Vaishali Nagpure is the Founder and CEO of AI Vertex Consulting, building practical AI driven systems that turn data into measurable business outcomes. She is a CCIE R and S certified networking and security professional with deep expertise in DC and DR, network automation, and analytics. With senior experience leading enterprise scale infrastructure modernization, compliance, and governance, she also brings advanced research from a Ph.D. in Computer Science and strong technical skills across Python, cloud, and DevOps tooling.

Title: Explainability by Design in Cybersecurity: Transparent AI for Faster, Safer Defense - Abstract: As AI drives security operations from anomaly detection to automated response, transparency is essential for trust, investigations, and governance. This talk presents a practical framework for explainable AI in cybersecurity: aligning explanations with analyst workflows, ensuring fidelity to model decisions, and delivering actionable insights without leaking sensitive data. We cover a security-focused taxonomy of explanations (global vs. local, post hoc vs. interpretable models), evaluation methods for usefulness and robustness under adversarial conditions, and governance considerations for audits and compliance. Through use cases such as intrusion detection, phishing risk scoring, and device health monitoring, we show how explainability by design accelerates incident response, improves decision quality, and strengthens risk management. Attendees leave with a lightweight blueprint, key metrics, and a pragmatic checklist to operationalize explainable AI in security programs.