Agenda
IT Security Summit
One Day Event
Networking and Registration
IDC Keynote: Securing an AI-Powered Business – Navigating the New Frontier of Trust, Compliance & Innovation
Europe is at a strategic inflection point. According to IDC’s latest research, security spending in Europe is forecast to reach nearly $60 billion by 2028, growing at a compound annual growth rate of around 9.4% from 2025 to 2029. Organizations are responding to intensifying cyber threats, expanding regulatory frameworks such as the EU AI Act, NIS2, GDPR, and DORA, and a surge in stakeholder demand for digital trust and sovereignty. IDC also reports that software and cloud-native security solutions are expected to account for a majority of global security spend by 2028, as enterprises accelerate their adoption of integrated, analytics-driven protection.
At the same time, AI is reshaping the security landscape in Europe. IDC research shows that 38% of European organizations are already investing in AI or Agentic AI, and 43% are actively testing or running proofs of concept, while nearly 70% expect AI-driven disruption within the next 18 months. For European security leaders, this represents both a strategic opportunity and a growing area of risk. AI is enhancing threat detection, automation, and decision-making, yet it is also being exploited by adversaries to scale attacks and manipulate data. As a result, European organizations are prioritizing investments in AI-powered security analytics, identity and access management (IAM), and managed detection and response (MDR) to stay ahead of threats while maintaining transparency, compliance, and ethical governance.
Joel Stradling
Senior Research Director, European Security, IDC
Bridging the Gap – Verified Trust for All Identities
As AI agents, deepfakes, and automated attacks outpace traditional IAM, organisations face a widening identity trust gap. Drawing on Ping Identity’s State of Trust research, this session examines how to move from static authentication to continuous, verified trust – helping security leaders assess their current posture and apply practical, risk-adaptive IAM patterns over the next 12–24 months.
Darinder Shokar
Director, Sales Engineering, Ping Identity
The Cybersecurity Poverty Line: How AI Changes the Equation for Everyone Else
The cybersecurity industry has spent two decades building capabilities that, in practice, only well-resourced organisations can actually operate. The result is a structural divide, a poverty line, separating those with mature, 24/7 security operations from the majority of the economy running on best-effort and hope. This session argues that AI represents the first genuine opportunity in years to move that line, not through hype, but through operational compression: changing the economics of detection, response, and expertise in ways that matter to organisations that have never had access to enterprise-grade security.
Drawing on real-world experience across organisations of very different sizes and maturity levels, this talk cuts through the noise to examine what AI is actually changing on the ground, where the limits are, and what it means for every senior leader in the room, because the organisations below the poverty line are almost certainly in your supply chain, your customer base, or your sector.
Alfredo Reino
Senior Sales Engineer, Sophos
Opening Panel Discussion: Boardroom Security: How to Speak the Language of Risk & Value
Security is no longer just a technical concern, it’s a strategic business issue. CISOs must translate complex cyber risks into the language of boards and executives, demonstrating how security investments protect value, enable growth, and support enterprise objectives. IDC says that leadership and collaboration are now critical as the CISO will not always have the ability to mandate security measures but will need to work through others.
This panel brings together CISOs to explore how to effectively communicate risk, align security strategy with business priorities, and demonstrate the ROI of cybersecurity initiatives. CISOs will share practical approaches for bridging the gap between technical expertise and boardroom decision-making, building trust with executive leadership, and ensuring security is recognised as a driver of business resilience and competitive advantage.
Jessica Figueras
CEO and Co-Founder, CxB – Cyber Governance for Boards
Gary Osborn
Head of Information Security, Amnesty International
Deborah Saffer
Director Information Security, Liberty Specialty Markets
Theo Botha
Chief Information Security Officer, Dr. Martens plc
Manoj Bhatt
Founder and CEO Cyber Security, Cyberhash UK
Networking Break
Parallel Sessions
Track 1 & Track 2
11:30 am – 11:40 am
Resilience Beyond Borders: Why Your Digital Strategy Needs a Geopolitical Reality Check
Richard Cassidy
EMEA CISO, Rubrik
11:30 am – 11:40 am
Rethinking Exposure Assessment & Remediation in the Age of Faster Exploitation
Jaimon Thomas
Senior Director Customer Engineering, Kudelski Security
Parallel Sessions
Track 1 & Track 2
11:40 am – 12:05 pm
Track 1: Cyber AI: Innovation, Control, and Accountability
Ellie Kearney
Lead Analyst – Cybersecurity, Arete Research
Faith Ruto MBA
AI Leadership & Adoption Strategist, Transformation21st Limited
Mit Saru
Executive Director, Stoxx
Jess Larsen
Founder | AI Transformation Consultant | Human centric Design, Thriving Humans
Joel Stradling
Senior Research Director, European Security, IDC
11:40 am – 12:05 pm
Track 2: Cyber Talent and Mental Health: Breaking the Burnout Cycle
Andrew Barber
Head of Apps & Devices Surrey, Sussex Police
Naomi Garratt
Chief Technology Officer & Co-Founder, Shine AI
Amar Patel
Partner, CTO, CISO and NED, Financial Services
Manoj Bhatt
Founder and CEO Cyber Security, Cyberhash UK
Parallel Sessions
Track 1 & Track 2
12:05 pm – 12:15 pm
The Forgotten Perimeter: why your browser Is the most dangerous asset in your enterprise
Tom McVey
Senior Sales Engineer EMEA, Menlo Security
12:05 pm – 12:10 pm
Why Wasabi Secure HOT Cloud Storage in the Cyber Attack World
Jon Brooks
UKI, Nordics & SA Country Manager, Wasabi Technologies
12:10 pm – 12:15 pm
Is AI the end of expertise?
Marc Dowd
Vice President, Executive Advisory, IDC
Parallel Sessions
Track 1 & Track 2
12:15 pm – 12:20 pm
Track 1: Pressure, Pace, and Priorities: Cyber Resilience in the Age of Compressed Timelines
Iraklis Mathiopoulos
EVP of Assurance and DFIR, Obrela
12:15 pm – 12:20 pm
From Telemetry Chaos to Real-Time Intelligence — in 5 Minutes
Jan Ogorzalek
Regional Director, Northern Europe, DataBahn
Parallel Sessions
Track 1 & Track 2
12:20 pm – 12:45 pm
Track 1: Supply Chain Under Siege: Strategies for Cyber Resilience
Tom O’Driscoll
Head of Security Operations and Intelligence, National Highways
Giles Lindsay
CIO, Lif3away
Bryan Altimas
Cyber Security Consultant, Riverside Court Consulting Ltd
Joel Stradling
Senior Research Director, European Security, IDC
12:20 pm – 12:45 pm
Track 2: From Service to Cybersecurity: Leveraging Military Skills in the Digital Danger Zone
Glen Hymers
Deputy Director Cyber, Information and Privacy Security, The Cabinet Office
Stephen Burrows-Davies
Cyber Security Manager, Everywhen
Esther Hitch
Cyber Director, BDO LLP
Hannah Dowie
Senior Event Manager, IDC
Networking Lunch Break
IDC Connect Roundtables
IDC Connect 1 : API Security: The New Frontline of Security in an Agentic World
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Richard Meeus
Senior Director of Security Technology and Strategy EMEA, Akamai
IDC Connect 2 : Your identity security architecture was built for humans. It's time for a reset
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Ollie Cheal
VP, EMEA, 1Password
IDC Connect 3 : When Prevention Fails: How Leading Organisations Are Rethinking Cyber Resilience
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Darren Thomson
Commvault EMEA CTO, Commvault
IDC Connect 4 : The Strategic Security Spend: Justifying and Optimizing Budgets
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Notis Iliopoulos
EVP of MRC, Obrela
IDC Connect 5 : Security Operations & Analytics: Detect, Respond, Recover
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Joel Stradling
Senior Research Director, European Security, IDC
IDC Connect 6 : Leadership, Culture and Talent: Making Security Everyone’s Business
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Marc Dowd
Vice President, Executive Advisory, IDC
Networking Break
Closing Panel: The Psychology of Trust: Human Behaviour and Security Decision-Making
Trust is at the heart of effective cybersecurity…….but it’s not just about technology. Human behavior drives decisions, influences risk, and shapes security culture across the enterprise. CISOs must understand the psychology behind how employees, executives, and partners perceive and act on security guidance.
This panel brings together CISOs to explore how insights into human behavior can inform security strategy, improve compliance, and reduce risk. During this panel we will discuss practical approaches to building a culture of trust, how to design policies that people actually follow all the while balancing technical controls with human-centric security practices to protect the organisation in an increasingly complex threat landscape.
Alan Jenkins
Principal Consultant, The Cyber Security Navigator
Trudy Chisamba-Laity
Cyber Security Senior Project Manager, Admiral Group Plc
Joel Stradling
Senior Research Director, European Security, IDC
The Deepfake Interview: Breaking In From the Inside
Jake lifts the lid on the darker side of artificial intelligence, taking you deep into the criminal underworld powered by today’s most advanced technology. In the name of research, he used AI driven face-swapping tools to pass a live video job online interview under a completely false identity. Not once, but repeatedly. Through these real-world experiments, Jake reveals how powerful AI tools are already being weaponised by criminals to infiltrate organisations from the inside, bypassing traditional security and exploiting human trust.
But it doesn’t stop there. With the same tools now widely available, Jake demonstrates how AI can clone voices, generate convincing documents and create fake identities in seconds, giving cybercriminals everything they need to scale deception like never before. Nothing is real anymore. The question is, would you spot it?
Jake Moore
Crime Enthusiast and Cybersecurity Advisor
Closing Remarks and Key Takeaways
Hannah Dowie
Senior Event Manager, IDC