FireEye Cyber Defense Summit 2016: The Post-Event Wrap Up

The seventh FireEye Cyber Defense Summit just wrapped up and it was a huge success! The event at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C. attracted attendees from more than 30 countries, 130 government agencies and 25+ industries representing a cross-section of the Fortune 500.

Those in attendance were treated to various track sessions featuring presentations and panels across four subject areas: Incident Response, What a C-level Executive Needs to Know, Tales from the Trenches, and Solutions for Industries. The Solutions for Industries track – new to this year’s Summit – included sessions on government, healthcare, insurance, financial services, and industrial systems and critical infrastructure security.

FireEye Executive Chairman Dave DeWalt kicked-off the Summit with opening remarks that highlighted the Summit themes: MVX separation, real-time detection and response, and endpoint and operational security. Next, FireEye CEO Kevin Mandia set the stage for the recent FireEye Helix announcement, focusing on the road ahead for cyber security and evolving security challenges FireEye is working to address. FireEye CTO Grady Summers then followed with his keynote, which looked at the unique capabilities Helix brings to the security market and how this platform continues FireEye’s legacy of innovation. You can watch Grady's overview of Helix via Facebook Live here.

One of the big highlights of the event was the FireEye’s Approach to Innovation: Exploring and Inventing at the Speed of Attackers panel discussion, which brought together some of our top thought leaders from across the company. Grady Summers served as moderator, with the panel consisting of Manager of Analysis Lee Foster from our intelligence team, Chief Security Architect Christopher Glyer, John Laliberte, VP of Endpoint and ICE, and Chris Sanders, Senior Manager of Detection Content. One hot topic of discussion was how adversaries actually help defenders step up their game. The group pointed out that by observing how threat actors are gaining access, products and services can then be created with the detection capabilities needed to combat these attacks.

Featured keynote speaker John Carlin, the former Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice, was another highlight of this year’s FireEye Cyber Defense Summit. Carlin gave a well-rounded presentation, with a focus on the importance of information sharing within the cyber security community.

We would like to thank the dozens of presenters who showed up to share their experiences and expertise with our attendees. We would also like to thank our sponsors for making this year’s event one of the best. We are looking forward to seeing you again next year at the FireEye Cyber Defense Summit 2017.