"Put cybersecurity on your agenda before it becomes your agenda." This parting comment shared by RJ Steenstra at the Cyber Resilience session perfectly couldn’t have wrapped it up any better. Steenstra, who is President and CEO at Fort McMurray Airport Authority in Alberta, moderated this session and started it out with a chilling tale about a cyber attack at Fort McMurray that has had the entire team there tackling the question, "What can you do to build resilience in your airport?"

They’ve come up with quite a few answers, though panelist Stuart Garrett cautioned, "There is not a single piece of software or solution that solves all of the issues." A Project Manager, Aviation & Federal at Burns & McDonnell, Garrett admitted that cyber security can be daunting, but you should take it "very seriously."

Rick Holland, Vice President of Strategy, Digital Shadows, agreed in that there is no "silver bullet." However, he did say that "knowledge and training of people can be key." He also shared some examples of recent and current events that illustrate the cyber threat seriousness in a very real manner. "NotPetya," which originated in Ukraine and spread disastrously, and the Equifax breach, which is unfolding now.

As far as building resilience and fixing the problem, panelist Aura Moore, Deputy Executive Director – CEO, Los Angeles World Airports, said you need to assess your vulnerability, develop an action plan that is not static and look at how you can open up channels of communication to fight this battle collectively. "Hackers are gonna hack!" she stressed. "We block more than 10,000 attacks a day," of which 40% are web attacks, 35% are viruses and 25% phishing attacks.

Protecting your assets and data from cyber attacks is no longer an option and, as Steenstra put it, protection measures are no longer "good enough." They can always be better. At Fort McMurray, after going through a harrowing ransom and taking a $300,000 hit, a cyber surveillance system is now in place and "we are monitoring all attempts into our system."