In recognition of the vital importance of cybersecurity in Georgia, and the economic impact on all businesses that operate in the state, Governor Deal has signed a proclamation declaring May 18th as “Business Cybersecurity Day”.
 
The proclamation recognizes the Technology Association of Georgia’s Information Security society’s cybersecurity simulation as an important initiative to prepare Georgia businesses to react quickly and with minimum damage to the cyber challenges that lie ahead.
 
“I am honor that Governor Deal recognized our annual TAG Cybersecurity Simulation.” Roy Hadley, Chair of the TAG Information Security Society and partner in the Privacy & Information Security practice in the Atlanta office of the law firm of Thompson Hine LLP. “The TAG Information Society is dedicated to providing leadership forums and thought-exchange programs to support Georgia’s thriving cyber security industry.”
 
In addition, the proclamation recognizes the formation of TAG’s new national trade association: the National Technology Security Coalition. The National Technology Security Coalition is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that will drive the national dialogue on technology security in the United States.  The mission of NTSC is to effectively forge a coalition of information security stakeholders to help reverse the accelerating pace of disruption to our nation’s information systems.
 
Headquartered in Georgia, the NTSC Board of Directors will be led by Tim Callahan, Global CISO for Aflac.  In addition to Callahan, the formation board includes Pete Chronis, CISO for Turner Broadcasting, Kevin Gowen, CISO for Synovus and Calvin Rhodes, CIO for the State of Georgia.
 
I’m excited that Governor Deal recognized Georgia’s robust cybersecurity ecosystem, said Tino Mantella, President of TAG & NTSC.  “Under the leadership of Roy Hadley, the TAG Information Security annual cybersecurity simulation event provides an excellent forum for Georgia business leaders to learn best practices to mitigate risks of an incident and learn effective processes to respond to a cyber-attack.  “In partnership with the society, I look further to position Georgia as a leading cyber security state with the formation of NTSC.”
 
The proclamation was officially presented to the TAG Information Security Society at the 2016 Cybersecurity Simulation. The event was held at Kennesaw State University’s Continuing Education Building in Kennesaw, GA.
 
More than 100 executives, law enforcement and other cyber security professionals attended the all-day, open business continuity simulation: a role playing event where C-Level executives, senior management and security practitioners come together and spontaneously “react” to a staged business-impacting cyber/physical attack and try and get their fictional organization back up and running.
 
During the morning briefing, attendees heard from some of Georgia’s prominent information security stakeholders regarding today’s world and legal issues surrounding a cyber attack.

· Taiye Lambo, Chief Information Security Officer with the City of Atlanta Kelvin Brooks, Information Security Manger with the City of Atlanta

· Roy Hadley and Mr. John Watkins, Partners with Thompson and Hine

· Chad Hunt, Special Agent with the FBI

· Norman Palmer, Division Chief, End User Services for the Office of Information Technology within the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under the Department of Homeland Security
 
In the afternoon, attendees were split into four simulation groups. Creator and main facilitator of the simulations, Beth Ball, Incident Response Principle Consultant at Dell Secure Works conducted the simulations in a table-top exercise. Each attendee was assigned a role of either a (CEO, CISO, Director of Operations, PR and Legal).
 
Participants were presented with a security incident scenario where they had to address how their role should response to a security breach.  This exercise gave professionals the opportunity to learn best practices to handle a realistic cyber attack scenarios and interact with multiple role players associated with an actual event.