US Public Sector Roadmap – Cyber & Regulatory Insights

We hope everyone is enjoying these last few weeks of summer. Despite this being such a busy time for vacations, we had 50+ people at our Meetup on August 16th. Special thanks to longtime Meetup attendee and supporter, Craig Chapman from Gap Strategies Group, who led a provocative and interactive conversation with fellow Loudoun resident Dr. Alenka Brown from the Institute for Defense Analyses. The discussion touched on recognizing each individual’s "cognitive fingerprint" and looking for changes that can identify an increased level of insider threat risk.

For our September 13th Meetup, we’re heading back to the familiar surroundings of the Venture X co-working space in One Loudoun (thank you to Richie Parsons at Venture X for hosting us). Our featured speaker will be Mr. James Leach, the Managing Partner and Co-founder of Fortreum.

Mr. Leach has a diverse cybersecurity background in many technical and management disciplines such as information assurance, compliance (FISMA, FedRAMP, CJIS, IRS 1075, CMMC, CSF, HIPAA, SOC, ISO), information systems design, network design and implementation, security management operations, leading hyperscale cloud providers (AWS, Microsoft and Google), ISV community and respective deployment models (Public/Community/Hybrid/Private).

Prior to joining Fortreum, Mr. Leach was the direct business/account interface for Amazon Web Services (over 8 years) and Google Cloud (4+), along with supporting IBM, Salesforce, Adobe, and many other leading SaaS/PaaS cloud service providers in the areas of regulatory roadmaps by industry (Public Sector, Healthcare, Financial Services, etc.). Mr. Leach has served heavily in the FedRAMP program since its inception.

Abstract of James’ remarks: Commercial cloud service providers (CSP) and System Integrators (SI) must meet certain compliance requirements to conduct business in US Public Sector. This is a strategic process for any organization to undertake in identifying the correct actions, resource assignments and business justifications to meet those requirements. We’ll describe what the key regulations are and respective timelines.

So please join us and bring a friend. Fortreum will be providing food and beverage for the evening, so arrive hungry and ready to engage with James and your fellow cyber warriors. Please RSVP here on Meetup.com and also at the following site:

**https://www.eventbrite.com/e/loco-cyber-meetup-at-venture-x-loudoun-tickets-406196664157**

Important: Please contact Chris.Friberg@Loudoun.gov if you would like to be a sponsor for this or future Meetups.

Agenda:
5:30 Gather and networking
6:05 Opening remarks – Tom Suder (ATARC) and Chris Friberg (Loudoun Economic Development)
6:10 Featured speaker and Q&A: “US Public Sector Roadmap – Cyber & Regulatory Insights” James Leach, Fortreum
6:50 Open Mic – General Announcements and Introductions
7:00 Networking continues
7:30 Wrap-up