Our speaker lineup

International speakers

Bruce Schneier
Topic: ​Securing large-scale socio-technical systems

Bruce Schneier is an internationally renowned security technologist, called a "security guru" by The Economist. He is the author of 13 books--including Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World--as well as hundreds of articles, essays, and academic papers. His influential newsletter "Crypto-Gram" and his blog "Schneier on Security" are read by over 250,000 people. He has testified before Congress, is a frequent guest on television and radio, has served on several government committees, and is regularly quoted in the press. Schneier is a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, a program fellow at the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, a board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an Advisory Board Member of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and the Chief Technology Officer at Resilient, an IBM Compan

Rik Ferguson
Topic: Lies, extortion and blackmail

Rik Ferguson, Vice President Security Research at Trend Micro, is one of the leading experts in information security. He is a Special Advisor to Europol EC3, a project leader with the International Cyber Security Prevention Alliance (ICSPA), and Vice Chair of the Centre for Strategic Cyberspace & Security Science. As a presenter at global industry events such as RSA, Mobile World Congress, Virus

Bulletin, RUSI and the e-Crime Congress, Rik addresses the challenges posed by emerging technology and online crime. Rik writes the Countermeasures blog and is the lead spokesperson for Trend Micro. In this position, Rik is actively engaged in research into online threats and the underground economy. He also researches the wider implications of new developments in the Information Technology arena and their impact on security both for consumers and in the enterprise.

 Prior to assuming his current role he served as Security Infrastructure Specialist at EDS where he led the security design work for government projects related to justice and law enforcement and as Senior Product Engineer at McAfee focused on network security,intrusion prevention, encryption and content filtering.

Rik Ferguson holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Wales and is a Certified Ethical Hacker and CISSP-ISSAP in good standing.

Ron Gula
Topic: Cyber Security - Do we have it right?

 

Frequently sought out by media such as the Bloomberg, Forbes and New York Times, Ron Gula is one of the leading cybersecurity thinkers in the industry. Ron started his career in information security at the National Security Agency conducting penetration tests of government networks and performing advanced vulnerability research. He was also the original author of the Dragon Intrusion Detection System and CTO of Network Security Wizards, acquired by Enterasys Networks. After co-founding Tenable Network Security in 2002, Ron served as CEO. Under his leadership the company became the leader in continuous network monitoring and is now relied upon by organizations world-wide to identify vulnerabilities, reduce risk, and ensure compliance.

Ron has received special awards for leadership from both The Washington Post and The Baltimore Sun, and was named Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2013 for defense and security. Ron holds a BS from Clarkson University and an MSEE from the University of Southern Illinois.

Dr Ian Levy
Topic: Winged ninja cyber monkeys and magic amulets

Dr Ian Levy OBE is the GCHQ Technical Director for Cyber Security and Resilience and is responsible for the technical capability and output of the agency's work securing the UK in cyberspace. He was also recently announced as the Technical Director of the new National Cyber Security Centre, launching later this year.

Jane Frankland 
Topic: Gender Diversity: Why it matters, what mistakes we're making & how to fix them

Jane Frankland is a successful entrepreneur, speaker and business consultant. Having sold her global penetration testing consultancy in 2012, she formed KnewStart to help cyber security companies sell, market and scale and Cyber Security Capital (CS^) to mobilise and empower a gender diverse workforce. Jane is a Board Advisor for ClubCISO, a private forum for over 170 senior cyber security leaders, an SC Magazine Awards Judge and a finalist for the Cyber Security Awards 'Woman of the Year 2016.'  She is currently writing a book on Women in Cyber Security, which is due for release later this year.

David Lacey
Topic: Fixing cyber security

David Lacey is a leading researcher, writer and innovator in Cyber Security and IT Governance, with more than 25 years’ experience leading IT Security and Governance functions for organizations such as Shell, Royal Mail and the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office.

David has pioneered many new ideas in cyber security. Amongst other things he drafted the original text behind the ISO 27000 family of standards, achieved the world’s first and largest accredited certifications, founded the Jericho Forum, and developed the world’s first fraud detection system based on the human immune system. His latest invention is a 4-dimensionalist, metaphysical database that he believes will revolutionize the cyber security industry.

He is the author of five books: “Managing the Human Factor for Information Security”, “Managing Security in Outsourced and Offshored Environments”, “Business Continuity Management for Small and Medium Sized Companies”, “Advanced Persistent Threats: How to manage the risks to your business”, and “A Practical Guide to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard”.

Carsten Scholz
Topic: Leading a global Information Security organisation

 

Joining Allianz Group in 2009 Carsten took leadership in different Allianz management roles on the demand (Operating Entity), supply (Shared Services) and governance (Group) side. Since 2012 he has been the Global CISO for Allianz. Prior to his engagement in the insurance industry he worked in international companies of the manufacturing, food and chemical industry. He has a broad and deep experience in IT and was in his last position, prior to joining Allianz, a member of the CIO board and head of product division infrastructure. Carsten holds a diploma in physics with minor subject informatics.

Andre McGregor
Topic: Fighting through breach fatigue



Andre McGregor is Tanium’s Director of Security responsible for cyber security protection and strategy. Prior to Tanium, Andre served as a technically-trained FBI Cyber Special Agent in New York City before being promoted to Supervisory Special Agent at FBI Headquarters. Andre helped form FBI New York’s first cyber squad focused on nation-state intrusions from China, Russia, and Iran. Additionally, Andre was the FBI Cyber Representative to the United Nations and FBI Cyber Technical Liaison to DHS NCCIC. Before entering the FBI, Andre attended Brown University, worked as an engineer at Goldman Sachs and later IT Director at Cardinal Health. In his free time, Andre is currently the FBI and technical consultant for the TV show Mr. Robot.

Chris Hallenbeck

Chris is currently a Director with Tanium's Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Team after almost seven years of government service at the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT). At US-CERT, he was responsible for having designed and built their incident response capabilities while restructuring their current focus on strategic mitigation guidance. Over countless IR engagements both with government and private sector critical infrastructure victims, he has seen a common theme: a lack of emphasis on IT operations and IT security fundamentals. Prior to joining US-CERT, Mr. Hallenbeck worked for RSA Security and EMC as a security engineer and with AOL/Time Warner on their global incident response team. He started his career as a Unix sys-admin at Binghamton University. 

National speakers

Tobias Feakin
Topic: Current cyber security landscape

Co presenting with Carolyn Patteson (pictured below)

Tobias joined ASPI as Senior Analyst for National Security in October 2012. He examines issues relating to national security policy, cyber security, global counter-terrorism, resilience, critical infrastructure protection and the environment and security. He was previously Senior Research Fellow and Director of the National Security and Resilience department at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, in London, and is still a Senior Associate Fellow of RUSI.

He has worked as a Research Fellow for the Landau Network, Centro-Volta in Italy, and the UK Home Office.  He is a member of the Energy security in a Multi-polar World Steering Committee, University of Exeter; the Resilient Futures Project Steering Committee, Kings College London; the Council for Asian Transnational Threat Research (CATR); and was part of the Lead Expert Group for the International Dimensions of Climate Change Project, by invitation of Professor John Beddington, UK Government Chief Scientific Advisor.

He has lectured at the University of Cambridge, University of Bradford, Joint Services Command and Staff College, the NATO Defence College in Rome, as well as speaking internationally at numerous conferences and roundtable discussions.

Carolyn Patteson 
Topic: Current cyber security landscape

Co presenting with Tobias Feakin (pictured above)

Dr Patteson is currently the Executive Manager of CERT Australia, and responsible more broadly within the Attorney-General’s Department for cyber-crime and cyber security issues. Before joining the Attorney-General’s Department, she worked in the Australian Intelligence Community in a variety of policy, capability development, stakeholder management and operational roles.

AISA Speakers

Nicole Murdoch, Senior Associate at Bennett & Philp Lawyers



Nicole specialises in intellectual property law and acts in complex litigation and commercial matters. She has broad experience in the information, communications and technology sector and worked in the IT industry for 10 years before entering the law. 

Nicole’s representative matters include representing Leica Geosystems and Hexagon in their claim against a former employee and his new employer regarding misuse of Leica’s confidential information and copyrighted works (software) which included obtaining civilian search orders. Follow Nicole on LinkedIN (in/nicolemurdoch) and Twitter (@IPLawAU).

Aaron Hackworth, Senior Distinguished Engineer, SecureWorks



Aaron Hackworth is a Senior Distinguished Engineer with the SecureWorks Counter Threat Unit research group and the Office of the CTO. He has been experimenting with computers and computer security for more than 30 years, including 20+ years of professional experience. In his current role, he is responsible for the development of technology, intelligence and methodologies focused on disrupting targeted and other advanced security threats.
 
Prior to joining SecureWorks, Aaron was a Senior Malware Analyst and Security Researcher at CERT, where he performed critical research for the US Government and led a team that participated in high impact operations for Federal Law Enforcement and the Intelligence Community.  He has also worked in IT/Network engineering, operations and security for some of the world’s largest companies.
 
Mr. Hackworth holds several industry certifications including a CISSP, NOP and EnCE. He also holds multiple academic degrees including an M.B.A. and a B.S. in Computer Science.

Fred Fattal, former TAFE NSW



Fred has a PhD in Cybernetics (UNSW), MSc in Electronics (University of Kent at Canterbury, UK) and a BEng Electrical Engineering (Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt). He is the Managing Consultant at Sonfat. He has a background as a part-time ICT teacher, assessor, and curriculum developer.

Dr Avishai Wool, AlgoSec



Prior to co-founding AlgoSec, Avishai Wool co-founded Lumeta Corporation in 2000 as a spin out of Bell Labs, and was its Chief Scientist until 2002. At Lumeta, Dr. Wool was responsible for transforming the firewall analyzer technology he helped develop at Bell Labs into a commercial product. Prior to Lumeta, Dr. Wool was a technical staff member at Bell Labs’ Secure Systems Research Department, where he led a team of researchers who created the first research prototypes for the firewall analyzer. He has published more than 90 research papers and holds 13 US Patents, and has served on the program committee of the leading IEEE and ACM conferences on computer and network security. Dr. Wool has a B.Sc. (Cum Laude) in Mathematics and Computer Science, and a M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Computer Science.

Dr Ralf Huuck, Synopsys



Dr Ralf Huuck is a Director with Synopsys’ Software Integrity Group focusing on software security and automated compliance tools. Earlier Dr Huuck spent over 12 years as a software research leader with NICTA and as a CEO with security tools company Red Lizard Software. Dr Huuck is an Adjunct Associate Professor with UNSW and a renowned author and speaker with over 50 international publications.

Eric Pinkerton, Regional Director, Hivint
Presentation Title: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results