For Immediate Distribution Contact: Michael P. Mills
404.680-0176 or michael@atpcoalition.com
Leaders Met in Atlanta (Home to World’s Largest Concentration of Payment Processors) to Drive Cybersecurity Resiliency for Critical Infrastructure Supporting the U.S. Payments Grid

February 20, 2020 (ATLANTA) – The American Transaction Processors Coalition (ATPC) hosted the Transaction Alley Cyber Forum today at Coda Tech Square in Midtown. The 2020 Cyber Forum event was designed to further education and public/private collaboration, and to be a catalyst for creating “working” groups that operate throughout the year to achieve cyber resiliency goals.

The Cyber Forum was organized and endorsed by the U.S. Senate Payments Caucus to bring together public and private sector CISO’s and Incident Response professionals to increase local industry cyber resiliency by developing a coordinated “Disaster Recovery Strategy” and “Incident Response Plan” for Transaction Alley’s (and America’s) payment processors ecosystem.

“The idea for an ATPC cyber forum germinated in 2015 after a meeting with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, the nation’s flagship organization for cyber defense and incident response, who encouraged us to take lead in building relationships and opening channels of dialogue between the payments processing industry and federal, state and local government leaders,” said H. West Richards, ATPC Executive Director. “Fast forward to 2019 when Congress designated Transaction Alley and America’s payments rails as ‘critical infrastructure’ requiring the work we’ve already started to ensure our system is up and running quickly if and when an attack happens.”

“I am pleased to participate in the ‘Transaction Alley’ Cyber Forum event,” said Michael D’Ambrosio, Assistant Director, U.S. Secret Service. “The U.S. Secret Service fully supports the ATPC’s Cyber Forum initiative and its ongoing effort to promote the resiliency of America’s payment processors through sustained public-private sector collaboration.”

The ATPC will leverage the momentum from this conference to activate a planning committee to develop a Transaction Alley Incidence Response Plan. The ATPC also was a lead force behind cyber war game exercises held at the IBM Cyber Range outside Boston the past two years; and will develop a findings report for circulation with Congress, Federal agency officials and the Trump Administration.

The half-day conference included individual speakers and panels:

Keynote: Calvin Rhodes Chief Information Officer, State of Georgia
Main Panel (Dobbin Prezzano, ATPC Chief Development Officer; moderator)

  • Michael D’Ambrosio, Assistant Director, U.S. Secret Service
  • Bridgette Walsh, Deputy Assistant Director (acting), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
  • Randall Toussaint, Director of Corporate Solutions and Cyber Security, Georgia Department of Economic Development
  • Sudheer Chava, Director, Quantitative & Computational Finance Program, Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Phil Agcaoili, Senior Vice President of Product & Security Innovation, Elavon
  • Gene Scriven, CISO, ACI Worldwide

P20 Cyber War Games Report (H. West Richards, ATPC Executive Director; moderator)

  • Rob Johnston, Head of Operations, FIS
  • Paul Farley, Deputy CISO, NCR
  • Norma Krayem, Vice President, Van Scoyoc Associates
  • Andrew Turner, CSO, Worldpay/FIS

Dark Web Threats to the Payment Processing and FinTech Industries

  • Robert Villanueva, Vice President, Q6 Cyber
  • Michael Farrell, Director of Privacy & Security, Microsoft

Blockchain’s Value within Payments and FinTech Security

  • Daniel Cage, CEO, SpeedChain
  • David Lawrence, Founder, Chief Collaborative Officer, Rane Network
  • Dave Allen, Executive Director of Product Innovation, NCR

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FinTech Academy Cyber Presentation: Tommy Marshall

About the American Transaction Processors Coalition
The ATPC protects, promotes and preserves the interests of this critical Georgia and American industry through proactive public relations and government affairs activities. Atlanta and parts of Georgia are currently the epicenter of the payments processing industry, managing more than 70 percent of U.S. annual transactions. Learn more at www.atpcoalition.com.