Modern threat actors and criminals have embraced the power of technology have incorporated the use of advance computing into their operational tradecraft.  The tactics used to engage in criminal activity such as illegal drug and human trafficking, intelligence collection and operations, as well as terrorist attacks have evolved as threat actors increasingly use AI obtain operational intelligence on law enforcement and security operations and to plan and conduct attacks or other illicit activities. These same threat actors operate using converged and cohesive integration of physical activities, cyber security exploits, and algorithmically enabled malign information operations.  Operational activity to detect, evaluate and mitigate emerging cyber and physical threats are enhanced when cyber and physical efforts are integrated and the tradecraft used by federal, state and local authorities to counter-act emerging threats and crime are evolving. 

This session will discuss this issue from the perspective of an individual who has and continues to work with law enforcement, intelligence, and cyber security professionals to protect our communities and Nation from foreign and domestic threats.  

Agents are now infrastructure, not a pilot. The security industry's instinct is to put a chokepoint on the network. That instinct is thirty years old and it no longer reaches the place where agents actually act: the harness. Turn on the lights today as the first step towards a safe AI Agent Lifecycle.

Agentic AI is moving security operations beyond AI-assisted analysis toward systems capable of investigating threats, invoking tools, and taking action. For CISOs, this creates a fundamental governance challenge: how can organizations trust autonomous systems that may access sensitive data, operate with delegated authority, and act at machine speed?

In this session, Fortra Chief Product Officer Aaron Cockerill will examine how security leaders can build confidence in autonomous security operations through continuous adversarial testing. Drawing on Fortra’s decades of threat research, offensive security expertise, and experience protecting sensitive data across complex digital environments, he will outline how organizations can evaluate AI permissions, data-access pathways, tool use, decision logic, escalation controls, and human oversight—both before deployment and as these systems evolve.

Aaron will address both sides of the challenge: using AI to strengthen cyber defense while applying offensive techniques to identify weaknesses in AI-enabled systems before threat actors do. He’ll also discuss how the security analyst’s role is changing as AI assumes more investigative and response responsibilities.

Ultimately, trusted autonomy depends on more than model accuracy. It requires clear boundaries around what AI systems can access and do, continuous validation against adversarial behavior, and accountability that remains visible when decisions are made at machine speed.

Agentic AI is changing the way financial institutions operate, introducing new opportunities, risks, and security challenges. In this session, Susan Koski explores why traditional security programs must evolve to address autonomous AI systems, from identity and access management to governance, accountability, and risk. Discover what security leaders need to rethink today to build resilient, AI-ready security programs for tomorrow.

For financial services leaders, the conversation has shifted from whether to adopt AI to how to scale it securely, govern it effectively, and prepare for what's next. As AI becomes deeply embedded across security operations, fraud detection, customer experiences, software development, and enterprise decision-making, the next wave of innovation is already taking shape.

This executive panel brings together experienced cybersecurity and technology leaders to examine the future of AI beyond today's deployments. The discussion will explore the rise of agentic AI, autonomous security operations, machine identities, AI-to-AI interactions, evolving regulatory expectations, and the new trust models required as intelligent systems gain greater autonomy. Panelists will also discuss how attackers are leveraging AI, where defensive capabilities are headed, and what leadership teams should be doing now to prepare for the next generation of AI-enabled financial services.

Attendees will gain practical insights into the strategic decisions, governance models, and security investments that will position their organizations to confidently navigate the next chapter of AI innovation

Threat-led penetration testing has become one of the most powerful tools for assessing the real-world resilience of financial institutions, but the stakes are uniquely high in live FS environments. Testing must be realistic enough to expose genuine weaknesses, yet carefully controlled to avoid customer impact, market disruption, data loss, or operational instability.

This discussion explores how financial institutions can work with their expert cyber service providers to safely conduct high-risk, threat-led testing against critical systems, including payment platforms, trading infrastructure, cloud environments, identity systems, and third-party dependencies. Speakers will discuss how to balance realism with control, how to define acceptable risk, and how to ensure lessons from testing translate into lasting resilience improvements.

Key Discussion Questions
•    How can financial institutions work with partners to design threat-led penetration tests that are realistic enough to be valuable but controlled enough to avoid operational disruption?
•    What governance, rules of engagement, and escalation mechanisms are essential when testing critical or systemically important financial services infrastructure?
•    How should firms, regulators, and testing providers determine whether the greater risk lies in testing too aggressively or not testing realistically enough?

Every financial institution is facing the same question: Should we build our own AI capabilities, buy commercial solutions, or pursue a hybrid approach? The answer has significant implications for security, governance, cost, innovation, and long-term competitive advantage.

In this panel, financial services executives will examine the strategic tradeoffs behind today's AI investment decisions. Panelists will discuss how they evaluate vendor risk, balance the use of proprietary and open-source models, measure return on investment, and address the governance and security challenges that come with each approach. Attendees will gain practical insights into the decision-making frameworks leading organizations are using to adopt AI responsibly while aligning technology investments with business objectives.

As AI becomes embedded across financial services, governance can no longer exist only as a framework on paper. Financial institutions are being challenged to operationalize AI governance across business units, technology teams, security, risk, compliance, and executive leadership, while keeping pace with rapidly evolving regulations and innovation.

In this panel, senior leaders will share how their organizations are turning governance strategies into measurable, enterprise-wide practices. From defining ownership and accountability to strengthening model oversight, managing third-party AI risk, and delivering meaningful board reporting, panelists will discuss what it takes to build governance programs that enable innovation while maintaining trust, resilience, and regulatory confidence. Attendees will leave with practical insights into creating governance that scales with AI adoption, not behind it.

Every cybercrime investigation generates valuable human insight, but too often that knowledge remains trapped in case notes, individual experience, or disconnected workflows. The next evolution of AI is not simply automating investigations; it is capturing human expertise, transforming it into structured data, and creating continuous feedback loops that make every investigation smarter than the last.

In this session, Abhishek Mittal of AML RightSource will explore how financial institutions can convert investigator knowledge into actionable data streams that continuously improve detection, decision-making, and operational effectiveness. Attendees will learn how meaningful metrics, investigator feedback, and AI can work together to identify emerging threats, refine investigative models, and accelerate the fight against financial crime. The discussion will examine practical approaches to building intelligence-driven feedback loops that enable organizations to learn from every case, adapt more quickly to evolving criminal tactics, and strengthen both operational resilience and fraud prevention. Participants will leave with a framework for transforming human expertise into a scalable, data-driven advantage in the ongoing battle against cyber-enabled financial crime.

AI didn't enter your institution through architecture review. It arrived through business units, vendor product updates, and browser tabs and most firms still can't name the AI systems they're running. Meanwhile the EU AI Act, ISO/IEC 42001, NIST's AI RMF, and existing model risk expectations are converging on the same reporting cycle.

This session cuts through the framework noise and lays out a governance program you could stand up this quarter. We'll cover what's genuinely new about AI risk versus what your existing third-party, data, and change controls already handle; the controls that hold across the AI lifecycle from intake to operation; who needs decision rights and who accepts residual risk; and a sequenced first 90 days that produces board-ready evidence at each stage.

The through

AI is only as powerful as the data behind it. As financial institutions move from AI experimentation to enterprise-wide adoption, building a trusted, accessible, and well-governed data foundation has never been more critical. This session explores what it takes to make enterprise data truly AI-ready, from breaking down data silos and modernizing legacy architectures to improving data quality, governance, and accessibility. Discover how financial institutions can build the foundation needed to scale AI and agentic workflows securely, responsibly, and with measurable business impact.

As financial institutions accelerate the adoption of AI, the opportunity to transform fraud detection, financial crime compliance, risk management, and customer experiences is significant. But so are the governance and regulatory challenges. Financial services organizations must determine how to innovate with AI while maintaining the transparency, control, and accountability expected in one of the world’s most highly regulated industries.

In this session, Manish Andhy, Financial Services AI Executive at Teradata, will explore the evolving risk and compliance landscape surrounding AI in financial services. He will examine how institutions can address issues such as model risk, data governance, explainability, regulatory oversight, and the emerging complexities of generative and agentic AI. Attendees will gain practical perspectives on building governance and compliance into AI initiatives from the outset, enabling organizations to move AI into production responsibly while maintaining the trust of regulators, customers, and the business.

Your business continuity plan was built for yesterday's threats. Learn how AI-driven resilience helps CISOs respond faster, decide smarter and stay in control when a cyber crisis hits.

Attackers have already adopted AI. They scan, phish and move laterally at machine speed, while many organizations still run their crisis response from a binder, a spreadsheet and a group chat. When an incident escalates into a business crisis, the gaps show fast: unclear roles, delayed coordination between teams, scattered decisions and leadership without a real-time picture of what is happening.

This session explores what changes when AI fights AI, and how security leaders can move from static continuity documents to a living resilience capability that works before, during and after a crisis.

As financial institutions race to move AI-powered applications from concept to production, the biggest challenge is no longer building the technology, it is deploying it securely, responsibly, and at enterprise scale. Success requires far more than development and testing. It demands a governance strategy that is embedded throughout the entire application lifecycle.

In this session, Venkata Cheedella will provide a 360-degree view of what it takes to take modern applications, including AI-enabled systems, safely into production. From architecture and secure development to model governance, compliance, third-party risk, operational resilience, and continuous monitoring, attendees will explore where security, risk, and governance intersect with every stage of delivery. The discussion will also examine how cross-functional collaboration between engineering, security, risk, legal, and business leaders enables organizations to accelerate innovation without sacrificing trust or regulatory expectations.

Designed for cybersecurity executives and practitioners in financial services, this session will provide practical insights into building governance into the development pipeline, reducing production risk, and creating an application delivery process that is both agile and resilient in an AI-driven world.

As AI becomes more deeply embedded in security operations, leaders face a critical challenge: how to realize its potential while maintaining trust, oversight and accountability. In this lightning talk, Embed Security shares how a global IT and security provider is transforming its SOC by scaling expert security reasoning with AI, dramatically reducing analyst workload while improving operational effectiveness. We'll explore what this shift means for the future of security operations and why accuracy, consistency and transparency are essential to adopting AI with confidence.

The number of AI pundits and experts seems to keep expanding.  How do you know what is happening in AI with any certainty?  Come to this session to hear a practitioner talk about where we are with current technology and where we are going.  Given his nearly 4 decades of experience in building AI environments, applications, and platforms, John will talk about what works and what doesn’t.  With clear guidance, you can place your bets and make commitments that you know will pay off.  Bring your questions and be ready to discuss your challenges and concerns about AI.