Can AI agents be deployed for enhanced protection? What is a “triple extortion”? How is ransomware evolving? Is there hope for SMEs?

Sam Kaplan is a policy, legal, and national security professional with over eighteen years of experience across the public and private sectors. He is currently the Assistant General Counsel for Public Policy & Government Affairs at Palo Alto Networks, providing legal guidance on domestic and international legislative, regulatory, and policy matters, with a focus on cybersecurity, AI governance, privacy, data security, international data flows, and public-private capacity building.

Before Palo Alto Networks, Sam led the global product policy team for Facebook’s News Feed and News Tab at Meta Platforms, addressing issues like AI/ML fairness, algorithmic transparency, platform integrity, election security, misinformation, and harmful content.

Prior to his private sector roles, Sam spent over thirteen years in the Federal Government. He held senior leadership positions at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, including Assistant Secretary for Cyber, Infrastructure, Risk and Resilience Policy and Chief Privacy Officer. Earlier government roles included work at the U.S. Department of Justice (Office of Legal Policy, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia) and as Counselor to a member of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, focusing on the U.S. Intelligence Community.

References:

* Sam Kaplan on LinkedIn

* Palo Alto Networks

* Unit 42 Research (Palo Alto Networks)

* Cyber Information Sharing and Collaboration Program (CISCP) at CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency)