OTsec USA Debuts in San Diego With a Clear Mandate for IT-OT Cyber Resilience

Senior Practitioners and Expert-Led Sessions Put Critical Infrastructure Protection Front and Center at OTsec USA

Princeton, NJ – QG Media, an ISMG company, will host the inaugural OTsec USA summit on May 20, 2026, in San Diego.

Building on more than 15 years of delivering world-class OT security content through the globally recognized CS4CA and ManuSec summit series, QG Media brings its proven expertise to the United States with an event designed for IT, OT and security leaders securing the nation’s most critical infrastructure. San Diego hosts a growing data center market in the U.S., making for a fitting backdrop – as enterprises increasingly rely on data center infrastructure, securing the OT environments that underpin them has become a business-critical priority.

With CISA’s 2025 Year in Review reporting more than 30,000 incidents triaged and 371 million malicious connections blocked targeting critical infrastructure, the scale of the threat to essential services has never been clearer. Most recently, CISA’s CI Fortify initiative has urged operators to develop OT isolation and recovery capabilities in preparation for geopolitical cyber conflict – a call that makes the timing of OTsec USA’s debut all the more relevant.

The one-day summit will bring together over 100 senior practitioners from across the energy, utilities, manufacturing, healthcare, defense and transportation sectors, among others. It will feature panel discussions, case studies and an interactive tabletop exercise, offering attendees practical, peer-driven insights they can act on immediately. Sessions are structured to address security leaders at every stage – from those launching new OT security programs to those scaling existing initiatives.

“As nation-state and hybrid threats continue to target critical infrastructure, organizations need more than theoretical frameworks; they need actionable strategies grounded in real-world experience,” said Kudsia Kaker, managing director at QG Media. “OTsec USA is designed to give security leaders that edge, with peer-driven insights on OT governance, IT-OT convergence and resilience that go beyond compliance and address today’s most pressing risks.”

Among the featured sessions, Rachel Bondi, deputy director of the NAVWAR Cyber Directorate at the U.S. Navy, will deliver a keynote titled “Cyber as Mission Assurance: Building Resilient Systems Across Connected IT-OT Environments.” The session will draw on lessons learned from embedding cybersecurity into the design and operation of critical systems, examining how zero trust and cyber analytics can ensure continuity, survivability and trust across complex ecosystems.

A panel discussion titled “Building Resilience in Critical Infrastructure: From Attack Surface to Operational Recovery” will explore how organizations can map attack surfaces, integrate network segmentation and OT-aware anomaly detection, and build recovery capabilities that minimize downtime. The panel, moderated by John Ballentine, ICS cybersecurity program lead at Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, will feature practitioners from Southern California Edison, Westinghouse Electric Company, Chevron, Ping Identity and Copia Automation.

The summit will also feature “Breaking Through Barriers in OT Security: Practical Paths to Program Maturity,” a panel moderated by Robert Clark, ISO and interim segment CISO at Daimler Truck North America. Drawing on real-world experience, the panelists – Ailbhe Clardy, assistant deputy director, innovation and technology, The City of San Diego; Bryan Supak, cybersecurity manager for architecture, engineering and operations, Energy Sector; Fred Chang, vice president, product and operations, Dispel; and Michael Leonard, senior OT SME, Galvanick – will address the organizational, budgetary and technical hurdles that slow OT security progress, sharing pragmatic approaches to scaling programs and building internal alignment for long-term resilience.

By convening senior security leaders around shared challenges and proven strategies, OTsec USA 2026 will serve as the definitive forum for advancing critical infrastructure protection and building the cyber resilience that connected IT-OT environments demand.

For more information and to register, visit usa.otsec.world.

***

About ISMG
Information Security Media Group (ISMG) is the world’s largest media organization devoted solely to cybersecurity, information technology, artificial intelligence and operational technology. Each of our 38 media properties provides education, research and news that is specifically tailored to key vertical sectors including banking, healthcare and the public sector; geographies from North America to Southeast Asia; and topics such as data breach prevention, cyber risk assessment, OT security, AI and fraud. Our annual global summit series connects senior security professionals with industry thought leaders to find actionable solutions for pressing cybersecurity challenges.

About QG Media
QG Media is an international provider of cutting-edge B2B conferences and digital content for technology leaders. Focusing on cybersecurity and IoT, QG brings together business leaders to demonstrate thought leadership through content-driven presentations, interviews and webinars. The success of any QG Media event lies in providing expertly curated programs, inviting industry-leading speakers, along with offering extensive networking opportunities to promote collaboration and drive innovation.

About ISMG Events
ISMG Events is a premier platform for security professionals and practitioners worldwide. Our global, annual events bring together the ISMG Events Community, comprising over 40,000 members, to exchange knowledge, insights and best practices in the field of cybersecurity. The cornerstone of our event portfolio is the ISMG Global Summit Series. These summits take place both virtually and in-person, offering participants a diverse range of topics to explore. In addition to our Global Summit Series, ISMG Events hosts exclusive Executive Roundtables that are closed-door, topic-focused discussions that provide practitioners with a collaborative environment to address today’s most pressing security concerns.