Information Security and Cloud Challenges – AKTINA – AKTINA




Information Security and Cloud Challenges Open Event Thursday March 17, 2016 Hilton Park, Nicosia

Event Presentations
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Time	Session		Presenter
09:00 – 09:30	Registration – Welcome Coffee
09:30 – 10:00	Facing Information Security Challenges		Paschalis Pissarides – Immediate Past President, ISACA Cyprus Chapter
10:00 – 10:30	IT Industry Trends		Evangelos Hadjichristodoulou – Engagement Manager, Microsoft
10:30 – 11:00	How to Combat Emerging Cyber Threats		Alexandros Kaniklides – Lead Researcher of IthacaLabs in Cyber Security, Odyssey Cyber Security
11:00 – 11:10	Digital Skills Gap in Cyprus		Stratos Panayides – Business Development Manager, Aktina
11:10 – 11:30	Coffee Break
	BREAK-OUT SESSIONS
	BUSINESS EXECUTIVES		IT PROFESSIONALS	DEVELOPERS
	Session/Presenter		Session/Presenter	Session/Presenter
11:30 – 12:00	Microsoft Excel: Its Unexplored Capabilities Stratos Panayides – Bus. Dev. Mgr, Aktina		Office 365 Security: A Technical Overview Angelos Eliades – Training Manager, Aktina	Modern Practices for Secure Code Marios Patsias – Director, Patsoft
12:00 – 12:30	Office 365: More than Just an Office Suite Theodosis Theodosiou – Account Technology Strategist, Microsoft Cyprus		ClearSkies Redefining SIEM, Big Data Security Analytics Irene Selia – Product Manager ClearSkies, Odyssey Cyber Security	Leverage the Cloud for your Applications Valentinos Georgiades – Azure PMM, Microsoft Cyprus
12:30 – 12:55	Savings through Cloud Productivity Constantinos Kattirdjis – Corporate Accounts Manager, Microsoft		Cisco Security in Practice Socratis Tsiamezis – DC Manager, Carta Worldwide in Cyprus	Azure Security Options Ioannis Stavrinides – Technology Evangelist, Microsoft Cyprus
12:55 – 13:00	Raffle: Win 1 Microsoft Band, 1 EC-Council Course & Exam Voucher, 2 MCP Exam Vouchers, 3 MOS Excel Exam Vouchers
13:00 – 14:30	Lunch – Standing Buffet
www.aktina.com.cy/it

Information Security and Cloud Challenges

Presentations’ Content and Audience *

Time	Session	Audience/Content
	All sessions before the coffee-break were not technical and were attended by business & financial executives as well as IT officers. In addition to CISOs and CIOs, prime audience for these presentations includes CEOs, CFOs, Accountants, Non-IT Auditors, HR Managers/Training Officers, Departmental/Operational Heads and Government/Intelligence Agents.
09:30 – 10:00	Facing Information Security Challenges	Information Security risks evolve at lightning speed, creating many security challenges: Who should be responsible for it? Is it a matter of the Chief Information Security Officer alone or should the Directors deal with the issues as well? What are the risks arising from sensitive information leakage, cyber security attacks and cloud computing? The speaker will address the issues from a practical perspective taking into account the Cyprus reality, attitude obstacles and the role of IT as a technology innovation enabler. (English)
10:00 – 10:30	IT Industry Trends	Cloud Computing, Internet of Things and Big Data are emerging technologies which transform the way business is run and have a major impact on society at large. Organisations in Cyprus need to be aware of the opportunities and challenges that arise. The speaker will identify current IT industry trends and possible future implications. He will also present the obstacles to organisational change and the ways to overcome them. (English)
10:30 – 11:00	How to Combat Emerging Cyber Threats	Combatting cyber-attacks like malware, phishing and ransom-ware is becoming a daily challenge. To minimise the risk imposed by cyber-criminals, organisations need to be proactive and utilise an adaptive and robust behaviour. The presenter will go over the knowledge and intelligence that business executives and security managers should be aware of in order to be able to protect their organisations from such emerging cyber-attacks. (Greek)
11:00 – 11:10	Digital Skills Gap in Cyprus	According to a recent study by the EU, Cyprus ranks 25^th out of 28 in Digital Skills – Human Capital. This poor performance sends the necessary signals to all stakeholders: Government, businesses as well as academic and training institutions. Concentrating on the IT training and certification process, the speaker will demonstrate why and how IT staff and other employees can benefit from effective training and certification in IT. He will also show how the gap between the market expectations and what IT graduates offer may be filled. (English)
	BREAK-OUT SESSIONS
	BUSINESS EXECUTIVES		IT PROFESSIONALS	DEVELOPERS
Audience	CEOs, CFOs, Accountants, Non-IS auditors HR Managers/Training Officers Departmental Heads CIOs, CISOs, IS Auditors		Systems Administrators & Engineers Network Engineers, Hardware Engineers IS auditors CIOs, CISOs	Web Developers Windows Developers Software Engineers CIOs, CISOs
	Session/Content
11:30 – 12:00	Microsoft Excel: Its Unexplored Capabilities With 750 million users, Excel is the most popular tool for analysing data. Find out the features that most users ignore and what Excel 2016 has to offer. Explore its Business Intelligence capabilities and the role of Power BI. (English)		Office 365 Security: A Technical Overview Is my information safe? Learn how the main Office 365 security concerns are addressed by Microsoft-managed technologies and procedures that are enabled by default. Also explore the customer-managed controls that enable you to customise. (Greek)	Modern Practices for Secure Code Developers know that one of the key things they can do to help secure their systems is to write code that can withstand attack. The presentation will highlight the modern approaches for writing secure code. (Greek)
12:00 – 12:30	Office 365: More than Just an Office Suite Digital disruption is happening now in all companies, and yet, we are still running our organisations the way we always have, focusing mainly on maximum efficiency. But a shift is underway, necessitating agility and flexibility. (English)		ClearSkies Redefining SIEM, Big Data Security Analytics See the effectiveness of the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tool in security operations. How does Odyssey re-define SIEM? Can Security Analytics provide a holistic and coherent view of an organisation’s IT security? (Greek)	Leverage the Cloud for your Applications The cloud enables developers to take their applications to the next level. During this session we will discuss the value of migrating your application to the cloud and the various options you have to do so effectively. (English)
12:30 – 12:55	Savings through Cloud Productivity Cloud is now dominant in all industries. Join us to see why cloud computing is offering substantial productivity advantages and the various financial benefits your company will be able to gain out of it. (English)		Cisco Security in Practice See how Cisco solutions may help your organisation manage risk, protect from advanced threats and secure its data center. Drawing from his professional experience, the presenter will give a practical approach to implementing Cisco security. (English)	Azure Security Options A major concern for all Azure customers is how to secure their data and infrastructure. In this session, we will go through the available services and features on Azure offerings that can help customers with their decision. (English)
12:55 – 13:00	Raffle: Win 1 Microsoft Band, 1 EC-Council Course & Exam Voucher, 2 MCP Exam Vouchers, 3 MOS Excel Exam Vouchers
* Spoken language for each presentation appears in brackets. PowerPoint presentations were all in English.

Presenters’ Profile
Paschalis Pissarides – Immediate Past President, ISACA CYPRUS CHAPTER
	Paschalis has more than 20 years of experience in the field of Information Security and Information Systems Auditing. He has been actively involved in the promotion of best practices in information security through public lectures, seminar presentations and CISA training sessions. He holds a BSc degree in Accounting & MIS, an MBA and an MA in Political Science. He is also a CPA and holds several certifications including CRISC, CISM and CISA.

Evangelos Hadjichristodoulou – Engagement Manager, MICROSOFT
	Responsible for overseeing the entire lifecycle of customer engagements, Evangelos is actively involved in cloud computing work at Microsoft for all pillars of Cloud computing including Private Cloud, Hosters/Telcos, Office 365, Azure, CRM Online and Intune.
Alexandros Kaniklides – Lead Researcher of IthacaLabs in Cyber Security, ODYSSEY CYBER SECURITY
	Alexandros specialises in analysing new attacking methods. His research and analysis methodology is instrumental because it streamlines multiple threat intelligence sources to evaluate risk and provide counter measures to emerging attacks for Odyssey’s clients. He is a long time network geek and excellent researcher in network aware malwares & infections. He holds an MSc in Security Technologies & Applications with Distinction.

Stratos Panayides – Business Development Manager, AKTINA
	A Chartered Accountant & Economist with a special affection for IT, Stratos has been in the IT training business with AKTINA since the company’s inception. An Excel enthusiast, he has been a Microsoft Certified Trainer on advanced Excel courses with expertise in financial modelling. He is a regular contributor to the “Accountancy Cyprus” magazine with IT related articles.

Angelos Eliades – Training Manager, AKTINA
	Angelos has over 20 years of experience in IT training and consulting and has developed invaluable instructional skills. He holds several IT certifications including that of Microsoft Certified Trainer, Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and Apple Certified Trainer. He is passionate about keeping up to date on latest technologies and transferring skills and knowledge to IT professionals.

Marios Patsias – Director, PATSOFT
	Marios has more than 20 years of professional experience in analysing, designing and developing software solutions and 15 years of experience in training as a Microsoft Certified Trainer specialising in Microsoft.Net and SQL Server related technologies. He holds several certifications including MCSD, MCAD, MCTS, MCS and MCT.

Theodosis Theodosiou – Account Technology Strategist, MICROSOFT CYPRUS
	Theodosis works for Microsoft Cyprus for nine years. His position as an Account Technology Strategist (ATS) adds value to Microsoft by providing technical guidance to customers, resulting in expanded deployments of Microsoft technologies, in targeted Enterprise Sector accounts.
Irene Selia – Product Manager ClearSkies, ODYSSEY CYBER SECURITY
	Irene holds this high caliber position in Odyssey Consultants for almost 3 years and she is in charge of the dynamic creation, local and overseas promotion as well as the sustainable support of the innovating ClearSkies SECaaS SIEM and Security Analytics product. She works closely with the ClearSkies R&D team for developing new features and functionality enhancements. She has acquired extensive local and global experience in information security.
Valentinos Georgiades – Azure Product Marketing Manager, MICROSOFT CYPRUS
	Valentinos’s responsibility for the Azrure business covers a region of countries in Central & Eastern Europe. He joined Microsoft in 2011 as the Developer Evangelist Lead for Cyprus & Malta and he holds a BSc and MSc in Computer Science from RIT in New York – USA, where he studied after receiving a scholarship from Fulbright.
Constantinos Kattirdjis – Corporate Accounts Manager, MICROSOFT
	An IT professional with more than 10 years of experience, Constantinos has evolved through several positions initially at IBM, from Network and Security Consultant to Hardware Sales and finally today at Microsoft into a world of Business and Sales. His focus is to help Microsoft’s most valued Partners and Customers make the transition and evolve their business models to where the industry is clearly moving: Cloud First, Mobile First world.
Socratis Tsiamezis – Data Center Manager, CARTA WORLDWIDE in Cyprus
	Responsible for maintaining a Data Center, Socratis has been heavily involved in Cisco network infrastructure, HP/IBM servers & storage area networks. He has extensive experience in information security through IT external audits, penetration tests and Payment Card Industry compliance. He holds a BSc in Computer and an MSc in Telecommunications & Networking as well as several Cisco certifications.
Ioannis Stavrinides – Technology Evangelist, MICROSOFT CYPRUS
	Ioannis Stavrinides is a Technical Evangelist at Microsoft Cyprus. He has more than 10 years of professional experience with software development, systems integration and architecture. He specializes in .Net, MS SQL Server and Azure technologies, as well as Mobile Development on Microsoft platforms.

Tel: 22.81.81.01