ISEA–CISO Leadership

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Visakhapatnam: The‘ISEA–CISO Leadership Meet 2026’ brought senior CISOs, cybersecurity leaders, industry experts, academicians and government stakeholders to deliberate on the evolving cyber risk landscape, leadership challenges, AI-driven security and operational resilience.

Organised by C-DAC Hyderabad in collaboration with Andhra University in Visakhapatnam on Friday, the platform aimed at coming to a collective resolve towards strengthening cyber governance, trust and national cyber resilience.

Ch AS Murthy, ISEA national coordinator, Centre Head – C-DAC Kolkata and CISO, C-DAC, emphasised the rapidly expanding responsibilities of CISOs—from managing conventional cyber risks to addressing AI governance, systemic risk and enterprise-wide cyber resilience. He highlighted the importance of structured capacity building, leadership preparedness and aligning cybersecurity initiatives with organisational and national priorities.

Later, in another session, he highlighted the need for CISOs to move beyond tool-centric security approaches and focus on leadership, governance, and organisational culture, while building capable security teams that can respond effectively to emerging threats.

Participating as chief guest, Andhra University Vice-Chancellor GP Raja Sekhar underscored the critical role of academia in shaping future-ready cybersecurity professionals. He stressed the need for deeper collaboration between academic institutions, industry, and government to foster applied research, skill development, and innovation in cybersecurity.

Delivering keynote address, Chandrasekhar Sarma Garimella, director of Compliance, CtrlS Data Centre, Hyderabad, briefed about ‘Evaluation of AI in Cyber Security’.

Drawing from his experience in large-scale data centre operations and compliance leadership, he discussed how AI is transforming cybersecurity operations. This was followed by an expert session on ‘risks, threats and challenges in managing cyber security’, featuring multiple perspectives from professionals.


S Upendra Rao, CTO & GM–IT (Retd.), State Bank of India, spoke on architecting digital trust in an increasingly automated environment.