Forcepoint AWARE 2025

AI isn’t “on the way.” It’s already inside the workflows, tools, and cloud apps moving your data. And too often, that data is leaving your control before you even know it’s gone. The real challenge goes beyond just seeing the risk, It’s acting in time to stop it. That’s the Visibility-Control Gap — and in an AI-driven world, it’s widening fast.

In this opening session, Ryan Windham shares what it takes to close that gap. You’ll hear how teams are combining real-time visibility with adaptive controls and automated protection to keep sensitive data safe without slowing down the business. This is about making AI work for you, not against you — and turning data security into an advantage instead of a roadblock.

Greater visibility alone isn’t solving today’s risk

The “Visibility-Control Gap” is becoming a new attack surface

AI is helping security teams recognize vulnerabilities and adapt fast

Al is accelerating faster than cloud ever did—bringing innovation, efficiency, and a wave of unchecked risks that CISOs and business leaders cannot ignore. From startups demanding unfettered access to enterprise data, to coding agents transforming software delivery at speeds governance teams can't match, security leaders are being forced into impossible tradeoffs.

In this candid conversation, Alex Stamos, cyber expert, Stanford professor and former Facebook CSO, will explore the real risks of the Al revolution: not just GenAl models themselves, but the ecosystem of immature vendors, shadow integrations, and exponential data exposures reshaping the enterprise. He'll share practical strategies for CISOs and ClOs to create “back pressure” against unchecked adoption, frame data as a finite risk resource, and push ownership of risk acceptance back to the business where it belongs. Expect hard truths, pragmatic guidance, and a vision for how security leaders can move from “default no” to “responsible yes” in securing Al-driven enterprises.

Expose the real risk: Why the greatest Al threats aren't in the LMs, but in the immature vendors and shadow integrations demanding your data.

Shift the narrative: How CISOs can stop being the “risk acceptors” and instead create back pressure that forces the business to make tradeoffs.

Redefine governance: Practical steps to treat data risk as a finite resource rather than an unlimited well.

Balance innovation and control: How to move from being a “default no” CISO to a “responsible yes” leader that enables Al adoption securely.

Data growth, AI adoption and tightening regulations are stretching CISOs and their teams to the limit.

Managing tools is one thing. The hardest part is making sure your teams align defenses to real, material threats, especially for AI, proving it to the board and keeping pace with how fast risk is changing in the cloud.

Ross Young, former CISO at Team8 and Caterpillar Financial and the creator of the OWASP Threat and Safeguard Matrix, joins Alex Martinez, Director of Solutions Architecture, Global Public Sector Partners at AWS, along with moderator Ryan Windham, CEO at Forcepoint to share what they’re seeing inside security programs right now. From cloud transformation risks to AI-powered attack methods, they’ll walk through proven ways to connect visibility, strategy, reporting and board-level confidence.

Build a defensible strategy that maps directly to real AI-driven threats​

Anticipate and address cloud transformation risks before they escalate

Communicate security priorities so boards and execs stay aligned

AI has changed the tempo of cyberattacks along with the margin for error. In this session, Darwish Azad, CISO at Emirates NBD, shares how they’ve adapted to detect and disrupt AI-enabled threats in real time, using a blend of visibility, adaptive controls and automation.

Moderated by Rick Hanson, President of Go-to-Market at Forcepoint, here is an unfiltered account of what happens when a security team meets a fast-moving, AI-powered attack. You’ll learn how they identified the risk, closed the gaps and kept operations moving – and how you can apply the same tactics to your own environment.

Firsthand lessons from stopping AI-driven data exfiltration

How to adapt controls on the fly without breaking workflows

Steps to build resilience against fast-changing threats

When data crosses borders, it doesn’t just move — it collides with a maze of conflicting rules. The EU, U.S., China, and others are setting very different courses for AI innovation and data privacy, creating both opportunity and risk for global organizations.

In this fireside chat Jen Easterly, former CISA Director, joins Ronan Murphy, Chief Data Strategy Officer at Forcepoint, to cut through the noise. Together they’ll unpack how security leaders can balance the race to innovate with the reality of regulation, embed cross-border compliance into data strategy that builds trust, and work with governments and industry to keep AI both safe and profitable.

Where AI rules are diverging globally — and what that means for innovation and profitability

How to manage cross-border compliance at speed without slowing down business growth

Why public-private partnerships matter — and how CISOs can shape regulation, not just react to it

You’ve heard why self-aware data security matters. Now it’s about making it real in your environment. In this session, Forcepoint Chief Product Officer Naveen Palavalli and Forcepoint CTO and Global Head of Engineering Bakshi Kohli will share actionable strategies for closing the closing the Visibility-Control Gap — without adding complexity.

They’ll also show how to pick your starting point, align teams and put controls in place that can adapt to AI-driven risk in real time--while also highlighting new Forcepoint capabilities. The focus: visibility into what matters, adapting to risk, and scaling protection to create a simpler path for compliance and security.

How to choose a practical starting point for securing AI-driven data flows

What adaptive protection looks like in action, from endpoint to cloud

Customer-tested ways to unify policies and reduce tool fatigue

How Forcepoint’s newest capabilities make explainable AI classification and discovery practical, scalable, and compliance-ready

Forcepoint CEO Ryan Windham wraps Day One by distilling the top takeaways into a clear path forward: see what others miss, adapt faster than threats, and use AI to defend against AI. Walk away with a ready-to-use playbook for protecting sensitive data in the AI era.

See Everything Everywhere – Full visibility into sensitive data flows

Adapt Without Delay – Rapidly evolve controls with changing threats

Fight AI Smart – Use AI-native defenses against AI-driven risks

Secure and Enable – Protect data without slowing the business

Act on Insight – Turn today’s lessons into immediate action