Upcoming Meetings

September 2026: Mental Health and Wellness for the Cybersecurity Community

Date:

Tuesday, September 15, 2026 - 5:30pm

RSVP:

https://luma.com/sv-ck5o?utm_source=issa_website

Topic:

Mental Health and Wellness for the Cybersecurity Community

Cybersecurity professionals spend their careers preparing organizations for the unexpected. But what happens when the person behind the keyboard is the one who gets hit by the proverbial truck?

On September 15, 2026, Silicon Valley ISSA President Mike Skurko will moderate a candid and timely panel discussion on mental health, resilience, burnout, recovery, and sustainable performance in the cybersecurity community.

Cybersecurity is a high-pressure profession. Incidents don't respect business hours. Threats continuously evolve. Expectations are high, responsibilities are significant, and for many professionals, elevated stress can become an almost constant part of the job.

This discussion brings together accomplished cybersecurity executives Kay Naidu and Farzan Karimi with mental health and resilience experts Dr. Sara Rabinovitch, PhD, and Anastasiya Rutus to examine the human side of cybersecurity—what happens when professional pressure becomes personal, and what we can do about it.

Rather than simply talking about burnout, our panel will explore real-world experiences, the science behind stress and resilience, and practical strategies cybersecurity professionals can use to recover, make better decisions under pressure, establish healthier working patterns, and continue thriving in demanding careers.

You'll walk away with practical insights and tools you can apply to yourself, your teams, and your organization.

Key Topics Covered

Burnout in cybersecurity — recognizing when sustained occupational pressure begins affecting health, performance, and life outside work.
Stress and the brain — understanding how sustained stress can influence decision-making, judgment, recovery, and performance.
Resilience under pressure — practical strategies for navigating incidents, deadlines, organizational pressure, and constant change.
Recovery after high-stress events — how professionals can recover after being "hit by the truck" rather than simply pushing through to the next crisis.
Human performance in cybersecurity — exploring how behavioral science, stress neurobiology, biometrics, and emerging technologies can help us better understand and support resilience.
Rest as a performance strategy — challenging the idea that exhaustion is evidence of commitment and exploring healthier approaches to sustained performance.
Building sustainable cybersecurity careers — developing habits and approaches that allow professionals to perform without sacrificing their long-term well-being.
Leadership and team wellness — what CISOs, security leaders, and managers can do to create environments where high-performing teams can thrive.
Real-world experiences — candid perspectives from senior cybersecurity leaders who understand the realities of operating in demanding security environments.

Why Attend?

Cybersecurity has become exceptionally good at discussing technology risk.

We talk about vulnerabilities, threat actors, controls, incident response, business continuity, disaster recovery, and organizational resilience.

But there is another critical component of cybersecurity resilience that receives far less attention:

The people responsible for defending our organizations.

The professionals behind our critical systems are making consequential decisions, responding to incidents, managing constantly evolving risks, and often doing so under significant pressure.

This event brings together cybersecurity leadership, clinical psychology, behavioral science, resilience strategy, and real-world security experience to examine that challenge from multiple perspectives.

This isn't simply a conversation about "avoiding burnout." It's a conversation about how we build a cybersecurity profession in which people can perform, recover, make sound decisions under pressure, and sustain successful careers over the long term.

Whether you're an analyst early in your career, a security engineer, GRC professional, security leader, CISO, technology executive, or someone who has simply felt the pressures of working in this industry, this discussion is designed to give you something useful to take back to your career, your team, and your life.

Come for the conversation. Stay for the community.

Agenda

Event Details

Date: Tuesday, September 15, 2026
Time: 5:30 – 8:00 PM
Location: TBD

Join Silicon Valley ISSA for an important conversation about protecting the people behind the technology—and building a healthier, more resilient cybersecurity community.

Speaker:

Kay Naidu

Vice President of Risk, Ethics & Compliance and Chief Privacy Officer | Delta Dental of California

Kay Naidu is a strategic risk, privacy, compliance, and cybersecurity leader with more than 20 years of experience across healthcare and financial services.

At Delta Dental of California, she oversees Enterprise Risk Management, the Compliance & Ethics program, Privacy Office, and Regulatory Affairs. Previously, as Vice President of Governance Risk Management at McKesson Corporation, Kay led policy management, cybersecurity program governance and risk management, customer engagement, and compliance with key regulatory and contractual requirements including HIPAA, HITRUST, CMMC, and PCI-DSS.

Kay has also pioneered innovative approaches to integrating security into quality management systems and developing methodologies for identifying key and emerging risks. Her work has earned industry recognition including the CSO50 Award, Future CISO 100, and Technology Innovation awards.

Farzan Karimi

Deputy CISO | Moderna

Farzan Karimi brings approximately 20 years of offensive security experience to the conversation and currently serves as Deputy CISO at Moderna.

Previously, Farzan managed the Android Red Team at Google and the Red Team at Electronic Arts, giving him extensive firsthand experience working in some of the technology industry's most demanding security environments.

His work has been featured by Wired Magazine and Ted Danson's Advancements. He is also an avid security conference speaker, including appearances at DEF CON and Black Hat USA, where he has presented on Pixel exploitation and cellular security.

Dr. Sara Rabinovitch, PhD

Clinical Psychologist, Behavioral Scientist & Founder and Chief Science Officer | Ansera Health

Dr. Sara Rabinovitch is a clinical psychologist, behavioral scientist, and Founder & Chief Science Officer of Ansera Health, an AI-driven workforce resilience platform helping high-performance teams improve recovery, decision-making, and resilience under pressure.

Her work bridges stress neurobiology, behavioral science, biometrics, and artificial intelligence to develop practical tools that support sustainable human performance in cybersecurity and other high-demand industries.

Dr. Rabinovitch completed her postdoctoral training at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and serves as Adjunct Faculty at Keck Medicine of USC.

Outside of her professional work, she is a former collegiate athlete, proud mom of three, and passionate advocate for protecting the people behind critical systems.

Anastasiya Rutus

Leadership Resilience Strategist & Rest Coach | Founder, You Deserve Rest

Anastasiya Rutus is a Leadership Resilience Strategist and Rest Coach specializing in life, joy and rest coaching, leadership resilience, employee retention, burnout prevention, and workplace culture dynamics.

Through You Deserve Rest, Anastasiya works with technology leaders, consulting organizations, and high-achieving professionals to create sustainable work environments where people can perform at a high level without sacrificing their well-being.

She brings more than 20 years of experience across risk management, GRC, business strategy, and human-centered practices, combining that experience with her background in psychology to help leaders create environments where people can thrive—not simply survive.

Anastasiya holds degrees in Economics, Banking Regulations, and Psychology and certifications including CC (ISC2), CRISC (ISACA), and CIA (IIA).

Moderator

Mike Skurko

President | Silicon Valley ISSA

Mike Skurko is President of the Silicon Valley Chapter of ISSA and Co-Founder and Principal Consultant at PRE, where he works with cybersecurity startups as an advisor on security strategy, go-to-market execution, and revenue generation.

Mike has worked for or advised more than 50 startups and has experienced two IPOs and four acquisitions.

Outside cybersecurity, Mike holds certifications as a Pyrotechnic Operator, Avy-1, and PADI Rescue Diver. Raised in Tokyo, he speaks Japanese and is well versed in Japanese culture and cuisine.

Location:

TBD

October 2026: AI on the Hunt: Using Claude to Unmask the hackerbot_claw Attack Campaign

Date:

Tuesday, October 20, 2026 - 5:30pm

RSVP:

https://luma.com/kszd8yw7?lm_source=svissa_website

Topic:

A Joint Silicon Valley ISSA + Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS) Event

Everyone is talking about how AI will transform the Security Operations Center—but what does AI-powered security actually look like in practice?

Join Silicon Valley ISSA and Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS) for a hands-on look at the intersection of artificial intelligence, threat hunting, and modern security operations.

In this session, Aqsa Taylor will break down the hackerbot_claw attack campaign on GitHub and explore how defenders can use Claude Code to accelerate and automate portions of the threat-hunting process.

Rather than focusing on AI theory, Aqsa will examine a real-world attack campaign: how the activity unfolded, why malicious behavior was able to blend in with legitimate activity, the indicators defenders should be looking for, and practical approaches for incorporating Claude into threat-hunting workflows.

Attendees will leave with a better understanding of both the attacker techniques behind hackerbot_claw and how AI-assisted threat hunting can help security teams investigate suspicious activity more efficiently.

Key Topics Covered

Inside the hackerbot_claw Campaign
Understand how the attack campaign operated, how the activity unfolded on GitHub, and why it was difficult to distinguish from normal behavior.
How Malicious Activity Hid in Plain Sight
Explore attacker techniques and behaviors that blended into legitimate activity and contributed to the campaign going unnoticed.
Indicators of Compromise
Learn the key indicators defenders can use when investigating similar activity.
AI-Assisted Threat Hunting with Claude
See practical approaches for incorporating Claude into threat-hunting and investigation workflows.
Automating the Hunt
Explore opportunities to automate portions of threat hunting so analysts can spend more time investigating the activity that matters most.
Turning AI into a Defender's Advantage
Move beyond the AI-for-security hype and examine how generative AI can practically augment security analysts and SOC teams.

Why Attend?

AI is rapidly changing both sides of cybersecurity. Attackers are experimenting with AI-enabled techniques while defenders are looking for ways to incorporate AI into security operations without simply adding another tool to the stack.

This session focuses on the practical side.

You'll see how a real attack campaign can be dissected and investigated using modern AI-assisted techniques—and walk away with ideas you can begin applying to your own threat-hunting and SecOps workflows.

Whether you're a SOC analyst, threat hunter, security engineer, security leader, cloud security professional, or simply interested in understanding where AI fits into modern cyber defense, this session will offer practical insights you can take back to your organization.

And, as always, you'll have the opportunity to connect with fellow cybersecurity professionals from the Silicon Valley ISSA and WiCyS communities over networking, food, and refreshments.

Agenda

Come for the threat hunting. Stay for the community. Leave with a clearer picture of how AI can become a practical part of modern cyber defense.

Speaker:

Aqsa Taylor

Chief Security Evangelist, Exaforce | 2026 Cybersecurity Woman of the Year

Aqsa Taylor is a cybersecurity leader, author, and tech evangelist who specializes in making complex security concepts accessible and actionable.

She currently serves as Chief Security Evangelist at Exaforce, where she shapes brand awareness and builds trusted communities through knowledge sharing, education, and industry leadership.

Previously, as Chief Research Officer at Software Analyst Cyber Research, Aqsa advised CISOs and authored widely read research covering AI-driven SOCs, cloud security, and SecOps. She is also the author of Applied Security Data Strategy: A Leader’s Guide and Process Mining: The Security Angle.

Her career includes early work at Twistlock, the cloud-native application security platform acquired by Palo Alto Networks, as well as product leadership supporting Prisma Cloud workload security, where she advised organizations representing more than 44% of the Fortune 100.

Aqsa's contributions to the cybersecurity industry were recognized in 2026 when she received the Cybersecurity Woman of the Year Award.

Location:

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

6280 America Center Dr, San Jose, CA 95002, USA

Address: 6280 America Center Dr, San Jose, CA 95002