Cyber Protection – The Security Issue of Our Time

With over Twenty (20) years of legal experience in the public broadcast and nonprofit markets, Ardelle has served as General Counsel to a major PBS Station as well as Legal Counsel to other PBS and Public Broadcast Stations. Ardelle has also obtained certifications and programming from Harvard in Cybersecurity, Digital Transformation, Sustainability and Artificial Intelligence (including AR, VR and Mixed Reality.) Ardelle has had the honor and opportunity to work with PBS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and America’s Public Television Stations (APTS). Ardelle provides legal counsel to NETA as well as Legal Services through the NETA Business Center to the NETA Members.

Through her Law Firm, ST.GEORGE & CARNEGIE, the Solutions & Licensing Company, NAUTILUS GLOBAL SOLUTIONS, Ardelle handles General Counsel, Cybersecurity, Executive and Board Governance & Compliance, Data Privacy, Operations/Business/Legal Affairs/Legal Administration, FCC Matters, Regulatory Law, Sustainability, Intellectual Property Law, Digital/Experiential Transformation, Advanced Technology (AI, AR/VR/Mixed Reality), Production/Content Rights Management/Acquisition & Support, Real Estate, Fundraising/Membership Matters, Dispute Resolution and Other Legal & Professional Resource Services.

Dedicating 22 years to the United States Secret Service, Ron Williams had the opportunity to work and supervise all divisions of the SS Treasury department in the Los Angeles Field Office. Gaining a wealth of security expertise and a highly regarded reputation within Federal Law Enforcement, Mr. Williams decided to start Talon Executive Services, Inc., a corporate security and investigations company. As a Secret Service Agent, Mr. Williams supervised the credit card and financial fraud squad, the counterfeit squad, and the elite Counter Assault Team (CAT) to combat terrorism. As the Lead Advance Agent, Mr. Williams was responsible for all advance security plans and logistics coordination for Presidential, Vice-Presidential, and foreign heads-of-state visits to Los Angeles. He personally protected Presidents Ford, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton, as well as such noted dignitaries as Queen Elizabeth, Yitzhak Shamir, and Pope John Paul and was the recipient of numerous awards including the United States Secret Service Director’s Award for Special Achievement on eight occasions.

Focusing on the company he founded in 1994, Talon Executive Services, Inc., Mr. Williams has created a highly advanced team of former Secret Service and F.B.I. agents as well as other federal, state and local law enforcement officers. Threat assessment and physical site surveys performed by Talon include venues such as public transportation, entertainment and pharmaceutical. As a RAM-w certified agent, he performs threat assessments and develops remedial measures for water districts, identified as one of the nation’s critical infrastructures. Because of his expertise in the field of anti-terrorism, Mr. Williams was asked by the California Gubernatorial delegation in 2002, to meet with Tom Ridge regarding homeland security. His association with AFAUSSS (Association of Former Agents of the United States Secret Service), ASIS (American Society of Industry Security), ATAP (Association of Threat Assessment Professionals) American Water Works Association (AWWA) Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) to name a few, keeps him abreast of all matters involving security and threat assessment. He is also an active member of the FBI’s InfraGard program, U.S. State Department Overseas Advisory Council (OSAC) and OCPST (Orange County Private Sector Terrorist Response). Mr. Williams frequently appears on Fox News Channel as well as other national shows as a security analyst and terrorism expert. He was also the keynote speaker at the 1999 Alabama Governor’s Conference on Violence in the Workplace Prevention, has made presentations to the California Association of Water Agencies which included a White Paper, and continues to educate organizations on various security issues through specialized seminars and training.

John Callahan is a cybersecurity and emerging technologies consultant with nearly 20 years experience protecting high value, high exposure digital assets and systems; transitioning innovation for new operational uses; and building education programs to support a next generation workforce.

Callahan currently serves as the co-director of the San Diego State University Cyber Tech Academy, a fully online certificate platform designed to grow and sustain a highly qualified cyber workforce. Cyber Tech Academy will have dozens of programs to prepare students in topics involving cyber security and emerging technology, ranging from novice to expert level courses to support the State of California’s goal of producing over 50,000 new practitioners in the next decade. Prior to arriving at SDSU, Callahan helped create the Informatics Program at the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering, along with three Masters degrees, and the University of San Diego Center for Cyber Security Engineering and Technology.

Eric A. Nielsen, CISSP, C|CISO, CCSP, HCISPP, CAP, CRISC, Security+, CISA, CEBA, CBSE, CNFTP, Chief Executive Officer of Defense In Depth Cyber Security is an experienced information security professional with an established track record of accomplishments including clients in Hedge Fund \ Family Office, healthcare, retail and startup environments, demonstrating subject mastery and leading functional security teams including but not limited to security operations, security engineering and architecture, access and identity management, threat and vulnerability management, security risk and compliance. Mr. Nielsen has served as the most senior information protection officer responsible for developing a plan to transition existing information security, privacy, compliance and risk management functions into one comprehensive information risk management program. He is responsible for implementing, maintaining, and advisement of information security efforts and strategic vision across the client organization.

Mr. Nielsen serves as the subject matter expert regarding all information security incident response including prevention, investigation, mitigation, and reporting activities of potential breaches for the organization. He is responsible for all activities related to the development, implementation, and maintenance of information security and privacy policies and procedures ensuring the overall security of electronic information at rest, in transit or in motion. He is affiliated with the University of Riverside Extension Program & San Diego State University as a cyber instructor teaching numerous cyber security related topics like ethical hacking, cloud security as well as artificial intelligence.

Risk Strategist & Workers' Compensation Expert ◆ Certified Insurance Counselor ◆ Cyber Risk Specialist ◆ Captives ◆ Helping Businesses Prevent Injuries, Reduce the Costs of Risk and Increase Profit for Business Owners

Since 2005, Steve has been advising clients on implementing his holistic cybersecurity best-practices and insurance protection approach. Ultimately, organizations are viewed by cyber insurers as preferred risks, thereby obtaining a program with better terms and conditions, higher limits of coverage at most cost-effective premium.