Join us as we explore the cutting edge of cybersecurity at the Australian Cyber Conference 2024 in Melbourne. This premier event brings together industry leaders, visionaries, and global experts to discuss the latest advancements and the future of digital security.
Guest: Akash Mittal, CISO, Group Security, Sumitomo Forestry Australia
On LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/akashgmittal/
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Hosts:
Sean Martin, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine [@ITSPmagazine] and Host of Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast [@RedefiningCyber]
On ITSPmagazine | https://www.itspmagazine.com/sean-martin
Marco Ciappelli, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine [@ITSPmagazine] and Host of Redefining Society Podcast & Audio Signals Podcast
On ITSPmagazine | https://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/marco-ciappelli
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Episode Notes
Welcome to Melbourne for AU Cyber Con 2024
From November 26th to 28th, Melbourne will transform into the epicenter of cybersecurity as it hosts AU Cyber Con 2024. Organized by the Australian Information Security Association (AISA), the conference brings a diverse lineup of global thought leaders and innovators to the stage, all focused on shaping the next wave of cybersecurity.
Conference Highlights and Theme
The theme, "The Future is Now," reflects the urgent need for organizations and individuals alike to adapt to our rapidly changing digital landscape. Over three days, the event will feature 440+ speakers and 350 sessions, offering a deep dive into the intersection of cybersecurity, society, and technology.
Engage with Industry Leaders
This year’s lineup includes top voices in cybersecurity and beyond, like former Facebook CSO Joe Sullivan, astronaut Jose Hernandez, and security icon Mikko Hypponen. With appearances from cultural figures such as actor Kal Penn, the event will highlight the broader societal impact of cybersecurity, demonstrating how it affects everything from the arts to government policy.
Interactive Villages and Hands-On Workshops
AU Cyber Con goes beyond the stage with interactive villages like the Careers Village, Lockpicking Village, and AI Village. Here, attendees can gain hands-on experience with everything from physical security tools to AI applications and prompt injections. For those interested in personal brand-building, industry insights, or getting into the nuts and bolts of cybersecurity, these workshops offer something for everyone.
Spotlight on Sponsors and Exhibitors
With support from over 150 exhibitors, the event provides a unique opportunity for attendees to connect with leading companies and uncover the latest in cybersecurity tech. For exhibitors, it’s a valuable chance to meet professionals tackling real-world cybersecurity challenges head-on.
Fostering Global Collaboration
AU Cyber Con 2024 emphasizes the need for global teamwork to advance cybersecurity. Government representatives and international delegates will discuss strategic initiatives and regulatory advancements to strengthen cyber resilience. This gathering is the perfect platform to build connections, share ideas, and work toward a unified digital security future.
Looking Ahead: Coverage from ITSPmagazine
Sean Martin and Marco Ciappelli will be covering AU Cyber Con in real time. Join us for pre-event discussions, live updates, and post-event insights—all crafted to keep you connected to the latest innovations and collaborations shaping the future of cybersecurity.
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This Episode’s Sponsors
THREATLOCKER: https://itspm.ag/threatlocker-r974
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Learn more and catch more stories from Australian Cyber Conference 2024 coverage: https://www.itspmagazine.com/australian-cyber-conference-melbourne-2024-cybersecurity-event-coverage-in-australia
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Resources
Learn more about HITRUST Collaborate 2024 and register for the conference: https://itspm.ag/asia24
Learn more about and hear more stories from HITRUST: https://www.itspmagazine.com/directory/hitrust
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The Future of Cybersecurity at the Australian Cyber Conference 2024, in Melbourne | A Pre-Event Conversation with Akash Mittal | On Location Coverage with Sean Martin and Marco Ciappelli
Please note that this transcript was created using AI technology and may contain inaccuracies or deviations from the original audio file. The transcript is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a substitute for the original recording, as errors may exist. At this time, we provide it “as it is,” and we hope it can be helpful for our audience.
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[00:00:00] Sean Martin: Marco.
[00:00:01] Marco Ciappelli: Sean.
[00:00:02] Sean Martin: We're heading, uh, across the ocean.
[00:00:05] Marco Ciappelli: Which one?
[00:00:06] Sean Martin: A different one this time.
[00:00:07] Marco Ciappelli: The, the one that we crossed straight from California
[00:00:10] Sean Martin: and Like we go west to get east.
[00:00:12] Marco Ciappelli: Oh, the
first time I did that trip, it was, uh, it wasn't actually where we're going now, but although I've been in that, uh, in that country and it sounded so weird that I was going to say, Over the ocean for such a long time and then, you know, you do a couple of times and uh, And you just get excited because I I love that part of the world that uh, the down under And I'm very excited to go there.
Sean, I know you've been there too.
[00:00:41] Sean Martin: I have been and I love it. This is where we go against the norm and we say it's not about the journey, it's about the destination. And the destination is Melbourne for the Australia Cyber Conference in Melbourne. It's the 26th through the 28th of November. It's just around the corner.
We've joined the team at AISA and Akash is with us. We're going to talk about the event and all the fun stuff going on and who's represented, who's speaking, who's attending all the activities. I'm excited to get there and to be there and to be part of it.
[00:01:18] Marco Ciappelli: Absolutely. Welcome Akash.
[00:01:21] Akash Mittal: Thank you, Malcolm.
Thank you, Sean. We're really excited to, to have you come all the way here, uh, down under, um, and be part of, of, uh, such a great event.
[00:01:32] Marco Ciappelli: Yeah, I know, I, I was already thinking about what packing, uh, for the trip and you kind of gave me absolutely no clue on what to bring because you say Melbourne is the city of the four season in a day.
So bring four seasons in
[00:01:46] Sean Martin: close. Plus I'll,
[00:01:47] Marco Ciappelli: I'll bring Valdi. How about that? I'll bring the four season. Absolutely. Very, very exciting.
[00:01:54] Akash Mittal: Do carry an umbrella, uh, a light, light, uh, a jacket. You know, we, we absolutely, um, we can experience four seasons in a day over here. All
[00:02:05] Marco Ciappelli: right. That sounds, that sounds fun, actually.
[00:02:08] Sean Martin: Yep. Four, four seasons and a lot of great conversations with, uh, some amazing people, but speaking of amazing people, let's, uh, let's get a word from you, Akash, about, uh, your role. Maybe the The big picture of AISA and the organization and what it does and this particular event is one of many. So if you can kind of give an overview yourself and the org, that'd be great.
[00:02:30] Akash Mittal: Sure. Now, thank you, Sean. Uh, so my name is Akash Mittal. I am the chair for the Australian Information Security Association, uh, AISA, as we call it, AISA. Um, I am a volunteer, uh, alongside a number of other board members, um, who sit on the board and we do have a small operations team who Um, you know, get, get all these, um, very exciting, very, um, great events, uh, across the line over the year.
Um, I'll talk about ISA. Um, ISA is Australia's peak not for profit body for cyber security professionals, uh, representing over 13, 000 members, um, who work across various sectors, uh, to safeguard the nation's digital landscape. Our members range from private industry to government entities. They contribute their expertise to improve Australia's cyber resilience.
They continuously work to protect the digital security and privacy of all Australians. Our mission is to support the cybersecurity sector through workforce development, public outreach, and advocacy. And as part of that, we do a lot of, you know, networking, knowledge sharing events, and, you know, the National Conference is part of that.
We do two National Conferences every calendar year. Uh, one that happens around in March in Canberra. Um, and then another one which happens, you know, later in the year, in October, and this year it's in November, which happens in, in, uh, in Melbourne. Uh, and we call it Australian Cyber Conference. Um, the conference this year is the 18th conference.
Uh, we have been, uh, organizing these conferences for the last nine years under the banner of Australian Cyber Conference. Uh, previously Um, what was a different name? We used to call it ISAR National Conference, uh, but, uh, nine years ago we rebranded and, and, uh, this is the 18th, uh, conference this year, uh, from 26th to the 28th of November.
[00:04:37] Marco Ciappelli: Very cool. So it sounds like in March we're going to have to come back there again.
[00:04:42] Sean Martin: So we just stayed on March. I don't know that that's possible, but anyway, uh, so the, the theme this year, uh, future is now, um, tell us about how, how that theme came together. Is it driven by the committee that kind of helps pull this together?
Is it driven by the content that's submitted to you? Um, and maybe an overview of how, how that shapes. What we're going to get to experience this year.
[00:05:12] Akash Mittal: Yeah, so it's a great question, Sean. The why the teams, um, you know, are sort of a decision is made on the team is is based on what's going on, you know, in the in the cyber security landscape.
Um, and there is a conversation internally within the operations team, the board and, you know, community members to sort of come up with ideas of what will really will. Um, the team should look like for, for the conference. Um, we set the theme for the year. So both the conferences in a calendar under, you know, within the calendar year will be under the same theme.
So the Canberra conference earlier this year in March had the same theme. Uh, future is now, and then Melbourne conference in November, again, is under the, under the same theme, same context of future is now, um, I guess in terms of the idea behind the theme. Uh, it basically reflects the urgency to recognize, um, adapt and safeguard our digital landscape, uh, which has become an integral part of all our lives today and, and will continue to shape for future.
Um, the, the rapid technological advancements and digital transformation, you know, that happened in the last, uh, couple of years, you know, Uh, the introduction of AI, explosion of IoT devices, electrical, electric vehicles, you know, they, they, they have immense influence on our day to day lives. Um, and, and as we embrace this use of technology, uh, into our lives, there's, you know, that real, um, need to, to, to also, you know, make sure that, that the, these, um, you know, there are safeguards, you know, there's cybersecurity becomes a very important topic.
And I think that's why the theme is very, um, important, uh, in, in particularly in terms of the timing, uh, is, um, because With all these new digital transformation innovation, we, um, we think that we need to think about cybersecurity privacy of users and the consumer base, uh, you know, as at the forefront rather than, you know, as an afterthought.
So while these digital transformations, um, innovations are happening, we as a community, as the professionals who understand cybersecurity and privacy implications. We need to plan now. We need to protect against those, um, risks for in the future.
[00:07:45] Marco Ciappelli: Yeah, I couldn't agree more than the choice of the theme. I mean, my podcast, it is about technology and society.
And I always say that the future is now and we can't ignore it. Like if we're living our life like if it was 20, 30 years ago. So a big fan of that and a big fan of the conversations. That I believe I'm going to have before the event and of course full time when we're there I'm looking at the keynotes.
I want to kind of go there to reflect the fact that it is cybersecurity, but it's also how Cybersecurity affects society. It's needed because it's driven by technology. So it kind of comes around I mean you got people that we know like Joe Sullivan. We had it on the show Um Uh, you have an astronaut, former astronaut, uh, Jose Hernandez, you got another friend, Mikko Hipponen, that we know very well.
You have actors called Penn. So I see people that are in the government, people that are journalists, you're embracing So tell me a little bit about, about that. It's cyber security, but not strictly.
[00:08:56] Akash Mittal: Yeah, look, um, we, we tend to, uh, Marco, we, we tend to bring in, uh, people from all, uh, sorts of background. And, and, you know, that, that sort of brings in.
The diversity of experience that they can bring into their into the conference and share their experiences with our delegates, uh, you know, at the conference, and I think that's again goes through a quite a diligent process of selection of keynote, uh, keynote speakers, uh, as part of the committee, uh, you know, that, that, um, is, is formed around, um, um, organizing these conferences.
Um, and, and we'll look at aspects of, uh, what can we bring in Uh, to the conference to really provide a wide variety of experience, um, from these keynote speakers. You know, we've got Nina Schick, uh, you know, coming and talking on the Thursday morning. Um, she's, you know, she's a global AI, um, She's going to come and talk about, you know, the, the opportunities, the risks in AI.
And again, it's, it's very important, uh, you know, for, for our delegates to, to understand different perspectives from these experts in, in the individual fields. Um, Jose Hernandez, you know, you talked about him, um, you know, great story. Um, there's a movie on, on, on Amazon Prime about his, his journey of, of how, you know, Committed he was to his dream of becoming an astronaut, and he tried 11 times before he was successful, and I think this is the, this is the, um, uh, the viewpoint or, or again, the experience we would like to bring to our delegates at the conference is resilience is a very important one.
Um, you know, aspect of what we do in cyber security. Uh, you know, uh, you know, we talked about Carl Penn. Um, Carl Penn's talking on the Thursday evening. Uh, this is where, you know, you've had the three days of the conference, um, 350 sessions plus on cyber security. Um, we want to close the conference on a bit of a, bit of a lighter note, uh, where, uh, We talk about, you know, his experience of, um, acting days, you know, transitioning from being an actor into going and working in the Obama administration in the White House.
Um, I'm, I'm also cognizant as, uh, you know, it's, it's U. S. election, uh, this month. Um, what, what, what views, uh, political views he's got, uh, about the election and post, uh, the outcome of that election campaign, you know, what, what, what he would like to share with, with our Australian, um, Uh, delegates is I think where we will, it can be very interesting, um, to bring, bring that experience together, uh, of, you know, being an actor, you know, have a, have an understanding of the, the political side of things, the, the policy side of things, and, you know, how can, how we will bring that together for our audience.
Um, we also have, um, a lot of, um, speakers from, uh, the government, uh, coming in and addressing the delegates. Uh, we've got the ambassador for cyber security, Mr. Brendan Dowling, uh, coming in, uh, doing an address at the conference. Uh, we have, um, our national cybersecurity coordinator, uh, Lieutenant General Michelle McGinnis.
She's coming and talking at the conference. Um, uh, the one thing I'd like to add at this point, uh, Marco and Sean, um, within Australia, we've been going through a bit of a journey in terms of cybersecurity. Um, in the last couple of years, there's a quite a bit of activity, uh, that has been undertaken by the federal government, uh, in terms of We've got a new cyber security strategy, a national cyber security strategy that was released late last year, and as part of that, there are more initiatives that are coming out as part of implementing that strategy.
Just, uh, last month, uh, a new cyber security legislative package was actually tabled at the parliament. And we're going through that process here in Australia at the moment, where there's a quite a bit discussion around the inclusions of that package and how that's going to impact, uh, the businesses, the professionals, how it's going to make Australia, um, a more cyber resilient country overall.
Uh, and it's quite timely that this conference is happening in November because it gives us an opportunity to have people from the government come and talk about, uh, those inclusions of those cybersecurity bill and, and how, you know, that will affect or improve our cyber resilience overall. Um, and, and we are expecting, you know, some of these, uh, representatives from the government and the government agencies will touch upon, um, some of those, um, aspects of the cybersecurity legislative package, uh, when they're at the conference.
[00:13:57] Sean Martin: I'm excited to, uh, to meet some of them and have some great conversations. Uh, perhaps some before, certainly some on site. I want to talk about, um, Akash about the. What people can expect. So clearly future is now looking at resilience. How does the, how does the Australian, uh, infrastructure and, and society deal with the threats that they're facing with respect to technology and cybersecurity.
And he also spoke to the work that ISA does with. with individuals, uh, approaching and entering and operating as employees in this space. How does the, how does the program kind of help bridge all those gaps? We have professionals, we have academia, we have governments, we have researchers, and then, then there's this program where hopefully we can all come together and find the things that interest us, that drive us, make us better.
Personally, resilience, make our teams resilient, make our organizations, make our society resilient. So kind of, can you paint that picture? Maybe touch on some of the, some of the program. I know there's some workshops and knowledge sessions and some villages. So how does all that come together to, to make that possible?
[00:15:17] Akash Mittal: Yeah, it's a, it's a great question, Sean, and I'll try to cover it as best as possible because, uh, The program itself is very comprehensive. You know, 350 sessions across three days, 440 plus speakers across three days. Um, you know, we've got workshops, you know, um, more than a dozen workshops across the, the three days.
Uh, we've got, uh, 12 sessions in the plenary. Uh, we've got a knowledge sharing, um, you know, hub, uh, on the exhibition floor, which is open for. Small to medium sized businesses and NFPs. And then we've got, you know, villages. Um, so, so let me, let me try to break this down. Um, the first thing I'll say is the way the program, the conference overall is designed is, it's designed in a way that there is Something for everyone.
You walk in, you go on to the exhibition floor. We have created activation spaces across, around the, the exhibition floor, which we call, you know, the villages and the knowledge sharing hub where people can go in and interact and, and, you know, um, sort of, um, learn and, and, and sort of know more about, um, Um, you know, any particular areas that they are interested in, um, when they are, you know, visiting these villages, and I'll come back to the villages in a minute, um, as part of the program, there are 24, um, streams that we are, um, catering for in terms of speakers.
Covering across those 24 streams, you know, from, you know, GRC, you know, governance, risk and compliance to quantum to AI to, you know, human risks, um, mental health, um, critical infrastructure. So again, like I said, you know, the, why the program has been designed is that there's something for everyone. When you, when you come to the conference, uh, we, we have a conference website, um, cyberconference.
com. au. The programs they're available now, uh, with all the sessions, with the locations, with the speaker details and everything. You know, we encourage everyone to spend the time before coming to the conference to look through the program to identify what interests them. What is it that, you know, they're finding a challenge in their, um, personal life or working life.
Uh, you know, answers to the questions they're looking for, and then find those relevant topics or speakers, uh, as part of the program, and then make it really worthwhile when you come to the conference. Um, it is a quite extensive program. Uh, if, if, you know, uh, we've, we've received this feedback, you know, where people have turned up to the conference without really looking through what the program really is.
Um, includes or has to, uh, to offer, then it can be a little bit overwhelming on the spot for the speakers to, you know, for, sorry, for the delegates to identify which ones are worthy of their time. So I think that that preparation is really important, um, coming to the conference. Um, in terms of, um, workshops, you know, hands on workshops are available across the three days.
Uh, where people can go and it's, it's a classroom style, um, workshop, people can sit down and sort of practically see, you know, an instructor led classroom style workshop to understand how to do certain things, you know, it's threat hunting or, uh, you know, particular, um, feature set or, or a capability that they would like to understand how it works, you know, that's, that's available as part of the program.
[00:18:55] Sean Martin: There's some cool things in there, Akash. I mean, the, I see some sand stuff. I see some miter stuff, uh, playbooks and, uh, sock workshops. I mean, lots of the, lots of amazing things in there. So as you noted, something for everybody. Correct. Get your hands dirty. Yep. Yes,
[00:19:14] Akash Mittal: absolutely. And, and look, I'll, I'll go back to the, the concept of the villages.
So these villages are on the exhibition floor and they open to all. Um, so. The way the conference is structured is we've got the main plenary, the, uh, you know, all the, um, the session rooms that are part of the main conference. And then we have the exhibition where exhibition hall where we have all our exhibitors, our sponsors.
Uh, you know, we're going to be talking about their capabilities, you know, product sets and what they have to offer as part of that. What we have also included is we've got these villages and they are three villages that are going to talk about. One is the careers village. Um, and basically what that is, it's, it's open to all, uh, to go and participate and, and, um, sort of understand, um, you know, basically again, you know, get, get answers to any questions they have.
If, if someone is looking to, uh, you know, advance their career in cybersecurity or even looking to, you know, making a change in, into the field of cybersecurity, we have industry experts who are going to be the available there throughout the day for across the three days who they can go and have a chat.
And learn from their experiences. This village is, um, um, will be, uh, sort of Representative by the, uh, industry experts, you know, people who have a career in cyber security, you know, all the ins and outs, um, we will also be providing as part of the career village. I resume your review if someone wants to.
You know, uh, get some feedback on the, on the resume and, and, you know, sort of want any, um, points to, to, you know, change or improve the way they have, you know, drafted their, their resume. Um, we also, as part of the Careers Village, there will be tips on interviews. Um, what are some of the, you know, tricks or tips that people can use to crack an interview?
Um, there'll be talks about how to build a brand, you know, we all talk about, you know, networking, we talk about, you know, you gotta, you gotta have a brand in the, in the sector. Um, so there'll be people who have actually done it quite successfully, and they're going to be sharing, you know, the insights and how to do that.
Um, the second one is the, um, Logsport Village, uh, and this is Basically, to give the delegates an experience into the physical security aspect of cyber security. Um, you know, as part of our controls, um, within cyber security, physical security is a big topic and is, you know, it's a very important control.
The Log Support Village gives a practical workshop for people to sit and attend and see how the logs, the physical logs actually work. And what techniques are used by threat detectors to actually break these locks? Um, you know, there are tools, uh, and locks of different kinds, you know, that, that are made available, um, for, for, you know, attendees to get their hands on and sort of, you know, try to learn how to, um, you know, use these techniques to, you know, crack open these locks.
So. Again, you know, we did that last year. People enjoyed it. We're bringing it back again. We're making it a little bit more fun this time. Um, the third village is the AI village, and this is, which is, I'm personally very excited about. Uh, this is a new concept this year that we are introducing in the conference.
Um, the AI village is, is basically, Um, what we're trying to do is we, we, it's got, it's got two parts to it. One is I captured the flag kind of a lab experience where people who really would like to know how to use prompt injection techniques to, uh, you know, and use AI for that and then the, the other part is where we're going to be creating these scenarios and, and we will hand those scenarios out for attendees to come in and try the hints. onto, you know, large language models and, and, and understand how your input into the large language models can actually influence the output, uh, you know, of, of large language models.
And so quite, it's going to be quite interesting for a lot of people to see through those, uh, techniques, through those prompts, how you can actually change the behavior or change the output for these large language models. Um, the last one, uh, that is going to be also be part of the exhibition hall is the knowledge sharing hub that I thought about earlier.
Um, we, uh, we think it's very important to have the small medium businesses and non for profits, uh, to understand some very practical tips of how they can safeguard their businesses, uh, you know, on a day to day basis, you know, their challenges around cyber security. are quite different to, you know, large organizations and, and, you know, the, the, the techniques that work for small, medium businesses and not for profits can be very different.
Their requirements are very different. Um, and that's why we've catered for, for the requirements as part of this knowledge sharing. Um, uh, they're going to be around 40 talks, uh, across the three days, and it's going to be volunteers who are going to, you know, come up on this podium and talk about something, uh, you know, which is quite practical in terms of achieving from a cybersecurity, um, resilience perspective, um, to, to provide to the small medium businesses participants to take something back and implement in their businesses.
Um, so again, like I said, Sean, uh, Mark, Marco is there's a lot for. If we want to come in and get out of this conference, you know, one thing that we constantly say is this is a perfect opportunity for a community to come together, build networking, learn from other people's experience, and that's the fundamental, um, purpose of this conference is, you know, is to, uh, get a community, come together, uh, share, you know, their experiences, um, build a network.
And I think that's, that's a very, uh. important aspect of, of, um, I think, um, making Australia more cyber resilient, uh, as, as, as a, as a group, uh, you know, coming together.
[00:25:30] Marco Ciappelli: I gotta tell you that when we were kind of scouting around, um, where are we going to make our commitment to come all across the ocean?
Like we started the, the big blue ocean, And we were looking at what was going on on that part of the world. I get to say, we had so many feedback and many people that were like, that is the up and coming, but also established. It's not a question mark. It's something that is happening 18 years. You know, as a participant, what, what the quality of the talk you can find and.
And you said it. I mean, it is the networking. I mean, Sean and I, Sean before than me, obviously, but I have my own experience in the largest conferences in cyber security in the world. And when you can bring the audience together. It's not about the number. You're never going to be able to listen to 350 talks or, you know, or do everything there.
You have to be selective, but what it really matters is what happened in between. That's what happened in the, in the whole is what happened when you meet other people. And I, and I, again, I heard amazing thing about what you guys are doing. I know the culture. I'm excited to be part of this, but there's one thing I want to remind you.
Maybe you can, you can talk for a second about You also have 150 exhibitors, and I know that if this is possible, it's also because of people that are company and the people they bring on on the table. So a couple of, uh, Thoughts about the exhibition hall.
[00:27:09] Akash Mittal: 100%. Marco, you touched upon a very important aspect.
Look, I think we are very grateful to have such a collaborative community over here. And again, I think a big thanks goes out to our sponsors, our exhibitors. Who actually made this possible for us to, uh, do what we do. Um, you know, we are a non for profit organization, as I mentioned earlier, and it's, if, you know, it, it, it sort of goes back to, you know, the sponsorship, uh, that we get to put this conference together.
Um, you know, uh, without the sponsorship, you know, there is, there's really, you know, no conference, uh, they, so look, we are very fortunate. Like I said, uh, to have a very. Cohesive, collaborative ecosystem of a year, um, you know, our sponsors, uh, they understand the value of, um, you know, being there at such a, you know, important event and, and sort of, um, you know, interacting and again, you know, it goes back to the whole networking aspect of, of the conference, you know, this is a perfect opportunity for our sponsors, our exhibitors to interact with, uh, with, with the community and, and sort of, um, um, yeah.
You know, build relationships and understand what the challenge, uh, you know, um, challenges are, you know, sometimes, um, you know, you could be assuming things, but, but this gives a perfect opportunity for everyone to come up, come together and talk about what are the real issues? What are the real challenges that people are trying to solve?
And, and there's a gap in the market. Gives, gives our sponsors, you know, exhibitors an opportunity to take that feedback back. back, uh, into their, you know, organizations and then try to solve and come out with solutions, services, platforms, whatever, that they can then, you know, help the community to solve for those challenges.
Um, so yeah, great, great point, Marco. Uh, 100%, you know, we are very fortunate to have, um, the, the 150 plus sponsors who are going to be there. Um, When you're here, I really encourage that you go and talk to them and, and, you know, hear from them, uh, what, what motivates them to, to be part of, uh, such a good cause.
[00:29:21] Sean Martin: Yeah. And, uh, there's no question, a ton of innovation in the region from the tech perspective, which we were just talking about, but also in the policy and, and, uh, in the government perspective, kind of helping to drive from the top down a nice view of here, here's what we need to do. For Australia and our partners in the region to be resilient as we spoke to.
And I think, yeah, the individuals and all the folks coming together, including, including the sponsors kind of round out that big picture. I'm hoping to have some, some conversations with some of the, some of the exhibitors there as well for some briefings to, to learn about the, some of those, uh, innovations, perhaps even some of the small, medium business folks we can connect with as well.
I want to, I want to close here and I'll give you the final word, of course, Akash, but I think it's important. It's easy. There's a lot of stuff going on with the election at the moment. Bubbles start to form, right? One gets a view of what they think is important and For me, it's important to keep an open mind for what's going on around the world.
Now, Marco and I, a few years back, had the privilege of going to Singapore for an event there that was pretty decent size. And we were able to meet with some government folks from Singapore and get the perspective of what's going on there and in the region as well. I've missed that for the last couple of years in the APAC APJ region.
So I'm excited to Get that experience, get those conversations going, bring those back to our audience who are global, and kind of open folks up to what's going on. Like I said, there's a lot of innovation, I'm sure, taking place there in Australia, and I want to bring that to folks to hear. Maybe there's some lessons to be learned around programs, policies, regulation, whatever it might be.
Um, I'm really looking forward to that and sharing that with our audience. So, I appreciate it. I appreciate you and the team, Akash, for choosing to partner with us to make this happen and, uh, I'm excited.
[00:31:27] Akash Mittal: Now look there, Sean, thank you. Uh, we're very excited, as I said, um, at the start. We're very excited about this partnership.
Um, and we are, um, very glad that you are making the trip all the way. to Down Under and, you know, going to be spending the week here with us. Um, you, you, you, you make a very good point about the bubbles. And I think again, you know, it goes back to bringing everyone together and breaking those silos and, and connecting, uh, you know, everyone together.
Um, we do have a really strong ecosystem of innovation over here, as you will see at the conference, we do bring in a lot of, uh, startup, at the conference. Uh, and again, I will encourage you to. So go and have a chat with them and, and, you know, see how they see, um, you know, solving the problems in cybersecurity and privacy and, and, you know, maybe, maybe a mechanism to take their voice overseas, you know, through, through your medium, um, to see if, if that is a problem, you know, across, across the, the boundaries of Australia where, uh, there's an opportunity for them to, to address, um, you know, the other markets.
[00:32:33] Sean Martin: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:32:35] Marco Ciappelli: There is for sure. No boundaries when it comes to cyber security. It's it's a it's a global problem and I think it required a global solution as we spoke many time when we touch on international relationship and political science and government collaborating. One with another and I'm excited to talk to all the people that are going to be there from from the Australian government and another Government in the region because that that could be a really good connection and in a table where everybody hopefully
That's what we need now. So, uh, can't wait to get on the big, uh, you know, big, uh, metal bird that is going to bring us there. I was going to take the boat, but, We got a couple of other things before that. All right, I'll fly. You can't take all that time, although it will be, uh, no, everybody needs to stay tuned.
This is our first of many, many conversation. As our audience know, There'll be some pre event, but when we're there in person, we're, we're there. So anybody that wants to chat with us, uh, say hi, or actually get on the mic with us, that will be fantastic. Obviously speakers, keynotes, and, uh, and people from the organization.
[00:34:01] Sean Martin: Cyberconference. com. au, uh, the Melbourne event, Melbourne 2020 forward. cyberconference. com. au. Of course, ITSB Magazine has the conference there on our site. 26th through 28th of November, just around the corner, Melbourne Convention Center and Exhibition Center, if I can only speak. Uh, excited to be there.
Um, everybody stay tuned, subscribe, share with your friends and enemies, and uh, let us know if you have a story to share as well. Akash, thank you so much.
[00:34:33] Akash Mittal: Sure. Thank you so much, Marco. Thank you so much for your time.
[00:34:36] Marco Ciappelli: Can't wait to meet you in person.
[00:34:38] Akash Mittal: Thank you. Look forward to it.
[00:34:40] Marco Ciappelli: Bye everybody.