RSAC 2026 Keynote to Center on Semperis Documentary Midnight in the War Room

Keynote panel features Jen Easterly, Chris Inglis, Sarah Gosler, and Chase Cunningham taking an unvarnished look at cyber war's human stakes.

HOBOKEN, N.J., Feb. 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Semperis, the identity-driven cyber resilience and crisis response company, today announced that its first-of-its-kind documentary, Midnight in the War Room, will serve as the central focus of a keynote at RSAC 2026 Conference. The keynote, "The Evolution of Cyber War: Inside the Making of Midnight in the War Room," will take place Thursday, March 26.

During the keynote, panelists will confront the human realities of modern cyber conflict, reacting to scenes from the film and sharing firsthand accounts from the digital front lines. The conversation will examine how cyber defense has become a relentless, always-on responsibility, one that shapes national security, economic stability, and the future of the global workforce.

The keynote panel brings together experts featured in the documentary:

• Jen Easterly, CEO, RSAC; former Director of CISA
• Chris Inglis, the first U.S. National Cyber Director
• Sarah Gosler, Head of Cyber Resiliency and Human Defense, Wells Fargo
• Chase Cunningham, Chief Strategy Officer & Founder, Demo-Force

"Midnight in the War Room puts a human face on the front lines of cyber defense," said Thomas LeDuc, CMO at Semperis and executive producer and co-director of the film. "Cybersecurity is often framed as a technical battle. In reality, it is a leadership challenge and increasingly a societal one. This documentary reveals the weight carried by defenders every day and why resilience must be built not only into systems, but into people and institutions. We are proud that RSAC is elevating this conversation on its keynote stage."

Together, the panel will confront whether today's threat landscape reflects a modern cyber cold war, address the grooming of young people into cybercrime, and analyze the psychological forces that shape decision-making in cyberspace. The conversation will challenge public- and private-sector leaders to redirect emerging talent toward strengthening global cyber resilience.

"As cyber threats grow more complex and more personal, we must broaden the conversation beyond tools to include the individuals carrying this responsibility every day," said Jen Easterly, CEO, RSAC. "This film is a powerful reminder that cybersecurity is ultimately about protecting society, and RSAC Conference provides an ideal forum to bring that message to the global security community."

Midnight in the War Room will make its world premiere at Black Hat on August 5, 2026. The film highlights the emotional and psychological toll shouldered by Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) tasked with defending critical infrastructure while presenting rare perspectives from former attackers, some of whom served prison sentences, on the adversarial mindset. The result is a deeply human portrait of cyber war defined by courage, burnout, moral complexity, and an unrelenting sense of responsibility.

"We are witnessing the evolution of conflict into a domain without borders, where the burden of defense often falls on unseen guardians," said Chris Inglis, the first U.S. National Cyber Director. "This documentary captures the gravity of that responsibility and challenges us to think differently about preparedness and national resilience. I'm excited to discuss the documentary during this year's RSAC Conference."

Learn more about the session and register here: https://path.rsaconference.com/flow/rsac/us26/keynotesybca/page/ybca/session/1770858769987001vKR0

About Semperis

Semperis is the identity-driven cyber resilience and crisis management company trusted by the world's largest enterprises and government agencies to protect critical identity systems. Purpose-built for multi-cloud and hybrid identity environments—including Active Directory, Entra ID, and Okta—Semperis helps organizations prevent, detect, respond to, and recover from identity-based cyberattacks.

Modern cyberattacks are won or lost at the identity layer, where failures now escalate into full-scale business crises. Semperis' AI-powered platform unifies identity lifecycle defense and crisis management—hardening identity infrastructure, detecting and containing active threats, enabling rapid, trusted recovery, and supporting secure, out-of-band coordination when core systems are disrupted—all reinforced by a world-class identity forensics and incident response team.

As part of its mission to help organizations achieve true cyber resilience, Semperis supports the broader cyber community through the award-winning Hybrid Identity Protection (HIP) Conference and Podcast, and free identity security tools including Purple Knight and Forest Druid. More than 1,000 organizations—over 25% of the 100 largest U.S. companies—rely on Semperis. The company is privately held, headquartered in Hoboken, New Jersey, and serves customers in more than 40 countries.

Learn more: semperis.com
Follow us: Blog / LinkedIn / X / Facebook / YouTube

Media Contact:
Bill Keeler
Senior Director, PR & Comms
Semperis
[email protected]

SOURCE Semperis