Five Key Takeaways from the Aspen Cyber Summit New York Lunch Panel

Dec 2, 2022

By Michael Steed

Just before Thanksgiving, Paladin was proud to sponsor the Aspen Cyber Summit New York. The Aspen Institute brought together leaders from government and industry to discuss the greatest cyber threats we face today—and the technology we rely on to protect us from them.

Paladin hosted a lunch where Paladin’s Founder, Michael Steed, spoke with Paladin SAG member @Mark Montgomery, former CISA @Chris Krebs, and TSA Administrator @David Pekoske about shoring up cyber defenses of our ports and maritime industry.

We were also lucky to hear from Rob Silvers of DHS, Mieke Eoyang of DoD, Camille Stewart Gloster of National Cyber Director Chris Inglis’ office, the NSA’s Morgan Adamski, and more about the issues that keep them up at night.

Here are five key takeaways from what we heard:

  1. Public-private collaboration is needed to protect from cyber attacks. It’s clear that no one—from the public or private sectors—believes that we are “mission complete” in our efforts to secure federal government systems from cyber threats. There’s wide agreement that public-private collaboration is key to protecting our national critical infrastructure.
  2. Cybersecurity is a three-legged stool; each leg requires attention or the stool will fail. The three legs of cybersecurity are (1) better processes and policies, (2) a better trained and fully staffed workforce, and (3) the development and implementation of emerging technologies.
  3. We need to invest in protecting critical infrastructure. our critical infrastructure is at risk, including water, maritime transport, and agriculture. Enhancing the defensive position of these areas require broad investments in cyber security. Investors like Paladin have a role to play in supporting and scaling innovation with applications for both government and industry.
  4. The cyber conflict in Ukraine expected to continue. Although the physical conflict in Ukraine may slow in the winter months, experts don’t expect Russia’s malicious cyber activity to abate.
  5. We need to develop our cyber workforce. With 700,000 cyber positions open in the US, workforce development is a huge priority if we want to keep our systems safe. We heard from White House Deputy Cyber Director Camille Stewart Gloster about the work she and her group are doing to develop a national strategy for educating and training Americans for these jobs with an emphasis on equity, inclusion and diversity.

We’re grateful to the Aspen Institute for putting together such an engaging and thought-provoking day. It’s clear that Paladin’s strategy of investing in cyber solutions of absolute need is more important now than ever before.