The Take Command Summit: A Day of Resilience and Preparation

Last updated at Thu, 29 Aug 2024 19:01:26 GMT

The Take Command Summit is officially in the books. It was a day-long virtual powerhouse of major voices and ultra-relevant topics from across the entire cybersecurity spectrum. We are super proud of the event and grateful for all who joined us for these important discussions.

At Rapid7 we are eager to have the critical conversations at the critical moments and right now, the industry faces a great many challenges. From ransomware to cloud security to building the best 24/7/365 security operations center, the entire industry is facing hard choices from all fronts. But like every challenge, there are opportunities. And the Take Command Summit was created to help galvanize the entire security community to take command of those opportunities.

There are way too many highlights from the summit for us to go through them all here, but needless to say, the entire event is chock full of insights into the security landscape, tactics for overcoming security challenges, deep conversations on topics you and your organization are currently facing, and an expert look at where cybersecurity is going in the future.

But we would be remiss if we didn’t mention a few of the great conversations that were had (there were many). For instance, we launched the 2024 Attack Intelligence Report (AIR). The spiritual successor to our annual Vulnerability Intelligence Report, the AIR represents one of the most comprehensive looks at vulnerability and attacker behavior we have ever released. It includes input from our research, detection & response, and threat intelligence teams and is definitely worth a read and a watch.

In a similar vein, we went deep on the state of security in 2024. Raj Samani, Rapid7’s Chief Scientist, and Jaya Baloo, our Chief Security Officer, were joined by friendly hacker and SocialProof Security CEO, Rachel Tobac, to discuss everything from cloud native attackers to the latest in phishing, deepfakes, and more. The session on ransomware looked at the entire lifecycle of the attack type before, during and after the attack, and our resident artificial intelligence experts discussed ways to build resilient defenses (and offenses) using this up and coming tool.

The summit wasn’t entirely focused on the technical aspects of cybersecurity as at the end of the day security is so often about people. In a one of a kind presentation, Jaya Baloo and Rapid7’s Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Sophia Dozier, discussed ways to create a security team that emphasizes diverse viewpoints, lived experiences, and skill sets, in a way that makes the entire organization stronger. In a look at the current and future states of the regulatory landscape, current (and former) members of the Rapid7 legal and government affairs teams discussed the latest in SEC compliance.

To wrap up the day, former intelligence officer and founder of EverydaySpy, Andrew Bustemante, discussed his journey from Air Force pilot to clandestine CIA operative. The conversation highlighted how the skills he learned in the service have helped to shape his career and how to apply them to your own.

These are just a few of the important conversations that took place at the Take Command Summit. And while it is clear the security industry has a lot of challenges to overcome, the summit was not about doom and gloom but about resilience and preparation. The key takeaway is that as security professionals, we are not alone. There is a community of brilliant, hardworking professionals here that have your back and want to enable you to take command of your attack surface.

If you missed any of the summit or want to revisit the discussions, have no fear, every session is available on-demand.