Modulo, a leading provider of IT governance, risk and compliance (GRC) solutions, announced highlights from its first International Executive Customer Conference recently held in Washington D.C. The conference brought together CISOs from over 12 leading corporations in North America and Europe as well as industry partners and thought leaders in a collaborative forum to discuss trends and challenges in GRC, Cyber Defense, Critical Infrastructure Protection and Data Privacy.

Key themes for 2013 that emerged from the conference included:

• GRC programs are expanding, including the need to link IT and Enterprise Risk Programs
• Critical Infrastructure Protection programs are evolving to span a broader set of capabilities, including merging information technology with physical technology and techniques
• Cybersecurity technology will impact all business sectors, in the mission to thwart cyber attacks from advanced actors that are growing in scope and increasing in frequency
• Cyber Defense strategies must have security "built in" - it cannot be retrofitted
• Communities of Trust and trusted solutions that can be shared by both the public and private sectors are the only way forward in cyber space

"Cyber attacks are becoming more frequent, more organized and more costly in the damage that they inflict on government administrations, businesses, and economies," advised Lt. General Kenneth Minihan, USAF, former Director of the National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA) and Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). "Across all domains of operation, we must identify game changing products, services, and technologies to improve foundations of trust, increase agility and resilience, and assure and empower critical mission infrastructure."

Drawing from a December 2012 TechRadar™ report published by Forrester Research, Principal Analyst and Research Director Chris McClean advised that “the percentage of customers that have implemented a [GRC] product and have plans to expand its footprint in their organization is substantial: 30% for enterprise GRC platforms, 28% for enterprise (and operational) risk management (ERM/ORM) and audit management products, 26% for control monitoring and enforcement products and 25% for IT GRC platforms.” In this new report he adds that “customer feedback and vendor data suggest that technologies that can be deployed to address the broadest set of challenges are on the trajectory of significant success.”¹

Modulo hosted a line-up of prominent speakers including Lt. General Kenneth Minihan, Forrester analyst Chris McClean and Modulo International Customer Advisory Board (CAB) members from AIB Banks, BC Hydro, Enbridge, FMC Technologies and Pennsylvania State University.

"By creating a trusted 'think tank' environment, we were able to share and explore innovative approaches to some of the most pressing security and risk challenges," said Sergio Thompson-Flores, CEO, Modulo. "Forums such as the Modulo International Executive Customer Conference are invaluable to guiding strategic direction for Modulo, our customers and partners - and ultimately in shaping the global landscape for GRC. We look forward to building on this forum and extending it to new regions in 2013."

The conference builds on the Modulo International CAB formed earlier this year. This dynamic group of chief security officers, risk officers and information technology executives from global enterprises spanning North America and EMEA in a broad range of industries bring real-world insights into the security threats, regulatory demands and operational challenges facing today’s enterprise environments.

Executive survey results and a report from the conference will be made available in January 2013.

About Modulo

Modulo is a leading global enterprise provider of comprehensive Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) management solutions. Modulo’s award-winning Risk Manager™ provides hundreds of organizations worldwide with the tools they need to automate the entire GRC management process to monitor, manage and sustain adherence to policy and regulations while reducing enterprise risk and complexity. Customers span the financial, health care, retail, telecom, power & gas and government sectors and include BASF, BC Hydro, Commercial Bank of Dubai, Microsoft, New York University Medical Center, Synovus Financial, and Schlumberger. Modulo has earned industry recognition as a 2012 Innovator of the Year from SC Magazine; “Best Buy” and “5-Star” in SC Magazine’s risk management group product reviews for two consecutive years (2012 and 2011); finalist in SC Magazine Excellence Awards for two consecutive years (2012 and 2011); and winner of the Info Security Products Guide Global Excellence Awards and Network Products Guide Product Innovation Award.

Visit www.modulo.com and follow Modulo on Twitter @moduloitgrc for more information.

¹ TechRadar™ For Risk Management Professionals: GRC, Q4 2012 by Christopher McClean, Nick Hayes with Eve Maler, Miroslaw Lisserman, Forrester Research, Inc., December 5, 2012