Leadership Discussions on Emerging
Cyber, Risk & Fraud Challenges

Registration & Networking

Welcome/Introductions

The Forum is a collaboration point for the many member-driven professional associations across the region. Hear a brief introduction from Board Members of each of those InfoSec & Fraud Associations as we open the agenda

The State of Cybersecurity 2026: Mapping the Industry, Measuring AI’s Real Impact, and Making Sense of 4,469 Vendors [Discussion Pod #1]

Richard Stiennon, veteran analyst and industry provocateur will kick off the Forum, taking us on a data-rich tour of the entire cybersecurity industry—all 4,159 vendors, 660 subcategories, and $12 billion in recent funding. Drawing from his forthcoming book, Stiennon will share insights derived from two decades of studying cyber trends at Gartner and now IT-Harvest—the only firm systematically cataloging the global cyber vendor ecosystem.

This talk is not just about the numbers. Richard will break down the practical implications for executives:

• How to navigate a vendor landscape bloated with similar claims and vague value props
• Where AI is truly being built in cybersecurity—what’s real, what’s noise, and what agentic AI might change
• What vendor origin says about product capability, reliability, and alignment with enterprise needs
• Why vendor consolidation isn't the answer—and what to do instead

He’ll also spotlight key global dynamics, such as Israel’s IDF-fueled innovation engine, Germany’s vendor loyalty culture, and the emergence of AI Security as a distinct and fast-growing segment.

If you’ve ever asked “What should I actually be paying attention to in cybersecurity right now?”—this is your answer. This session will set the tone and context for the day, offering a strategic foundation for every discussion that follows.

Reduce the Probability of Material Impact [Discussion Pod #2]

Using Cybersecurity First Principles to Make Better Risk Decisions

Rick Howard argues that cybersecurity strategy should begin with one irreducible first principle: Reduce the probability of material impact due to a cyber event over a defined period of time.

Cybersecurity leaders are surrounded by frameworks, controls, tools, threat intelligence and an endless stream of urgent priorities. Rick will lead a discussion on using that principle as a practical decision-making filter—not simply as a statement of strategy. Drawing from Cybersecurity First Principles, major cyber incidents and three decades of leadership across military, intelligence, technology and industry, he will challenge several commonly accepted assumptions about how security programs are built and measured.

Participants will explore how to:

• Distinguish meaningful risk reduction from activity that merely creates the appearance of progress
• Connect cybersecurity and fraud decisions to the potential material impact on the organization
• Prioritize limited people, time and budget against the actions most likely to reduce risk
• Use resilience, zero trust, intelligence and risk forecasting as components of one coherent strategy
• Explain cybersecurity priorities to boards and business leaders in language grounded in probability, impact and time

In this talk and the moderated discussion that follows, Rick will leave participants with a practical question they can take back to their organizations: Does this action measurably reduce the probability of material impact—and, if not, why are we doing it?

Agentic AI Meets Zero Trust: What Actually Breaks—and How to Fix It [Discussion Pod #3]

Josh Woodruff is the Author of "Agentic AI + Zero Trust," a former CISO, and a long-time advisor in the industry. He will talk more about the years of research that went into the book. 

In the rush to deploy autonomous/semi-autonomous AI, Community Members have shared their doubts that existing identity, data, and control frameworks are ready. Drawing from years of research for his book and field experience, Josh will share:

• Why most agentic AI initiatives fail operationally, not technically
• How Zero Trust principles must evolve for AI agents, workflows, and non-human identities
• Where security teams need to rethink identity, authorization, and monitoring
• What CISOs and CIOs can do now to avoid costly architectural mistakes

This session blends short-form insights with moderated group discussion, focused on immediately actionable takeaways for enterprise leaders.

Biggest Heist Ever: Inside the Hunt for Billions in Stolen Bitcoin [Discussion Pod #4]

What the Bitfinex investigation reveals about the convergence of cybercrime, fraud and financial intelligence

Special Keynote Discussion Leader: Chris Janczewski, Head of Global Investigations, TRM Labs; former IRS-CI Special Agent

Chris Janczewski was the lead investigator at IRS Criminal Investigations, and got a lead he just could not give up.  He went deep on the research… and cracked the “Biggest Heist Ever,” what would eventually be valued at $15 Billion. 

The Netflix documentary Biggest Heist Ever tells the remarkable story of the 2016 Bitfinex hack, an eccentric aspiring rapper known as “Razzlekhan,” and billions of dollars in stolen bitcoin hidden and laundered across the digital economy. Chris Janczewski was the IRS Criminal Investigation special agent who led the landmark investigation—and the man behind much of the story portrayed on screen.

In a focused keynote talk, Chris will take participants inside the investigation, showing how blockchain intelligence, cyber forensics, financial records and traditional investigative techniques were combined to follow the money and recover the stolen assets. He will also explain why the case offers an important lesson for today’s leaders: criminals move seamlessly across the boundaries separating cybercrime, fraud, cryptocurrency, money laundering and traditional finance.

A moderated discussion will follow, exploring what cybersecurity, fraud, AML, risk and compliance leaders can learn from the case—and why closer cooperation between these communities has become an operational imperative.

Lunch & Solution Showcase Networking Discussions

Participants will enjoy a lovely full hot lunch while connecting with the thoughtful Solution Providers who are supporting the community at the Atlantic City CyberSecurity & Fraud Forum

Heresy as a Service: Why Removing AI Safety Alignment Is a White Hat Skill [Discussion Pod #5]

Tim Rohrbaugh, back by popular demand, will discuss Post-training alignment — the thing that makes an LLM say "I can't help with that" — is not a security boundary. It is a statistical tendency that lives in a handful of floating-point directions inside a model's weight matrices. It can be surgically removed in under an hour on consumer hardware using nothing more exotic than linear algebra. No fine-tuning. No gradient descent. Just math.

Tim will demonstrate this live, then explain why every security team deploying LLMs needs to understand exactly how it works. Not because they need to learn- unless they are whitehat hackers 🙂- but they should be able to identify which published ones are safe to use. — because over 1,500 obliterated models are already on Hugging Face, the tooling is pip-installable, and the model supply chain is compromised in ways that behavioral testing cannot detect.

Using p-e-w's Heretic — the open-source alignment removal tool — and his fork's architecture inspector, Tim will show how alignment is identified geometrically, removed algebraically, and why quantizing models for deployment may silently degrade the alignment you're counting on.

This presentation will address "here's how the walls come down" followed by "here's what defenders should do about it." 

Leading the Fight: Cybersecurity & Government Agencies [Panel]

Executive Panel -

In this talk, government agency leaders will share how they approach coordinated threat disruption, interagency collaboration, and executive-level response to cyber-enabled crimes. 

When cybercrime intersects with national security, terrorism, cross-boarder issues, or financial stability, the US Secret Service, Department of Homeland Security, FBI and state fusion center (NJCCIC) step in—not just with investigations, but with leadership. Drawing from real-world cases—ranging from cryptocurrency scams to insider threats—our panelists will outline lessons learned for private-sector leaders.

What does it take to lead under pressure, across jurisdictions, and in defense of critical assets? In this fast-moving session, participants will get practical takeaways on how to elevate their cyber leadership posture—and why the most effective defenders think like protectors, not just responders.

Panelists: 

• Krista Valenzuela, Bureau Chief - Cyber Threat Outreach & Partnerships - NJ Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Cell (NJCCIC)
• Supervisory Special Agent Michelle Liu, FBI Newark – Cyber Division
• Carlo Nastasi, Special Agent, IRS Criminal Investigation
• Stan Field, Cybersecurity Advisor, CISA Region 2 

Degrees, Certs & Entry-Level Grit: What Cyber Grads Can (& Can’t) Do For You
[Panel]

This panel discussion features a real-world exchange between cyber educators and industry leaders. Professors will share how they’re designing programs with hands-on labs, industry-funded projects, and even high school hackathons. CISOs and CTOs will weigh in on the “last-mile” problem: grads with zero experience, mismatched expectations, and a professionalism gap that’s hard to ignore.

With over 700,000 unfilled cybersecurity jobs in the U.S., you’d think the hiring problem would solve itself. But here’s the rub: cybersecurity programs are churning out grads, and CISOs still ask, “What can they actually do on day one?” Are they SOC-ready? Do they understand fraud prevention, governance, compliance—or even what cybersecurity is?

We’ll dig into big questions:

• Are four-year degrees still the gold standard—or are certs and bootcamps the smarter play for mid-career upskilling?
• How do you hire interns and set expectations when “everyone is busy”?
• What can companies do (without breaking budgets) to actually shape the talent pipeline?
• And how can we close the generation gap without lowering the bar?

Come for the honest dialogue, stay for the practical takeaways—and leave with a few ideas for fixing a system that isn’t working for educators, employers, or students.

The Next Breach Won’t Look Like the Last One: Preparing for What You’re Not Measuring [Discussion Pod #6]

Every security program today is optimized to prevent the last breach.

The controls, dashboards, budgets, and board conversations are all shaped by yesterday’s incidents—ransomware, phishing, endpoint compromise. But the next wave of risk is already forming outside those models: non-human identities, AI-driven decisioning, supply chain entanglement, and silent data manipulation that doesn’t trigger alerts.

In this closing session, we’ll challenge a dangerous assumption: that improving today’s controls will protect you from tomorrow’s threats.

This discussion will explore:

• Why most enterprise security programs are overfit to known attack patterns
• Where visibility is breaking down (AI agents, APIs, third-party logic, machine-to-machine trust)
• How attackers are shifting from disruption to subtle manipulation and persistence
• Why traditional metrics (MTTR, patch SLAs, alert volume) may be giving false confidence
• What leading organizations are doing to rethink detection, trust, and resilience before the next wave hits

This is not a prediction talk. It’s a reality check. Expect a fast-paced, candid discussion that forces a simple but uncomfortable question:  What risks are we blind to—because we’re not even looking for them?

Closing Discussion & Networking

Stay & Connect: Informal Networking + Solution Showcase
Before hitting the road, grab a coffee and take time to connect. Trade insights with peers, chat with Solution Providers, and follow up on the ideas sparked throughout the day.

No panels, no pitches—just real conversations to wrap things up right.