Leesburg, Va. – Aug. 20 – Cofense® – the global leader in intelligent phishing defense solutions, today released its speaker lineup and agenda details for Virtual Submerge 2020, the Global Phishing Defense Event of the Year. Set to take place virtually Sept. 22-23, Submerge will feature on-demand content focused on the latest trends in phishing attacks and phishing defense, specifically developed for individuals with security leadership, incident response, threat intelligence and security awareness responsibilities.

Featured keynote speaker Dmitri Alperovitch, Co-Founder and Chairman of Silverado Policy Accelerator and Co-Founder of Crowdstrike Inc., will join Cofense speakers Rohyt Belani, CEO and Co-Founder, Aaron Higbee, CTO and Co-Founder, and Keith Ibarguen, Chief Product Officer, to deliver thought-provoking keynote sessions. The Virtual Submerge 2020 agenda offers a variety of educational sessions and presentations that will examine the state of the industry’s phishing detection and response.

“On behalf of Cofense, I would like to thank our many speakers who each bring extremely valuable experience to share with our attendees – Virtual Submerge promises deeper, more hands-on content than ever before,” said Belani. “Sessions will arm attendees with the latest insights on how combining technology and human intelligence creates a network effect that can be leveraged to defend against threats and avoid a breach, while raising awareness of the ways malicious actors are actively targeting organizations every day.”

During the two-day event, Virtual Submerge will showcase information that security professionals can use to influence strategic planning and improve security operations. This includes the latest in phishing defense best practices, insights from global thought leaders on the current phishing threat landscape, and regionally focused snapshots into active threats that are targeting global businesses.

Seattle Children’s, for example, saw double the normal amount of attempted hacking attacks in March, specifically phishing emails, hunting for someone on the staff who would click on a malicious link and allow malware into the health system's network, said Gary Gooden, chief information security officer at the Washington-based health system. The reason: Hackers can make a lot of money. Globally, cybercrime adds up to billions of dollars a year, Gooden said.