Tidal Cyber Launches “Waves of Influence” Thought Leadership Program for CISOs
RESTON, VA, February 9, 2026 — Tidal Cyber today announced Waves of Influence, a new 2026 thought leadership program designed to bring senior security leaders together for candid, off-the-record discussions on the future of cybersecurity.
Built on the belief that innovation doesn’t happen in isolation, it happens in conversation, Waves of Influence will consist of a curated series of exclusive dinners hosted by Tidal Cyber across the United States. Each private gathering will convene a small group of CISOs and security decision-makers to explore how the threat landscape is evolving and why Threat-Led Defense is emerging as a new standard for cyber excellence.
The program is intentionally non-promotional. Rather than product-focused presentations, the dinners are designed to foster peer-to-peer dialogue centered on the changes in defensive security, shared challenges, and long-term, outcome-driven approaches to reducing cyber risk.
“Security leaders today are navigating constant change, increasing complexity, and growing accountability,” said Rick Gordon, CEO of Tidal Cyber. “Waves of Influence creates a trusted forum where CISOs can step away from the noise and have honest, strategic conversations about what truly drives resilience. Threat-Led Defense is an industry shift, and meaningful progress requires collaboration.”
All sessions will be facilitated and moderated by Rick Howard, a respected cybersecurity author and industry thought leader and expert. Howard is the author of Cybersecurity First Principles: A Reboot of Strategy and Tactics, which advocates returning to foundational security concepts to achieve durable risk reduction. Howard also founded First Principles Consulting and is the CEO & Founder of the CyberCanon Project.
“Some of the most important progress in cybersecurity comes from better thinking, not just new tools,” Howard said. “Waves of Influence is about bringing leaders together to challenge assumptions, learn from one another, and refocus on first principles that lead to meaningful, long-term risk reduction.”
Through Waves of Influence, Tidal Cyber is investing in industry collaboration and leadership alignment, helping security leaders rethink how adversaries operate and procedures-led intelligence can reduce the probability of attack success and residual risk to shape modern security programs.
About Tidal Cyber
Tidal Cyber is the category creator and leader of Threat-Led Defense grounded in procedures and the execution steps attackers use from initial access to impact. By operationalizing procedure-led intelligence, organizations gain concrete defensible actions to prioritize what truly matters in their environment. This level of specificity enables organizations to intentionally build defenses that disrupt procedures, prioritize what truly matters, and reduce the probability of attacker success and residual risk.