Mark ArnoldMark Arnold

Throughout 2022, the Lares® Advisory Services team has tracked emerging trends while assisting organizations of various sizes and maturity with Virtual CISO, IT/OT Risk Assessments, Offensive Assessments, and Security Program Management engagements. TOP 5 CISO Findings (most frequently observed not necessarily the most severe) resulted from our tracking. This presentation unveils the findings, discussing them in the context of current and emerging threats. I also incorporate an MIT Sloan cybersecurity use case and the Verizon DBIR to expound on the findings.

We close out the talk by listing remedies for the Top 5 Findings. A sampling of remedies includes the selection of a framework, threat modeling, and tactical assessments to help organizations discover and avoid the risks associated with the Top 5 Findings.

About Mark – Mark Arnold has a 20+ cybersecurity career, serving 8 of those years in leadership roles. As a transformational leader, Mark has built security teams and programs, authored maturity model blueprints, and implemented security domain practices at large enterprises and service providers. Mark’s areas of interest include cloud security, threat intelligence, and vulnerability research, nation-state attack methods and related activities (e.g. information operations and disinformation campaigns), and their collective impact on nations and society. He holds industry certifications and degrees from Stanford, Princeton Seminary, and Harvard University. He is a former competitive gymnast and an ordained minister but, most importantly, a husband and dad.


Ian MacRaeIan MacRae

Get a 2023 update on NIST security framework and CMMC compliance. Business with the government is Virginia’s #1 industry. The government is sick of spending billions on projects only to find the data leaked onto the Internet. Due to this many government contracts require security compliance to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 800-171 standard. For years businesspeople didn’t take the 110 security controls seriously. Now we are seeing deals being lost to the Supplier Performance Risk System score. Ian has helped dozens of organizations implement compliance programs since 2017 in his role of vCSO.

About Ian – Ever since founding E-N Computers in 1997, Ian has been dedicated to helping people get the most out of their technology. Since then, he’s grown the company from a small computer repair shop into a top-tier regional managed services provider (MSP) that helps SMB and enterprise clients transform their IT through strategic outsourcing.
In his more than 25+ years in the IT world, he’s managed hundreds of IT professionals and helped 60+ clients overcome business challenges through wise use of technology. Ian’s problem-solving approach combines a passion for business success with extensive technical knowledge, as shown in his experience.