The overarching question imparting urgency to this exploration is: Can U.S.-Russian contention in cyberspace cause the two nuclear superpowers to stumble into war? In considering this question we were constantly reminded of recent comments by a prominent U.S. arms control expert: At least as dangerous as the risk of an actual cyberattack, he observed, is cyber operations’ “blurring of the line between peace and war.” Or, as Nye wrote, “in the cyber realm, the difference between a weapon and a non-weapon may come down to a single line of code, or simply the intent of a computer program’s user.”
Please join the Intelligence Project for a lunch seminar with Michael Susong, Senior VP of WorldAware, one of the private sector's largest providers of intelligence and risk management. In this session, Mr. Susong will draw his deep government and private sector experience to discuss the evolution of intelligence as a profession, from its contemporary inception, to today’s ethical application of intelligence tradecraft in support of business and risk mitigation. He’ll examine the legal and ethical boundaries of intelligence as a corporate discipline, and how advancements machine learning, the Internet of Things, and the application of cyber intelligence collection tools will affect the future of the intelligence business.
Lunch will be provided on a first come, first served basis. Intelligence Project Director Paul Kolbe will moderate.
W. Michael Susong is a Senior Vice President for WorldAware®. One of the largest private risk intelligence companies in the world; spanning the globe with operations center in Singapore, London, Cape Town, and Annapolis, providing a full spectrum of security & risk consultancy to the largest, most complex corporations and organizations in the world. Mike has an unrivaled breadth of international experience as a senior intelligence professional across the United States government service and the private sector.
Mike was a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operations officer and awarded the CIA’s Intelligence Star for Heroism in the field.
Serving with distinction in the US Army Major Susong completed multiple combat tours around the global. As a Special Operations Force officer Mike was a special operations war planner and director of the US Department of Defense Information Warfare program at the United States Army J.F.Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, Fort Bragg North Carolina.
He holds a master’s degree in Strategic Intelligence from the National Intelligence University, Washington DC with a specialization in irregular warfare.
In the private sector, Mike created competitive intelligence programs for Fujitsu Limited (Tokyo) and Ernst&Young LLP. He cofounded one of the first cyber intelligence company, iSIGHT Partners (acquired by FireEye). He went on to establish the industry’s first cyber threat intelligence programs at Pacific Gas and Electric Company in California, and at Visa Incorporated.
Mr. Susong is on the United States Defense Intelligence Agency’s National Intelligence University Foundation Board of Directors and the ASIS International™ Strategic Planning Commission, is a Certified Information Security Manager (CISM™) and Certified Protection Professional (CPP™). Mike served on multiple professional boards, as Chairman of the Competitive Intelligence Council of The Conference Board™, and the Board of Directors of Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals SCIP™.
