John Walsh

Abstract: New digital services and connected industrial controls systems continue to be at high risk from security breaches with subsequent impacts to consumer privacy and now personal safety. The convergence of IT and OT networks within the factory is being driven by overall competitiveness of the global manufacturing and automation markets forcing firms to connect their currently non-connected enterprises. This connectivity has highlighted significant gaps and weakness in our existing and newly installed factory, process and building automation systems security, identity and segmentation capabilities. The number of attacks on manufacturing firms has increased exponentially and is a form of geo-economic warfare. Furthermore, Intellectual property theft is at an all-time high as well.

This talk will review these market trends and risks, and the challenge of securing Operational Technology (OT) including industrial control systems (ICS) and other critical infrastructure devices and systems. A new industry initiative led by the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) will be discussed along with an approach to segmenting and securing the Industrial Internet of Things connected ecosystem to further enable digital transformation.

John Walsh is Chief Strategy and Technology Officer of BlackRidge Technology (OTCQB: BRTI), and formerly VP Secure Technology Group at Analog Devices, and President of Sypris Cyber Solutions. John is responsible for working with BlackRidge and customer teams to develop product and channel solutions that meet their needs and the needs of the commercial and government markets.

John has a background in high assurance systems security, security assurance frameworks, IoT/IIoT, secure semiconductors and assured identity, cryptographic key management, systems penetration testing, and the development of trusted architectures using identity as a core element. He holds 11 identity architecture related patents with additional patents pending.

.John is a globally recognized leader and contributor in IoT, Smart Cities, identity-based trust models and architectures, trusted identity solutions using hardware roots of trust, securing trust point to point. John is a thought leader in the growing need to develop a broader view in today’s business and technology ecosystems in the environment of connectivity and new and emerging value chains as part of establishing successful global strategies, partnerships, new product / services development and launches.