O. Sami Saydjari

Mr. O. Sami Saydjari is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Cyber Defense Agency, where he provides vision, leadership and expertise for building a Research and Consulting concern that creates effective systematic defenses for high-value systems against aggressive cyber-attack. Before founding the Cyber Defense Agency, Mr. Saydjari was a Senior Staff Scientist in SRI International’s Computer Science Laboratory, where he was the program leader of the Cyber Defense Research Center (CDRC). While at SRI, Mr. Saydjari led the survivability assessment of the DARPA UltraLog program, whose goal to improve the survivability of software agent architectures to solve large-scale distributed applications. Mr. Saydjari has 18 years of experience performing and directing information assurance research, including 13 years at the National Security Agency and 3 years as a DARPA Program Manager of Information Assurance. Prior to SRI, Mr. Saydjari was the Information Assurance Program Manager for DARPA’s Information Systems Office. He created and drove the security architecture and technology for a common reference architecture for DARPA and DISA’s advanced programs. His focus areas include high-assurance operating systems, network security, public-key infrastructures, and security architecture. Before his assignment at DARPA, Mr. Saydjari was the technical director of the Office of Network Security Infrastructure for the National Security Agency (NSA). In this role, Mr. Saydjari performed an advanced survivability architecture analysis of the MISSI system, including attack trees and fundamental review of required system architecture properties. At NSA, Mr. Saydjari was also the leader of several information assurance research teams in A1 INFOSEC systems design (LOCK), highly assured distributed operating systems design, and trustworthy network systems design. Mr. Saydjari earned his M.S. in Computer Science from Purdue University. The Director of NSA named Mr. Saydjari an NSA fellow in 1993 and 1994. He has published more than a dozen technical papers in the field of information security and has presented the results of his research at both such as the National Cryptologic Quarterly, the National Computer Security Conference, IEEE Security and Privacy Conference, and the ACM New Security Paradigms Workshop. He is based in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin.

Presentation: Investing in Strategic Cyber Defense for Critical Infrastructure

Abstract: Cyber space is a critical enabler for the information age. Information has truly become both the source of wealth and power. Its masters have the opportunity for monumental value creation and for value destruction in very brief time. Come learn about the future of cyber conflict and the roles, responsibilities, and strategic tools corporate leaders need to navigate this new space race.