Join us for the first ASIS Indy event of 2026 on Wed, Jan 28 hosted at AES in downtown Indianapolis on Monument Circle.
January Topic: Cybersecurity in 2026: New Threats, New Countermeasures
Cyber threats from nation-states and cybercriminal groups are amplified by Artificial Intelligence (AI) both from the inside and out. Threat actors are wreaking havoc by targeting governments, critical infrastructure (including hospitals, researchers and manufacturers) businesses of all verticals and individuals. Alvaka COO & CISO, Kevin McDonald, with more than 25 years in the cyber war trenches and technology and cybersecurity experience, will discuss the ongoing and often hidden cyber war. His insights are driven by decades of consulting with and advising businesses, government and law enforcement in managing and securing their technology and recovering from disaster. Alvaka has successfully recovered hundreds of SMB to global enterprise Ransomware victims. Kevin will cover how AI-driven deepfakes, configuration errors, and autonomous attacks are fundamentally changing the game. Criminals are leveraging AI with social engineering, Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT), traditional hacking and psychological manipulation to cause hundreds of billions in losses and disrupt thousands of operations each year. Lack of awareness of and preparedness against risks are resulting is severe consequences. He also addresses how public and stolen data, fear of authority, and kindness are weaponized to extort victims, causing financial, emotional and reputational harm.
Speaker: Kevin McDonald
Kevin McDonald is a 25-year cybersecurity visionary and currently serves as COO and CISO for Alvaka. Alvaka is a top 2 global ransomware remediation and defense firm that has rescued 100s of organizations from SMBs to multi-national firms, governments, law enforcement, legal, healthcare, financial and educational institutions. He has been with Alvaka for 24 years. Kevin maintains memberships in the High-Tech Crimes Investigations Association, FBI’s Indiana InfraGard, and the US Secret Service’s Cyber Fraud Task Force among others. Kevin is an Ai Futurist, and provides security guidance and ransomware remediation and defensive support to businesses, critical infrastructure operators, executives, legislators, and law enforcement. His decades of domain experience span personal and business and personal cyber and physical security strategy, enterprise technology, and public policy. He is a sought-after public and industry speaker, writer, and advocate. Additionally, Kevin is a national multi-award-winning advocate for technology innovation, children’s Internet safety, and public policy.
In his personal time, Kevin is a 30-year master jeweler, a stained glass, metal and resin artist, inventor, and fiction writer. As a third-degree black belt, Kevin was inducted into the Martial Arts Masters’ Hall of Fame in 2010 due to his advocacy for women and children’s safety.