May 14, 2026
08:30am - 3:30pm
Crowne Plaza Palo Alto

San Francisco Secure Software and AppSec Summit 2026

Advance your development process with cutting-edge security practices. Join us for the inaugural San Francisco edition of the AppSec and DevSecOps Summit, bringing together developers, security leaders, and innovators to strengthen application security from code to cloud.

San Francisco Secure Software and AppSec Summit 2026
Fortify your software development lifecycle.

This summit unites developers, security experts, and industry leaders to seamlessly embed security into every stage of the development process.

Discover best practices for shifting left, automating security, and managing open-source risks. Explore how to enhance DevSecOps adoption, secure containers and microservices, and weigh in on the debate: automation vs. manual testing. Participate in interactive sessions, real-world case studies, and dynamic panel discussions to stay ahead of evolving AppSec trends.

Key Themes:
  • Integrating Security into the Software Development Lifecycle
  • Shift Left Strategies
  • Application Breach Response
  • Automating Security Processes
  • Managing Open Source Risks
  • Improving DevSecOps Adoption
  • Container and Microservices Security
  • Automation vs. Manual Testing: What Works Best

Register now to secure your spot and get notified when the full program launches.

Our Speakers

Prashant Vadlamudi

Prashant Vadlamudi

Senior Vice President of Product Security
Aaron Brown

Aaron Brown

Head of Security and IT
Kavitha Venkataswamy

Kavitha Venkataswamy

Product Security Director
Siva Inguva

Siva Inguva

Head of Security - SaaS
Prabhath Karanth

Prabhath Karanth

Chief Security Officer and CIO
Ankur Chakraborty

Ankur Chakraborty

Senior Director , Platform Security
Balachandra Shanabhag

Balachandra Shanabhag

Product Security Lead
Ben Draffin

Ben Draffin

Head of Security
Vamsee Kandimalla

Vamsee Kandimalla

Director of AI Product Security
Cole Cornford

Cole Cornford

Chief Executive Officer
Ben Gittins

Ben Gittins

Product Security Lead
Daniel Miessler

Daniel Miessler

Founder
Dmitriy Dunavetsky

Dmitriy Dunavetsky

Vice President Product Security
Archana Karnik

Archana Karnik

Senior Director - Product and Application Security
Caleb Sima

Caleb Sima

Chair AI security Alliance
Mike Wilkes

Mike Wilkes

Field CISO
Register Now

Register Now

To receive speaker and program updates and secure your seat!

Agenda

8:30 AM
Registration Opens & Networking Breakfast

Beat the rush and join us early for complimentary barista-made coffee and breakfast.

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9:15 AM
Welcome & Opening Remarks
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9:20 AM
Opening Keynote: Securing Autonomous AI Agents: The New Attack Surface No One Is Ready For

AI has shifted from assistants that make suggestions to autonomous agents that can read files, execute commands, call APIs, and modify systems on their own. That change expands the attack surface from prompt injection to full system compromise, lateral movement between agents, and persistent access through memory and tooling. 

This session explores how autonomous agents are reshaping the threat model, what early adopters are discovering in practice, and the questions AppSec teams must confront as AI systems gain more autonomy and more potential for harm.

The speaker will cover:

  • New risks from code-executing prompt injection to agent-to-agent lateral movement
  • How teams are designing permissions, audit trails, sandboxing, and monitoring agent behavior
  • Examples of agents being manipulated to exfiltrate data or modify configurations
  • The security shifts required to safely deploy autonomous agents in the next year

Aaron Brown
Head of Security and IT, Mercor
9:40 AM
Keynote: Shutting It Down: Decommissioning as an AppSec Control

Decommissioning is the most overlooked phase of the software development lifecycle, and one of the most persistent sources of hidden attack surface.Orphaned applications, APIs, and services often outlive their owners, leaving behind lingering credentials, exposed endpoints, and unclear ownership that attackers can exploit.Most AppSec programs focus on how systems are built and shipped, not how they are shut down.This session reframes decommissioning as a critical AppSec control, examining the real-world risks that emerge when systems are left behind and what teams are doing to address them in practice.The speaker will cover:

  • Where decommissioning failures create hidden attack surface across applications, APIs, and services
  • How orphaned systems, credentials, and endpoints persist without clear ownership
  • Real-world attack paths that emerge from systems that were never properly shut down
  • How teams are building decommissioning into the SDLC as a deliberate security control

Mike Wilkes
Field CISO, Aikido
10:10 AM
Panel Discussion: The Evolving Supply Chain Risk Landscape: What’s Actually Breaking in Production

Modern applications run on layered platforms, third-party extensions, and AI assisted development and tooling, each introducing dependencies that traditional supply chain controls struggle to track. Even with SBOMs and automated scanning, teams are seeing supply chain risk surface in production through transitive packages, platform abstractions, and components that weren’t visible at build time.

This panel explores how supply chain risks are actually surfacing in real environments and what effective control looks like when dependency sprawl is structural, not accidental.

We'll Cover

  • Where SBOMs help in practice and where they still fall short
  • How layered platforms, third-party extensions, and AI era tooling introduce new blind spots
  • What transitive dependencies, dormant packages, and platform abstractions mean for real-world risk
  • Practical approaches for regaining control without killing development velocity
Prabhath Karanth
Chief Security Officer and CIO, Greenlight
Prashant Vadlamudi
Senior Vice President of Product Security, Salesforce
Ankur Chakraborty
Senior Director , Platform Security, Box
Ben Draffin
Head of Security, Decagon
10:40 AM
How I Solved...
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10:55 AM
Morning Tea & Networking
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11:25 AM
Audience Activity

In this innovative session, attendees will be faced with a series of scenarios that they may face in their roles. Attendees will discuss the possible courses of action with their peers to consider the ramifications of each option before logging their own course of action.

Results will be tallied and analysed by our session facilitator and results will impact the way the group moves through the activity.

Will we collectively choose the right course of action?

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11:45 AM
How I Solved...Software 3.0 - Implementing agentic SDLC in enterprise organizations

AI is moving inside the software development lifecycle, not just assisting developers but actively writing code, running tests, and influencing what gets shipped. That shift raises new questions around control, trust, and accountability.This session walks through how HP introduced agentic systems into their SDLC, where they’ve seen real impact, and where things broke down.

The speaker will cover:

  • Where agentic systems were introduced across the SDLC
  • How control and validation were handled when AI started taking action
  • What worked in practice and what didn’t
  • What they would do differently if starting again

Vamsee Kandimalla
Director of AI Product Security, HP
12:05 PM
Panel Discussion: Security vs Velocity: When to Say Yes to Risk (and How to Track What You Said Yes To)

Modern engineering teams move fast, and AppSec teams are constantly negotiating when to block, when to slow down, and when to accept risk to keep delivery on track. As exceptions, waivers, and temporary approvals become part of everyday workflows, many organizations struggle to understand what risks they’ve accepted, why they accepted them, and whether those decisions are still defensible months later. 

This panel explores how high-performing teams balance speed with security, how they document and monitor accepted risk, and the frameworks that keep fast-moving environments accountable.

The panel will cover:

  • How teams decide when risk acceptance is justified and when it isn’t
  • Practical approaches to tracking exceptions, waivers, and approvals over time
  • Techniques for documenting context so decisions remain defensible later
  • How AppSec and engineering collaborate to keep velocity without losing control

Siva Inguva
Head of Security - SaaS, PTC
Kavitha Venkataswamy
Product Security Director, Capital One
Dmitriy Dunavetsky
Vice President Product Security, Dayforce
12:35 PM
Roundtable Discussions

Select a topic of discussion and engage in an interactive roundtable discussion with a group of your like-minded peers.

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1:25 PM
Lunch & Networking
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2:15 PM
QuickFire Quiz: Test Your Knowledge Against Your Peers

Put your knowledge to the test in this fast-paced quiz covering real-world trivia, key concepts, and emerging trends. Compete for bragging rights—and a travel voucher—as the top scorer takes the crown.

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2:30 PM
Keynote: Redesigning Secure Code Review for an AI-Native World

AI is changing how software gets written. Code is no longer produced line by line by a single developer. It is generated, refactored, and stitched together by AI tools at a speed traditional review processes were never designed to handle. Yet many AppSec programs are still relying on the same manual reviews, static rules, and approval gates built for a pre-AI era.

This keynote explores why secure code review is breaking down as AI becomes a core part of development, where existing practices create false confidence, and what needs to change to keep risk under control without slowing teams to a crawl.

The speaker will cover:

  • Why AI-generated code shifts risk from individual lines to system-level behaviour
  • Where traditional code review and SAST fail in high-velocity, AI-assisted pipelines
  • How leading teams are redesigning review around intent, context, and ownership
  • Practical ways to evolve secure code review for AI-native development in the next 12 months
Cole Cornford
Chief Executive Officer, Galah Cyber
Ben Gittins
Application Security, Zepto
2:50 PM
Think Tank: How AppSec Should Really Operate: Live Debate With the Audience

AppSec teams sit at the center of fast-moving engineering organizations, yet there’s still no consensus on how they should be structured, what they should own, or how much authority they should have to slow things down. 

This interactive session puts those debates on the screen literally. The audience votes live on five core questions covering team design, ownership boundaries, blocking power, developer experience, and how AI is reshaping the AppSec operating model. We explore the results, debate the trade-offs, then vote again to see if perspectives shift in real time.

This session will cover:

  • How structure and ownership shape AppSec’s influence
  • When blocking authority helps or harms engineering velocity
  • How AI is forcing teams to rethink traditional operating models
  • What leading organizations are learning about building developer-first AppSec
Balachandra Shanabhag
Product Security Lead, Cerebras
Daniel Miessler
Founder, Unsupervised Learning
Archana Karnik
Senior Director - Product and Application Security, SAP
Caleb Sima
Chair AI security Alliance, CSA
3:20 PM
Closing Remarks
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Past Speaker Highlights

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Who Attends?

Chief Technology Officer

Chief Information Security Officer

Chief Information Officer

Head of Application Security

Head of DevOps

Head of DevSecOps

Head of Cybersecurity

VP Engineering

Product Security Director

DevOps Director

DevOps Engineer

Developer Experience Manager

Release and Environment Manager

Platform Engineering Director

Software Engineering Manager

Cybersecurity Engineering Director

API Security Manager

Testing Manager

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Attendee Testimonials

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Our event sponsors

For sponsorship opportunities, please get in touch with Danny Perry, danny@clutchgroup.co

Past Sponsors

Event Location

Crowne Plaza Palo Alto

4290 El Camino Real Palo Alto, CA 94306
San Francisco Secure Software and AppSec Summit 2026

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is the conference located?

Crowne Plaza Palo Alto by IHG, 4290 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA 94306, United States

Find the venue on Google Maps.

Are there any fees to attend?

Nope! The conference is completely free for AppSec, Engineering, and Cybersecurity professionals.

Is parking available at the venue?

Yep! There's parking right at the hotel.

Is the venue accessible by public transport?

Absolutely! The Crowne Plaza Palo Alto is located right on El Camino Real, one of the Bay Area's main corridors. You can catch the VTA Bus Route 22 which runs directly along El Camino Real. If you're coming by Caltrain, the San Antonio station is about a mile away - an easy rideshare or a 15-minute walk.

What is the dress code?

Smart casual or business casual is recommended, no need for a suit and tie! Keep it comfortable.

Are Chatham House Rules in effect?

Absolutely! No media, recordings, or live streaming... what happens in the room, stays in the room.

Will food and drinks be provided?

Yes, morning tea, lunch, and afternoon refreshments will be provided. Please indicate any dietary requirements during registration.

Will there be WiFi?

Yes, absolutely! Stay connected at the event with complimentary wifi - we'll share the details at the event.

Will sessions be recorded or live-streamed?

No. You'll have to be there to enjoy the sessions.

What do I need to bring?

Just bring yourself, your laptop or a notebook and get ready to collaborate!

Get In Touch

Contact our event team for any enquiry

Danny Perry

Director of Sales
For sponsorship opportunities.
danny@clutchgroup.co

Lili Munar

Director of Client Relations
For guest and attendee enquiries.
lilibeth@clutchgroup.co

Steph Tolmie

Director of Conference Production
For speaking opportunities & content enquiries.
stephanie@clutchevents.co

Taylor Stanyon

Director of Operations
For event-related enquiries.
taylor@clutchgroup.co