry.