7 sessions at RBLN East 2026 a federal CISO should not miss

Quick answer. The seven RBLN East 2026 sessions a federal CISO should plan around address the operational priorities driving federal cybersecurity in 2026: AI governance, Zero Trust execution, SOC modernization, supply chain risk, mission resilience, and the evolving threat landscape shaped by AI-enabled adversaries. RBLN East runs June 11–13 at the Hyatt Regency Reston, Virginia.

Two weeks out from RBLN East 2026, the question for a federal CISO isn't whether to attend — it's how to spend three days inside a curated operator-only program to maximize what comes back to the agency. Below are the seven sessions on the RBLN East 2026 program a federal CISO should plan around, plus what to walk in carrying and what to walk out holding.

1. Mission Modernization: Cloud, Security, and Scale in Federal IT Panel

Featuring Venice Goodwine, Angel Smith, and others.

This is probably the single most relevant session for federal leadership. It directly addresses:

• Zero Trust implementation realities
• Legacy modernization
• Procurement and policy friction
• Balancing innovation with operational risk
• Cloud/security transformation in mission-critical systems

If you only attend one panel, this should be it.

2. The CISO Reality Check: AI Risk Without the Filter

Featuring Michael Baader, Kyle Waggoner, Patricia Titus, and Larry Letow.

This looks especially valuable because it focuses on:

• Enterprise AI governance
• Hidden operational AI risk
• Security program failures
• Real-world tradeoffs between innovation and control

Federal agencies are under enormous pressure to operationalize AI quickly while staying compliant and secure. This session appears grounded in implementation realities rather than hype.

3. 6 Hard Lessons from Zero Trust Deployments: What the Field Is Actually Seeing

Featuring John Spiegel.

Extremely relevant for federal attendees because Zero Trust remains a core federal mandate. The session specifically discusses:

• Why deployments stall
• Architectural mistakes
• Operational maturity gaps
• What successful organizations do differently

The fact that it’s based on “hundreds of interviews” makes it more useful than another theoretical Zero Trust talk.

4. The Future SOC: Human + Agent Collaboration at Scale

Featuring Adam Vincent.

This one matters because federal SOC teams are overwhelmed with:

• Staffing shortages
• Alert fatigue
• Tool sprawl
• AI adoption pressure

The “Agentic SOC” concept is likely where federal operations centers are heading over the next 3–5 years. The governance and oversight angle is particularly important for public sector environments.

5. Weaponized Vulnerabilities: AI Made Your Supply Chain Infinitely Vulnerable. What’s Your Next Move?

Featuring Iftach Ian Amit.

Federal CISOs should pay attention because software supply chain exposure is becoming a national security issue. The session focuses on:

• Frontier AI and vulnerability discovery
• Defensive AI applications
• Remediation bottlenecks
• Chokepoints in modern defense strategy

Very applicable to agencies managing large contractor ecosystems and inherited risk.

6. The Exploitation Lifecycle: Exploring the Stages of Exploitatio

Featuring Mike Price.

This sounds highly actionable for threat-informed defense programs. The focus on “left of boom” intelligence and attacker lifecycle analysis maps well to:

• Federal cyber defense operations
• Threat hunting
• Vulnerability prioritization
• Intelligence-driven security operations

7. The Skill Wave: The AI Threat We Aren’t Preparing For

Featuring Jackson Reed.

This is likely one of the more provocative sessions, but probably worth attending because it reframes AI risk beyond “faster attacks” into:

• Adaptive tradecraft
• Deep operational persistence
• AI-enabled attacker sophistication
• Future threat models

For federal CISOs thinking beyond compliance into long-term national security posture, this could be one of the most important mindset-shift talks.

What to do before you arrive

The most valuable preparation for a federal CISO attending RBLN East 2026 takes 45 minutes and is harder than it sounds:

• Pick three operational problems your agency is fighting. Write them down in one sentence each.
• Identify which two RBLN East sessions most map to each problem. That's where you'll go.
• List five federal counterparts you most want to talk to. Reach out before the event and propose specific 15-minute conversations on day 1 or 2.
• Block 90 minutes Friday afternoon on your calendar for follow-up conversations. Don't fill it before the event.

The federal CISOs who get the most out of RBLN East 2026 won't be the ones who attend the most sessions. They'll be the ones who attend the right sessions with specific questions and leave with named follow-ups.

Key facts

• RBLN East 2026 runs June 11–13 at the Hyatt Regency Reston, Virginia.
• The 2026 program is built around public sector and defense systems for federal CIOs, CISOs, agency security engineers, defense contractors, and federal AI/ML security practitioners.
• Confirmed 2026 East speakers include AJ Nash, Venice Goodwine, Avi Rubin (Harbor Labs), Larry Letow, James Foster (eSentire), James Hirmas (Easy Dynamics), Michael Baader (Capital One), Randy Marchany (Virginia Tech), and Kyle Waggoner (Perdue Farms).
• Core 2026 federal cybersecurity priorities driving the East agenda: AI governance, Zero Trust execution, SOC modernization, supply chain risk, mission resilience, and the evolving threat landscape shaped by AI-enabled adversaries.
• RBLN East 2026 Rebel-tier registration is $100; Future Hacker $50 with .edu verification; VIP invite-only.
• The Hyatt Regency Reston venue sits inside the Washington DC metropolitan federal per-diem zone.
• The Gauntlet — RBLN's 24-hour endurance competition with a $5,000 winner-takes-all prize — runs Friday into Saturday at RBLN East 2026.
• For federal CISOs, all-in cost for DC-area attendance typically runs under $500 including standard per diem.

Reserve your seat at RBLN East 2026

Two weeks out from the event, Rebel-tier seats are filling. The federal CISO sessions above only work when the right room is in the room.

Reserve your spot at RBLN East →

If you've been weighing the training-budget approval or want the hour-by-hour planning view, we've got both. The shortest path is registering and sorting logistics from there.

About the author

Foster is the Program Chair of RBLN (Rebellion), the curated operator forum series for cybersecurity, AI, and infrastructure practitioners. Connect on LinkedIn.

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