Security culture is essential for achieving a culture of compliance. IT leaders are tasked with linking security assurance with organizational values. However, cyber compliance has traditionally been approached as a bottom-up problem and addressed with disjointed ideas that mistake effort as value. The session will cover challenges and opportunities around cybersecurity compliance through cultural changes that align with organizational vision, goals, and values.
SPEAKERS:
Tolgay Kizilelma, PhD
Tolgay Kizilelma, PhD is a business-driven IT leader and trusted business partner with 30 years of experience covering the whole business IT spectrum within Education, Healthcare, Research, and Distribution industries. He has extensive technical and business knowledge within Information Technology and Information Security/Cybersecurity. He currently serves as the Director of MS in Cybersecurity Program at Dominican University of California, Barowsky School of Business where he also teaches as an Associate Professor of Cybersecurity.
As an adjunct faculty at Saint Mary’s College of California, School of Economics and Business Administration, he has been teaching various data analytics courses as part of the Master of Science Business Analytics and Professional MBA programs since 2017.
He previously served as the Chief Information Security Officer at multiple University of California campuses. Early in his career, he managed the U.S. IT operations for a national fuel systems integrator and distributor covering three states.
He is an accredited APMG/ISACA trainer for the widely recognized industry IT certifications for CRISC (Risk), CGEIT (Governance), CISA (Audit), CISM (Information Security), and COBIT 2019. He has been serving as the Academic Relations Director for ISACA Sacramento Chapter since 2021. Prior to that role he served as the Government and Regulatory Advocacy Director. In 2022 partnering with ISACA Global, he led and launched the ISACA Sacramento Cybersecurity Scholarship program. ISACA Sacramento became one of the first eight chapters selected globally for this effort. In 2023, the cybersecurity scholarship program was expanded for more coverage. Establishing ISACA Student Groups with the local universities is another effort he is currently leading at ISACA Sacramento.
Another community-government engagement he is involved with is his board level role at the FBI Sacramento Citizens Academy Alumni Association (FBISACCAAA). He currently serves as the President at FBISACCAAA coordinating various efforts fostering the special connection between the FBI Citizens Academy graduates and the FBI Sacramento Headquarters and Resident Agencies for an informed and safer community. He also serves as an advisory member for InfraGard fostering public-private partnership between U.S. businesses and FBI supporting various Critical Infrastructure Sectors.
His current research interests are Cybersecurity, Privacy, Digital Transformation, Business Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, and Educational IT programs. He also has peer-reviewed information security articles published. As an advocate of lifelong learning, Tolgay has many Business, IT, and Cybersecurity industry certifications, as well as a B.S. degree in computer engineering, an MBA, and a Ph.D. focusing on information security. He also volunteers for various non-profit organizations as a board member, and frequently participates at cybersecurity conferences as a keynote speaker and a panelist.