Featured Speaker(s)

As an industry recognized expert and hall of fame member, Candy has profound experience in performing many aspects of information security which she obtained through various information security roles. Candy has over 25+ years in the security industry working for companies such as Digital Equipment, Compaq Computer Corporation, and Symantec.

Candy is often requested to present at various conferences. Her most memorable to date is the session at the United Nations where she was a featured speaker for the IT Security Symposium and running in close second is an invitation to the Offices of the White House to speak on the importance of security awareness to the President’s “Cyber-Czar” staff.

In her ongoing commitment to “give back” Candy volunteers as a Director on the ISSA (Information Systems Security Association) International Board where she is the chief architect for the Cybersecurity Career LifecycleTM. She is also the past President and current Board Member of the ISSA Education and Research Foundation. Candy has also served as Vice President of Education and Vice President of International Relations for the ISSA. She remains a loyal member at the local level with the New England Chapter and the ISSA-New Hampshire Chapter. Candy has received numerous awards and recognition, including that of Distinguished Fellow of the ISSA ranking her as one of the top 1% in the association and she was inducted into the ISSA Hall of Fame in 2014.

Candy has held several positions as CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) for which she developed and managed Corporate Security Programs. She is now working as a virtual CISO and Cybersecurity consultant.

Michelle Drolet is the CEO and co-founder of Towerwall a data security company. She serves as chairperson of the Board of Directors. As one of Towerwall’s resident information security experts, Ms. Drolet assists organizations through the security process to help them protect critical data by the evaluation, establishment, education and enforcement of sound information security, network security and data security practices.

Ms. Drolet is responsible for all aspects of business for Towerwall. She has more than 23 years of, network and data security experience. She has leveraged that knowledge to make Towerwall a leading data security service and solution provider. Well respected in the analyst and trade community, Ms. Drolet is often published in national magazines and is a regular contributor to the Network World Blog: INFOSEC AT YOUR SERVICE.

Ms. Drolet has received citations from Senator Spilka and Senator Magnani for her community service and has received the Cyber Citizenship award several times on behalf of Towerwall for community support and participation. She has received the Athena award, the ESL Christine Taylor Award and been named one of the 10 most powerful women in the channel by VARBusiness magazine.

Currently she sits on the Mass Bay Community College Foundation Board and her churches Evangelical Committee. She is past chair of the Metrowest Chamber of Commerce and Framingham ESL.

Patty Patria, Chief Information Officer of Becker College has more than 17 years of experience in the IT industry, with more than 12 in higher education. She is responsible for providing strategic leadership in long-term and short-term planning, managing administrative and academic technology, overseeing the management of computer networks, servers, and personal computers, and ensuring compliance with information security laws.

Patty holds a Masters in Business Administration from Suffolk University. She is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).

Janet Levesque is the Chief Information Security Officer at RSA, the Security Division of EMC. In her role as CISO, Janet spearheads the enterprise information security program and is responsible for maintaining a global risk strategy to determine acceptable levels of risk for the enterprise.

Janet joined RSA after twenty five years of progressive leadership experience in technical audit, information security and risk management domains. Prior to RSA, she established the information security and compliance program at Aspect Software. She designed and built the information security program to support initial SOX, and PCI compliance mandates at Circles, a Sodexo company and wore several hats at an internet grocery delivery service during the dot com boom. Janet’s foundational years were spent in public accounting at Arthur Andersen assisting clients in financial services, consumer products, retail, and high technology industries to improve business performance by managing risks associated with the deployment and use of technology.

She graduated from the University of Vermont with a Bachelor of Science and holds Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) and Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) designations. Janet is a frequent speaker at cyber security industry events and was appointed to the National Cyber Security Alliance Board of Directors in 2015.

Gary Miliefsky is the CEO of SnoopWall, Inc. and a co-inventor of the company’s innovative breach prevention technologies. He is a cyber-security expert and a frequent invited guest on national and international media commenting on mobile privacy, cyber security, cyber crime and cyber terrorism, also covered in both Forbes and Fortune Magazines. He has been extremely active in the INFOSEC arena, most recently as the Editor of Cyber Defense Magazine.

Gary is a Founding Member of the US Department of Homeland Security, the National Information Security Group and the OVAL advisory board of MITRE responsible for the CVE Program. He also assisted the National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC), which operates within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in their development of The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace as well as the Center for the Study of Counter-Terrorism and Cyber Crime at Norwich University.

In his earlier career he sold and licensed technology that he invented to Hexis Cyber, a division of KeyW, Intel/McAfee, IBM, Computer Associates and BlackBox Corporation. Gary is a member of ISC2.org and is a CISSP®.