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Tony Cole, FireEye Global Government CTO, Rick Geritz, Chairman CyberMaryland, Robert Rodriguez, Chairman SINET, David Scholtz, CEO Damballa, Heather Rodriguez, Dominick Murray, Maryland Secretary of Business & Economic Development, Jim Johnson, CEO Tripwire, Bob Ackerman, Managing Director & Founder Allegis Capital, Martin O'Malley, Governor of Maryland

A Day At The Races...

May 17, 2013

An undefined race is on for who will lead our nation's Cybersecurity endeavors and Martin O'Malley, Governor of Maryland is at the vanguard of these efforts. The Governor hosted an intimate meeting for the below Cybersecurity thought leaders at Pimlico Race Track during the Preakness Stakes weekend. Governor O'Malley, an entrepreneur at heart himself has led the rapidly growing CyberMaryland program for the last three years. An initiative designed to reignite innovation & entrepreneurism, support small business and create jobs that will lead to economic prosperity not only for the great State of Maryland but for the Beltway region. There are similarities between Maryland and how Silicon Valley was birthed back in the 50's; a strong government and large system integration (LSIs) customer base, in this case; NSA, DISA, US CyberCommand, LSIs etc. outward facing universities such as the University of Maryland System and John Hopkins along with innovative trailblazers such as Dr. Freeman Hrabowski at UMBC. In addition, a critically important factor driving Maryland's success is the Senate and Congressional leaders who are also supporting these efforts through the 90 Million dollar InvestMaryland venture program to seed early stage companies along with a new Cybersecurity Tax Credit slated for 2014. Maryland also has the possibility to be the "Ellis Island" for foreign companies who desire to conduct business in our nation. Having mentioned these important attributes...at the heart and the most important piece of fostering success is the very tight and strong group of leaders in Maryland who truly believe in moving from "me to we" in order to build a community of interest and trust. With the exception of risk capital and the unique DNA of Silicon Valley all the ingredients needed to build a Cybersecurity ecosystem are here, just own it, mix it and bake it. The opportunity to advance the security field, create jobs and make our nation's critical infrastructure safe, resilient, robust, secure and trusted is an important task not only for the Governor but for all of us involved in the Cybersecurity domain. I am excited about what Maryland is building and providing through their community of leaders who care deeply about this issue and their State.

Keep Thinking Globally - Act Locally Maryland...

Robert D. Rodriguez

SINET Celebrates it's 7th Annual ITSEF - Inspire - Innovate - Engage

March 20, 2013

This year marked the Seventh Annual SINET IT Security Entrepreneurs¡¯ Forum (ITSEF) at Stanford University. The Forum's theme; Inspire - Innovate - Engage resonated strongly throughout the day in a collegial setting that fostered robust, high level and energetic dialogue. The presence of industry and government thought leaders and their comments on stage were inspiring as well as the common occurrence of the word mission - mission - mission.

The feedback was overwhelmingly positive but the secret sauce to SINET is all of you and the diversity, not of color but by the various disciplines each of you bring to the table. Your participation validates the importance of our mission to advance innovation and enable global collaboration between the public and private sectors to defeat cyber security threats.

As builders and leaders of companies we encourage you to think of the higher calling that serves the economic and national security interests of our country. Lets continue together to build communities of interest and trust that create a win for your company, a win for the industry & government and a win for our economic and national security interests. I am hopeful the information and relationships gained at ITSEF will lead you one step closer to success.

Now onto our Innovation Summit - Columbia University on August 6th & the SINET Showcase - Washington DC December 4th & 5th. Innovators please apply now for an opportunity to have your voice heard as a SINET 16 Innovator.

I encourage you to continue to Inspire - Innovate - Engage... .

Robert D. Rodriguez

Robert Rodriguez Speaks to the Theft of Intellectual Property by China

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SINET's Innovation Summit - Chicago: Bridging Silicon Valley the Beltway & the Midwest

August 8, 2012

Vice Admiral Michael S. Rogers, Commander, U.S. Fleet Cyber Command, Commander, U.S. 10th Fleet Dr. Tara O'Toole, Under Secretary, Department of Homeland Security, Science & Technology Directorate

Chicago, IL. - August 8, 2012

After a two day tour at the University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign(UIUC) five years ago I walked away extremely impressed with the intellectual capacity and infrastructure of this world class institution. Larry Ellison, Marc Andreessen, Ray Ozzie, Max Levchin, Hugh Hefner and many other notables walked these halls and departed to built great companies. As I left the campus I could not help but think that the jets full of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and investment bankers are flying over the corn field and not stopping until they reach the coasts. A missed opportunity as there are many great academic institutions within 240 miles of the UIUC. It is time to bridge the gap between Silicon Valley, the Beltway and the great minds from the Midwest. This is why we chose to host the second annual Innovation Summit in the great city of Chicago. The pioneering entrepreneurs of the early 1800's saw the potential of Chicago as a transportation hub of rivers and lakes. Trade quickly ensued and the emergence as our nation's largest rail and shipping mecca helped grow the commodities business and national retailers Roebuck, Montgomery Ward, Sears soon followed. The innovative use of steel framing led to the invention of the skyscraper, it's world class architecture and the ensuing build out of vertical cities. A robust industrial and manufacturing period built Chicago to what it is today but their dependence on these great legacies created a sense of complacency and the city failed to continue to innovate. Old school politics and culture permeated the streets and it was hard to change until relatively recently where they have done an impressive job of embracing and leading entrepreneurialism and innovation in the knowledge age. Rob Wolcott at the Kellogg Innovation Network, Steve Kaplan at the U of C, Kevin Willer at 1871 and the entrepreneurs. I applaud our Keynote Speakers; Dr. Tara O'Toole, Under Secretary Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology Directorate and Vice Admiral Michael Rogers, Commander, U.S. Fleet Cyber Command & U.S. 10th Fleet for embracing change and bringing disparate communities closer together. Their leadership sends an important message on the importance of collaboration and the advancement of innovation through new models. I sense a hunger and need to re-boot in the Midwest and I hope we can help in our own small way...

SINET's Second Visit to the Aspen Institute Security Forum

July 29, 2012

Calling in from Colorado Rockies where I attended the Aspen Institute Security Forum. Clark Ervin, Director of the program and one of the SINET Showcase steering committee members, once again did a fantastic job of bringing in current and past executive policy & decision makers from the Federal Government, private industry and world-class think tanks along with noted print and broadcast journalists. General Alexander, once again delivered informative, impactful and frank remarks about the mission and roles of the National Security Agency & US Cyber Command. He and others also provided an overview of the state of affairs with Cybersecurity:

• Cyber warfare is one of the most potent security threats the United States faces
• On a scale of 1 - 10 on the United States being prepared for a large scale attack against our critical infrastructure  we are at a 3
• One of the reasons we are most vulnerable is technology moves to fast, difficult to keep up with it
• Exploits in the mobile space have doubled in one year, this area is lagging behind traditional network security
• Devices and the applications that run on them are the avenue into the network
• Our nation's attack surface continues to expand, making us more vulnerable
• There continues to be a trend of a shift from disruptive to destructive attacks
• Nation and non nation attacks continue to rise
• Attacks on our nation's critical infrastructure have increased 17 fold between the periods 2009 & 2011
• By a slight margin, most attacks are attributed to criminals and hackers over nation state attacks
• The adversaries have gone into our companies and we do not know how large the problem really is
• IP loss is a big concern and problem that needs to be fixed, this is our future and we must ensure our innovative & subsequent market advantage does not fall behind other countries
• As a result the biggest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind is occurring right now, we must continue to innovate while at the same time protect our intellectual property, as it is our future

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