Interop Track Helps Attendees Improve Security And Risk Management

While exposition halls and vendor product announcements tend to get the most attention at conferences such as this week's Interop in Las Vegas, the greatest value for many attendees is in education, in the form of the many workshops and technology tracks at the conference. One area of particular concern is that of security and risk management, and the Information Security and Risk Management Track at Interop provides many sessions that look at the trends in security and how IT can better protect sensitive data.

According to track chair John Pironti, president of IP Architects, one of the key focuses of this track is based on getting attendees to rethink how they approach security and risk management. "The track is more about studying the tone of how to look at different ways of examining the problem and getting ahead of the problem versus just looking at pure technology," he says.

Pironti adds that current methods of security and risk management, which focus mainly on technology solutions rather than dealing with levels of risk, aren't working. He points to increasingly sophisticated attacks, such as advanced persistent threats, which have led to many of the high-profile breaches in recent months. "We need to think about going beyond compliance and beyond traditional, commoditized technology concepts that aren't working for us anymore. How do we start getting ahead instead of being behind all of the time?" he says.

Among some of the issues addressed in this track are how to turn employees into security assets rather than potential points of data leakage, as well as defining the problem based on risk to data rather than securing technology assets. The track will also focus a fair bit on technology tools, but will help attendees focus on what they need to know to be more protected versus what vendors tell them they need to do, according to Pironti. A full schedule of the Information Security and Risk Management Track at Interop can be found here http://www.interop.com/lasvegas/conference/information-security-and-risk-management.php.

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