ISSA Highlights the Importance of Cyber Resilience During Cybersecurity Awareness Month

Houston, TX, November 2025 — Demonstrating global leadership in cybersecurity, the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) Internationalcelebrated Cybersecurity Awareness Month by hosting a series of expert-led sessions focused on advancing cyber resilience—a mission-critical capability as cyber threats grow in frequency, sophistication, and impact. The event was designed and hosted by the ISSA Cyber Resilience Special Interest Group (SIG) leadership team, led by Francesco Chiarini and Mehdi Azouioui, with contributions from many active collaborators across the SIG.The event attracted thought leaders, practitioners, and policymakers from around the world to discuss building resilience into the core of modern systems.

This year’s theme, “Resilient by Design,” emphasized moving beyond traditional defense strategies to proactively embed resilience into architectures, operations, and culture.  The Cyber Resilience Capability Maturity Model (CR-CMM) was at the forefront of discussions, featured in several presentations that explored how organizations can assess and elevate their resilience posture in alignment with global frameworks and standards.

The day also highlighted the urgent lack of cyber resilience skills and the need for a workforce truly accountable for resilience, from small and medium enterprises to large global organizations. As regulatory requirements such as European NIS2 and DORA push resilience to the forefront, the event underscored the importance of developing practitioners equipped to anticipate, withstand, and recover from complex cyber disruptions.

Sessions from the event are now available on demand for viewing.

Event Highlights Included:

• Insights into recovery, frameworks, trustworthy operations, and collaboration.
• Practical frameworks for assessing resilience maturity and readiness
• Data-centric approaches to ensure systems remain trustworthy and available, even during active attacks
• Threat-informed defense using models like MITRE ATT&CK and NIST frameworks
• Governance strategies for AI, cyber workforce development, and operational risk management
• Collaboration across public and private sectors to protect critical infrastructure and national interests

Why It Matters

Cyber incidents are no longer just technology challenges. They now affect business continuity, national security, and overall resilience. Organizations should expect disruptions and design systems that keep running, recover quickly, and adapt. This means aligning people, processes, technology, and data to maintain trust, availability, and mission success, even during attacks.

“Cyber Resilience Awareness Day brought together industry leaders to share real-world insights, innovative strategies, and a shared commitment to securing our digital future. Cyber resilience matters because it’s no longer just about stopping threats—it’s about how quickly we can recover, adapt, and continue to operate when they occur. We are grateful to our sponsors Dell Technologies, AuditBoard, Rubrik, Apogee Global RMS, High Value Target, and LimberSecurity, whose support made this important conversation possible. All sessions are now available on-demand for those who couldn’t join us live.”
— Jimmy Sanders, ISSA International President

On-Demand Access

Replay all sessions from Cyber Resilience Awareness Day and take an active role in advancing your organization’s resilience.
View on-demand: https://issa.brighttalk.com/summit/7595/