When Bits Hit the Fan (18 October 2016)

The UK government’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) was built by Chris Gibson to coordinate the vast horde of suppliers, old and new technologies in critical infrastructure across government departments both high profile and deniable.

We are delighted to welcome Chris as our speaker for the second of our “Autumn of Discontent” Real Time Club dinners held in the National Liberal Club in Whitehall.

As Rudyard Kipling might say today, “If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same, then you’ll be the Director of CERT my son”, Chris has devoted his time to mixing a cocktail of boredom laced with fear, because although we really don’t want excitement in systems that cost lives when they fail, he’s worked to ensure that stakeholders in both government and important private sector industries are taking the threats seriously…and dealing with the consequences when they haven’t.

Before CERT, Chris was on the board of FIRST.org, the global Forum for Incident Response and Security Teams which ran in parallel with 12 years at Citi being a Director with responsibility of protecting a large financial institution in a rapidly evolving threat landscape.

Real Time Club Dinners are held under the Chatham House Rule to encourage free and frank conversation.