Industry supervisors
Mr Christopher Drake
Director, CryptoPhoto.com Pty Ltd. Queensland
Expertise: CEH.v10 skills, Govt. PenTest Author, Cipher and bigmath implementations, 40 years industry+business experience (build+market+sell+etc), B.App.Sc-Comp (QUT)
Biography: 40-year-experienced coder, white-hat hacker, speaker, and winner of more than a dozen international awards for innovation and excellence in cyber. Author of words most heavily-cited security patent, founder multiple successful (and some failed) cyber businesses, and frequent contributor to government and defense cyber policy and inquiries.
View LinkedIn profile for Christopher Drake >
Mr Christopher Gentle
Director, FlatMap IT Pty Ltd. Sydney
Expertise: Consultant Software Engineer with experience in secure remote access technologies, implementing health informatics and warehousing solutions with HIPAA and 21CFR11 compliance. Development of security and integrity safeguard standards with Boston Children’s Hospital, US Food and Drug Administration, and hl7.org.
Biography: Christopher Gentle is a consultant, analyst, software developer, technical leader and director of Flatmap IT Pty Ltd.
Chris has 34 years of experience as a technical manager, software and systems engineer developing integration solutions, system management, telecommunications, data networking, banking, and defence simulation products. Past employers and clients include Commonwealth Bank, GEC Marconi, Lucent, Avaya, VitalCare, Boston Children's Hospital and I-MED Radiology Network.
As lead consultant at FlatMap IT, Chris works with a variety of clients in the fields of GIS and carbon farming, clinical research technology, health informatics, health standards, and large-scale healthcare imaging and practice management integration.
Mr Francesco (Frank) Schiliro
Lecturer, University of NSW, Canberra
Biography: Francesco (Frank) Schiliro’ is a lecture at the University of New South Wales / ADFA. Frank holds a Master of Research in Computing from Macquarie University and is a PhD candidate examining ‘Securely Cognitive Augmentation in Policing Processes’ at Macquarie University in Australia. He is the AI-enabled Policing – Stream Leader in the Macquarie University, AI-enabled Processes Research Centre, and a Senior Certified Professional with the Australian Computer Society (MACS Snr CP IP3P).
Frank is a retired superintendent from the Australian Federal Police (AFP). Frank initially began a career in policing with the New South Wales Police Force in February 1988, having roughly spent 15 years, during which he pursued a role in criminal investigations and achieved his Detective designation. In 2003 he joined the Australian Federal Police where he moved up the ranks to become a Superintendent. Then retiring in February 2022, ending a 34-year career in policing.
Frank is highly committed, and results focused with interests in improving the police officer’s effectiveness and efficiency in crime response, detection, and prevention using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and digital leadership. Through his academic studies, Frank applies himself to research that supports, improves, and validates police practices for the advancement of the professional status of the occupation of policing and that increases public confidence in police practices.
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Dr Lu Yu
Research Assistant Professor, Clemson University, USA
Expertise: Expertise of Applied Cybersecurity, censorship circumvention, blockchain, digital forensics, privacy-preserving data mining.
Biography: Dr. Yu’s research interests mainly focus on cybersecurity. She is currently engaged in research in privacy-preserving data mining, blockchain technology, and anonymity network. Her previous research includes botnet detection (e.g., domain name generation (DGA)), distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks detection and mitigation, and Markov decision processes (MDP), etc.
Blockchain is a distributed digital ledger storing provenance metadata. A reliable, efficient and secure consensus algorithm is critical to the blockchain technology. The lightweight mining (LWM) consensus algorithm guarantees a c as long as there is one good miner. Unlike most existing mining algorithms (e.g., Proof-of-Work (PoW), Proof-of-Stake (PoS)) that are devised for cryptocurrency applications, LWM is completely free of monetary qualities. This allows consensus to be achieved with minimal computational overhead. The application of the LWM algorithm includes clinical trials, transparency and accountability of agriculture supply chain, and digital forensics, etc.
Privacy-preserving data mining techniques are critical to protect user privacy in the era of big data. Privacy-preserving data techniques look at techniques that useful statistics from user data without disclosing any private user information. Dr. Yu’s research focuses on privacy-preserving data collection approaches. True user privacy is only possible when no personally identifiable information (PII) is ever collected. In particular, her previous work includes privacy-preserving probabilistic counting, and negative surveys.
View staff profile page for Lu Yu >
Mr Matt Tett
Managing Director, Enex Pty Ltd (T/AS Enex TestLab), Melbourne
Expertise: Industry veteran 30+ years cybersecurity experience. Independent Testing, Advisory & Subject Matter Expertise. CISSP, CISA, CISM certified in good standing.
Biography: Matt Tett is the Managing Director of Enex TestLab. He is well known globally across industry and government as a very well connected, highly technical straight shooter. Effectively applying science to translating complex technology for the lay person, ensuring customers receive what they are paying for. Enex TestLab’ objective is to use science to keep tech vendors honest by rigorously testing their product claims and ensuring consumer requirements are met factually.
Enex TestLab is an independent ISO17025 accredited testing laboratory with a 33+ year history, university heritage (RMIT), and ISO 9001 QMS Quality, ISO 27001 ISMS Security and ISO 45001 OH&S certifications.
Matt is a board director of Communications Alliance. He is also a board director, and Co-Chair, of the Australian Women in Security Network (AWSN) He is also the current chair of IoT Alliance Australia (IoTAA) enabler Work Stream 3 (eWS-3) – Cyber Security and Network Resilience and sits on the IoTAA Executive Council.
Matt is an Advisor and Subject Matter Expert (SME) for IoT Security Mark P/L who operate the global IoT Security Trust Mark™ (STM) Certification and voluntary cyber security labelling scheme. He is the founder of the national Day of The Month (DOTM) clubs, which currently has over 3800+ members across the information security industry.
Matt has a deep technical background in network and security systems and he holds the following security certifications in good standing for 17+ years: CISSP, CISM, CSEPS and CISA. He is a certified Government security advisor and retains State and Federal Government security clearances. He is also a judge for a number of industries, including the Commsday “Edison” Awards, IT Journo “Lizzies” Awards, InnovationAus Awards for Excellence, IoT Impact Awards and the Australian Women in Security Networking Awards.
View LinkedIn profile page for Matt Tett >
Dr Rani Yesudas
Cybersecurity Consultant, IT Contractor, Canberra
Expertise: Cybersecurity consulting in Cyber GRC and System Security Architecture.
Biography: Dr Rani Yesudas is a Cybersecurity SME working as a consultant for federal government agencies. She has 16 years of experience in systems engineering and project management. She received PhD in Computer Science from ANU. She has worked on various federal government cybersecurity projects (for the DoD, DPS, AHDA, Services Australia, etc.). In 2019 she worked at UNSW Canberra as an academic researcher in cybersecurity. She has published various papers on requirements and risk analysis of complex systems.
View LinkedIn profile for Rani Yesudas >
Dr Robert Layton
Director, Eurekative, Ballarat
Biography: Dr Robert Layton is a data scientist with extensive research experience in academia and industry. He was awarded the inaugural Young Alumni of the Year for Federation University Australia in 2014 and has an h-index of 21 and an i10-index of 29. Dr Layton’s PhD research was on investigating authorship attributes of cyber attacks, in order to determine their provenance. This research was done at the Internet Commerce Security Laboratory (ICSL) at Federation University Australia (then University of Ballarat), in partnership with Westpac. During this time, Dr Layton undertook consultancy work, software development and industry-led research tasks for ICSL’s clients.
Since then he has been a consultant to companies in all sectors in Australia from banking, government, mining, data analytics and software development. Dr Layton has also taught software development to more than 1,000 participants through commercial training providers. Dr Layton’s primary focus is on providing data security and science to small and medium businesses, including startups as a founder of Eurekative and as founder/director of Data Pipeline. Dr Layton is the Vice-President of the Ballarat Hackerspace, a not-for-profit community group aiming to increase technology skills in the Ballarat region. In addition, Dr Layton sits on the Central Highlands Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group and the IT Discipline industry advisory group for IISS at Federation University Australia.
Dr Takuya Yoshihiro
Associate Professor, Wireless Networks and IoT, Japan
Expertise: Expertise of Applied Cybersecurity, censorship circumvention, blockchain, digital forensics, privacy-preserving data mining.
Biography: Takuya Yoshihiro received his B.E., M.I. and Ph.D. degrees from Kyoto University in 1998, 2000 and 2003, respectively. He was an assistant professor at Wakayama University from 2003 to 2009. He has been an associate professor in Wakayama University from 2009. His current interest includes graph theory, distributed algorithms, computer networks, wireless networks, Internet of things, network security, intelligent transportation systems, data economics, medical applications, etc. He is a member of IEEE, ACM, IEICE, and IPSJ.
Visit Wakayama University website >
Mr Shantanu Kumar
Principal Electrical Engineer, Asset Integrity, Perth
Expertise: Digital Substation Automation – 15 years’ experience. Cybersecurity issues in hacking a digital infrastructure network.
Biography: Shantanu Kumar has 35 years of post qualification experience in Substation and High/Low Voltage industrial equipment. He is a Fellow and Chartered Engineer of Engineers Australia. He is a committee member of Electrical Energy Society of Australia – WA chapter. He has been in the committee of number reputed conferences such as AUPEC-2021, APPEEC-2022 and ISPEC-2022. Previously he has a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from India, MBA from India and MScEng from the University of Western Australia. At present he is engaged as a PhD student of Curtin university working on IEC 61850 protocol as applicable to substation and HV infrastructure.
View LinkedIn profile for Shantanu Kumar >
Mr Tonio Loewald
Founder, textreceipts.com, Sydney
Expertise: Have worked on numerous projects where security and privacy issues had to be considered at all times.
Biography: Software developer / architect / manager / producer with over thirty years of industry experience ranging from children’s games to pharmaceutical detailing tools to scientific questionnaire software to social media platforms.
Visit LinkedIn profile for Tonio Loewald >
Dr Stephanie Williams
Principal Information Security Consultant, Westpac, Sydney
Expertise: Strategic consultation.
Biography: Stephanie is a scientist turned banker who completed her PhD investigating the role different molecules play in olfactory axonal guidance. She is now with the Westpac Cybersecurity Strategy team where her research background is helping frame the threat environment and how best to defend against this. At Westpac she has been responsible for running the Mortgages Product business as well as the Branch design and investment program through a period of disintermediation. She is a passionate advocate for women in Cybersecurity and building the next generation of tech female leaders.
View LinkedIn profile for Stephanie Williams >
Dr Mengmeng Ge
Senior Cyber Security Consultant, Deloitte, Auckland New Zealand
Expertise: Cyber risk management, incident response and crisis management
Biography: Dr Mengmeng Ge is working as a Senior Cyber Security Consultant at Deloitte New Zealand. She completed her PhD degree at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand in 2018. She then worked for Telstra New Zealand as the Analytics Engineer for a year. Since 2019, she joined Deakin University in Australia and worked as a Lecturer in Cyber and Networking for 2 years. She then joined RMIT University in 2021 and worked as a Lecturer in Cyber Security for over a year. Her research mainly focuses on model-based cybersecurity analysis, security modelling for the Internet of Things, and emerging proactive defences (e.g., moving target defence, cyber deception). She has over 25 publications in refereed conference proceedings and journals. She also has considerable industrial experience in system design, cyber risk management, security assessment, incident and crisis management, and security analytics.
View LinkedIn profile for Mengmeng Ge >
Dr Tao Ban
Senior researcher, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Tokyo Japan
Expertise: Network security, malware analysis, IoT security, machine learning and data mining for cybersecurity
Biography: Dr. Tao Ban received his B.E. degree from Xi’an Jiaotong University in 1999, M.E. degree from Tsinghua University in 2003, and Ph.D. degree from Kobe University in 2006, respectively. He is currently a senior researcher with Cybersecurity Research Institute, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Tokyo, Japan. He is the receiver of the following awards. IEEE TrustCom 2020 best paper award, IEICE CSS 2020 concept research award, APNNS 2020 excellent service award award, IEEE TrusCom 2019 leadership award, AsiaJCIS 2013/2018 Best paper award, IEICE CSS 2013 best paper award, IEEE DMAI2008 best paper award, ICONIP 2007 best paper award, 2004 IEEE Kansai section best student paper award. He is a member of IEEE and an active member of program committee of international conferences such as IJCNN, ICONIP, ISNN, FUZZ-IEEE, CEC. He has published more than 100 Journal and Conference publications and book chapters in the field of Cybersecurity, Machine Learning, Data Mining, etc. His research interest includes pattern classification, neural processing, machine learning and data mining for network security, malware analysis, and cyber threat hunting etc.
View Google Scholar profile for Tao Ban >
Mr Ian Goldsmith
Freelance Cybersecurity Analyst, Sydney
Expertise: Malware, Phishing and Incident Response
Biography: Veteran of the security industry having worked in the Australian banking industry & large & Small US tech startups for 15 years. The roles I've taken included anything from hands-on malware analysis and developing the tooling for SOC teams to use in responding to threats, to building and managing some well recognized SOC teams & security functions.
View Google Scholar profile for Ian Goldsmith >
Mr Nicolas Puñal
Organisational Change Management Consultant, Sydney
Biography: Nicolas has an honours degree from Bristol Business School, University West of England, and wide-ranging experience in Europe and the U.S.A. with Citibank, Time Warner, Liverpool Victoria, and H.M. Customs & Excise.
His Australian public sector experience includes the Department of Fair Trading, NSW Police Force and as a board member for the NSW Community of Change Professionals.
Nicolas’ main field of expertise is in organisational change management within law enforcement, focusing on recording and investigative technologies, commercial fraud, and cybercrime. His strengths lie in placing a high priority on due diligence, intergovernmental cooperation, and communication.
Facilitator, speaker and event organiser across Europe and Australia, Nicolas has presented a series of change management and contract management (security) industry sessions over the past decade and has introduced organisational change management practices to the Catalan Police Force / Mossos d'Esquadra.
View LinkedIn Profile for Nicolas Punal >
Noushin Shabab
Senior Security Researcher, Kaspersky, Melbourne
Expertise: Threat Intelligence Analysis, Malware Analysis, Reverse Engineering
Biography: Noushin Shabab is a cybersecurity researcher based in Australia, specialising in reverse engineering and targeted attack investigations.
She joined Kaspersky in 2016 as a senior security researcher in the Global Research & Analysis Team (GReAT). Her research focuses on the investigation of advanced cyber-criminal activities and targeted attacks with a particular focus on local threats in the Asia Pacific region. Prior to joining Kaspersky, Noushin worked as a senior malware analyst and security software developer focusing on rootkit analysis and detection techniques as well as APT attack investigations.
Noushin is very active in the cybersecurity community where she regularly presents at various security conferences and events and also delivers technical workshops. Some of her previous conference presentations include BlackHat ASIA, AusCERT, Security Analyst Summit, INTERPOL World, Ruxcon, Kawaiicon, MRE, various BSides events and WICME (Women in Cyber Mentoring) organized by the department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. She has been a guest lecturer at RMIT University, Melbourne Institute of Technology and University of Guelph, Canada. She is also a member of the Australian Women in Security Network (AWSN) which aims to connect, support, collaborate and inspire women in the Australian cybersecurity industry.
Chathura Abeydeera
Director, KPMG Australia
Expertise: Red, purple teaming and penetration testing, adversary emulation and simulation, cyber threat intelligence, incident response
Biography: Chathura is a Director in the Forensic practice of KPMG Australia and leads the Cyber Attack and Response services. He is a highly technical Cyber security practitioner with over 20 years’ experience in offensive Cybersecurity and Incident Response. He is a CREST Certified Tester and an examination assessor for the CREST International. He is also an advisory board member of the CREST Australasia. He has delivered complex technical Cyber security assessment programs and Incident Response engagements for a number of high profile Australian and global organisations.
View LinkedIn profile for Chathura Abeydeera >
Priya Gnanasekaran
Security Engineer, Lab3
Expertise: Have hands-on experience in applied cybersecurity by working on various domains like DevSecOps, Security Operations and Infrastructure Security Engineering. As part of the journey, I have got exposure to cutting edge security tools and technologies.
Biography: Priya is an emerging leader and a cybersecurity advocate who is on a mission to create the digital space a safer place for everyone. In her 6 years journey, she has worked on various avenues of cybersecurity such as DevSecOps, Secure Coding, Infrastructure Security, and Security Operations.
Priya is known for her mentorship activities and for speaking passionately about cybersecurity at various industry and university events. Being ‘curious’ as one of her innate traits, she could not stop involving herself in web3 and has had her roots in blockchain since 2015.
In her current and previous roles, she is lauded for her ability to translate security risks to the business and implement certain cybersecurity protocols and measures. Currently, in her role, she enjoys optimising and integrating security incidents while also providing recommendations to the security operations team. Previously, while pursuing her post graduation at the University of Melbourne she has done her research thesis on ‘Feature Modelling for DDoS Attack Detection from IoT Devices’.
Though she can’t help herself being hooked on to her digital space, in her spare time she becomes a board game ninja and enjoys hiking. She lives by the quote “Cyber security is everyone’s responsibility".
View LinkedIn profile for Priya Gnanasekaran >
Gyle dela Cruz
Senior Security Consultant - Incident Response, Defence & Threat Disruption Specialist
Expertise: Digital Forensics, Incident Response, Cyber Threat Intelligence, Security Operations, OSINT, Security Policy and Implementation
Biography: Gyle dela Cruz has an unconventional path to cybersecurity. She finished a degree in psychology and spent 2 years in law school before eventually moving into the IT industry, then specialising in the defensive side of cyber security. Her interest in sharing her skills, knowledge and experiences has given her an opportunity to travel and live in different countries. She has trained thousands of people in the realm of network security and cyber security. She received her Graduate Certificate in Incident Response from the SANS Institute and her master’s in cyber security – Digital Forensics from UNSW Canberra. She continues to improve her skills and knowledge by frequently upskilling and attending different training events. Currently, she has 11 SANS GIAC active certifications. She has won several SANS challenges coins.
Gyle has also contributed to the following books: “97 Things that Every Information Security Professional Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts” and “The Rise of the Cyber Women: Volume 2.” Her job with a financial organization, as part of the defence and threat disruption team, utilises her varied skills and knowledge accumulated through the years working in different areas and industries. In her spare time, she mentors other people who are new to the field, presents in different cyber security events and volunteers with different organisations. She is a product of the Project Friedman, which is an initiative by WomenSpeakCyber and AWSN to produce more conference-ready women speakers. She has presented in various local and international conferences - AISA Cybercon, ACM WiCPH, BSides, conINT, Day of Shecurity, Defcon VR, IntroSecCon, MRE, NotPinkCon, WicSME.
In recognition of her exemplary dedication to volunteering efforts across multiple organisations, she received the AWSN Unsung Hero award in 2020. Subsequently, in 2022, she received the AWSN Mentor of the Year award.
Daniel Rodriguez [redacted]
Technical Analyst, Australian Federal Police
Expertise: Over ten years experience in Cyber Crime investigation
Biography: Federal Agent Daniel Rodriguez is a Technical Analyst in Cybercrime Operations with the Australian Federal Police in Melbourne. Daniel began his career with the AFP in 2002 working in a number of different policing roles before moving into AFP Cybercrime in 2012. Daniel’s primary role for over eight years was as an investigator before moving into his current technical support role.
Daniel has a background in the IT and technology sector previously working for various organisations, including large multinational companies. Daniel has also completed significant tertiary study and has degrees in Computer Science and Electronic Engineering.
Daniel has had experience in cybercrime matters ranging from investigating complex transnational cybercrime, open source intelligence, incident response and providing assistance in technology enabled crime. He has a strong interest in cybercrime and cyber security matters with a focus on new technologies.
King Salemno
Information Assurance Development Adjudication Lead, Booz Allen Hamilton
Expertise: Vulnerability analysis and mitigation. Malware analysis. Identify tactics, techniques and procedures associated with various malware campaigns. Reverse engineering.
Biography: King Salemno is an experienced cyber security expert who has delved into various subjects within the field. He has engineered applications and tools to assist activities involved in both red teams and blue teams. His research has been very impactful in all of the organizations in which he has engaged.
View LinkedIn profile for King Salemno >
Dr Jonathan Oliver
Senior Staff Data Scientist, VMware Carbon Black
Adjunct Professor, University of Queensland
Expertise: ML applications. Clustering of security artifacts. Invented TLSH. Antispam.
Biography: Dr Jonathan Oliver is a data scientist with over 25 years of industry experience. Jonathan currently works at VMware working on machine learning projects for behavioural analysis. Prior to joining VMware, Jonathan has worked on a range of machine learning (ML) and threat based projects. The ML projects include building machine learning systems for antispam, web reputation and malware files. Jonathan invented TLSH (a locality sensitive hash for security) which has become a part of the industry standards and is gaining wide spread popularity. Jonathan has a PhD from Monash University and is an inventor on over 100 software patents.
View LinkedIn profile for Johnathan Oliver >
Erica Muir
Corporate Fraud Investigator, IBM Australia
Expertise: As a practitioner within the Corporation
Biography: Erica Muir's employment history encompasses telecommunications, aerospace manufacturing
and IT Communications and Professional Services. Experience at senior management level in Corporate Internal Audits and Investigations, Fraud, Human Resources, Employment Law, Performance Management, Personnel, Training, Process Evaluation
and Policy Review/Redesign .
Erica Muir is a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE). Since 2017. Highly skilled in business analysis, examination of data, interviewing witnesses and suspects, report writing and presenting findings. My mandate is to research and detect fraudulent activity by employees within the Corporation across the Asia Pacific region.
Dr Tirath Ramdas
Managing Director, MMC Research
Expertise: Endpoint security, browser security, threat intelligence, product development, operating systems, cross platform strategy
Biography: Tirath is a technologist with 20 years experience as a researcher, software engineer, and subject matter expert, having served in academia (PhD at Monash University, Post Doc at University of Zurich), venture-backed startups (Acunu – acquired by Apple, Bromium – acquired by HP), big tech (HP, Google), and consulting to businesses ranging from startups to international development organisations and the Malaysian federal government. His ten years in cybersecurity have been focussed on endpoint security for MacOS and Windows, and he has contributed to the development of ChromeOS.
Currently Tirath is an independent contractor serving clients ranging from Fortune 100 technology vendors to small businesses, on areas ranging from cross-platform endpoint security strategy to generative AI solutions for education. He volunteers through platforms such as Stanford University’s Code-in-Place program and the Monash Alumni mentoring platform. While at HP he helped establish HP Australia’s Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) committee.
Tirath has nine fully peer-reviewed publications in theoretical chemistry and computer science journals and conference proceedings, as well as three filed patents for innovations in endpoint security and video privacy.
Abhay Vaish
Senior Malware Reverse Engineer, Palo Alto Networks
Expertise: Malware Analysis, Reverse Engineering, Vulnerability and Exploitation, Defensive cyber solutions
Biography: Abhay Vaish is a malware reverse engineer, with over a decade of experience in R&D of defensive cybersecurity solutions. His professional career involved working in product companies like FireEye, Palo Alto Networks where his day job tasked him to analyze and reverse engineer malware for developing counter-measures.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science engineering, and has active interests in researching information security areas including malware analysis, vulnerability and exploitation research, digital forensics, web and network security.
Leigh Vincent [redacted]
Manager, IT Security and Risk, Federation University Australia
Expertise: 20 years experience in the cyber security industry across the healthcare and higher education sectors.
Biography: Leigh is the Manager, IT Security and Risk and has been in a security role with Federation University for 19 years, with the majority of that time being solely responsible for information security at the institution. During this time, Leigh has encountered a vast array of attack techniques and methods and the everchanging technology used to combat these threats and still finds the challenges of day-to-day operations exciting. During his journey with Federation University, Leigh has adopted a defence in depth approach to cyber security and sees this continuing for some time.
Leigh has industry certifications in incident handling, penetration testing and forensic analysis and has a passion for user awareness and education which is vital as “cyber security is a team sport” and believes that building a cyber security culture is a key component of an overall cyber security strategy.
Now responsible for a team of 3 security professionals, Leigh’s focus has been on strategic planning and looking to the future for best practice and suitable security measures needed to combat the ever-increasing range of cyber threats including foreign interference, data privacy and ever increasing legislative and legal requirements placed on the cyber security industry. In addition, as cyber security is identified as a top business risk to the University, regular reporting and dissemination of information has become a much greater requirement and expectation.
Taking an approach of “it’s not if but when” a cyber incident will occur, there has been a shift in focus around resilience and recovery to ensure the response to, and recovery from, a major cyber incident is rapid, appropriate and repeatable.
Dr Muhammad Ejaz Ahmed
Senior Research Scientist, CSIRO
Expertise: Malware analysis, threat hunting, ransomware behavioural analysis, software security, and applied machine learning.
Biography: Dr. Muhammad Ejaz Ahmed is a Senior Research Scientist and the team lead of Automated Security at CSIRO's Data61. He also holds an Honorary Senior Lecturer position at Macquarie University. His research interests lie at the intersection of AI and cybersecurity. He has worked on ransomware behavioral analysis, automatic API deobfuscation for binaries, threat hunting, and software supply chain security. He leads several projects in the areas of ransomware detection, threat hunting, and software supply chain security, and collaborating on these projects with multiple industries and universities both nationally and internationally. His work on ransomware detection and defense against voice replay attacks has been featured in several news media outlets, including Bloomberg and ZDNet.
View CSIRO profile for Muhammad Ejaz Ahmed >
Simon McAloon
Technical Lead – Information Systems, Vitrafy Life Sciences
Expertise: Secure software development, DevSecOps, Network and Endpoint including IoT security, IAM, Policy and compliance, Business continuity and disaster recovery, Risk assessment, Threat analysis, Incident response, Cloud security, Medical devices, Blockchain and AI
Biography: Simon brings 20 years of diverse experience regarding cybersecurity in the IT sector with expertise spanning high level technical support, systems administration, software engineering, consulting, and management.
Currently, Simon is the Technical Lead of Information Systems at Vitrafy Life Sciences, a leading global biotech start-up based in Ballarat. Cybersecurity is a paramount focus in his role at Vitrafy regarding both day-to-day operations as well as ongoing research and development. Whilst at Vitrafy Simon has been listed as an inventor on two innovative patents in the areas of blockchain and AI, both of which have a strong cybersecurity focus.
Prior to Vitrafy, Simon worked nationally and internationally for IBM as a development lead on projects for prominent Australian businesses, educational institutions, and government bodies where cybersecurity was always at the core of all engagements.
On the academic front, Simon is an RMIT graduate with a Bachelor of Technology and is in the process of acquiring a Master of Data Science from the same institution, alongside an MBA from Federation University.
Beyond his core responsibilities, Simon actively engages with tech communities. He's a member of Blockchain Australia, Linux Australia, and The Australian Computer Society. Furthermore, he's a contributor to the Hyperledger Foundation, an open source, global ecosystem for enterprise-grade blockchain technologies.
View LinkedIn profile for Simon McAloon >
Sabih Saeed
Principal Manager Security - Customer Experience Engineering, Microsoft
Biography: With a rich and diverse background in the world of IT and a profound commitment to continuous learning and leadership, Sabih Saeed stands as a seasoned Engineering Manager with a remarkable journey marked by technical expertise and strategic acumen.
Sabih Saeed holds a Graduate Degree in Computer Science and an MBA with majors in Management, a combination that represents a unique blend of technical proficiency and strategic thinking. With over 17 years of hands-on involvement in the local and international IT services industry, he has embarked on a career path that encompasses various roles, ranging from Developer to Engineering Leader.
Currently, Sabih Saeed serves as a Principal Manager in Security Engineering at Microsoft, a role that reflects his capability for leadership and strategic vision. He leads a team of customer engineers, offering technology leadership and managing complex customer escalations. Furthermore, he actively contributes to the growth and strategy of customer offerings, signifying his ability to drive program development and monetize customer solutions.
One of the hallmark qualities of Sabih's career is his profound technical expertise. He has actively participated in projects related to Cyber Security, Cloud Infrastructure, Network Access, Kubernetes, DevOps, and more, demonstrating an exceptional understanding of critical technologies and a passion for open-source projects.
As a committed professional dedicated to continuous learning, Sabih Saeed holds a multitude of certifications from renowned organizations, including Microsoft, CNCF (Cloud Native Computing Foundation), and the Linux Foundation, reflecting his unwavering drive to stay at the forefront of industry trends.
View LinkedIn profile for Sabih Saeed >
Ms Negar Shabab
Senior security researcher, Microsoft
Biography: Negar is a senior security researcher at Microsoft. Her role in the Microsoft Threat Intelligence community involves researching threats and improving malware detection.
She has worked in different offensive and defensive roles in cyber security for more than a decade with outstanding results. Her past roles range from malware analysis and security software development to application security consulting and penetration testing.
Negar is passionate about sharing her knowledge with the security community as well as academia. She has presented her research and delivered technical workshops in various conferences such as AISA, AUSCERT, MRE, 0xCC, BSides events and Security Analyst Summit. In the past she has also helped university students to prepare for national hackathons by delivering malware analysis workshops for students of the RMIT university as well as the AWSN members.
Andrew McDonnell [redacted]
Cybersecurity Contractor
Expertise: Secure software development, vulnerability management, programmme development, threat hunting, reverse engineering, penetration testing, frameworks such as ISM, NIST.
Biography: Andrew McDonnell is an experienced entrepreneurial software developer and cyber security professional, and has always been a passionate hacker, maker, and technology enthusiast. He has presented at conferences on a range of topics from reverse engineering to radio telemetry. He has designed, prototyped, coded and secured a wide range of systems in defence and agtech. He broadened his security experience through a stint in the trenches as head of cybersecurity for a small engineering company, and most recently builds appsec and vulnerability management programmes in the defence sector.
Mr Farhan Farooq
Senior Solutions Architect, Amazon Web Services
Biography: Farhan Farooq is a Senior Solutions Architect at AWS, based in Melbourne, covering Victoria region. Having 20 years of experience, he holds a strong background in cyber security and Cloud with several industry distinctions i.e., CISSP, CISA, CISM, SABSA, GMON, AWS. along with prior experience in systems analysis and software development. At present he is tasked to assist customers in their digital transformation journey by advising them with secure, reliable and efficient cloud-based solutions. He has keen interest in Machine Learning and Satellites together with Security orchestration and automation. Farhan is computing & Information Systems graduate from London Metropolitan University and holds an MBA focusing on Corporate Information Management from University of Southern Queensland, Australia.
