Dr. Sharif Abuadbba is the Team Leader of Distributed Systems Security and a Senior Research Scientist at CSIRO’s Data61, Australia. With over 14 years of experience, he has led major national and international cybersecurity projects with organisations like the Cyber Security CRC and Department of Home Affairs. His innovative work includes the award-winning Smartshield project (NSW iAwards 2022) and TAPE (2024 finalist), both leveraging AI for cyber defence.
Sharif tackles critical challenges such as deepfakes, misinformation, AI-driven cyber threats, and the security of emerging technologies like AI, 6G, and digital twins. He has co-authored 70+ publications in top-tier venues (IEEE S&P, NDSS, Usenix Security) and serves as an Associate Editor for IEEE TIFS. He supervises PhD students at leading Australian universities and has secured significant research funding.
As PhD graduate from RMIT 2017, he received the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence. His startup, EyeCura, won the 2018 Eureka Innovation Award, and its cybersecurity products serve over 10,000 users. Sharif has contributed to many U.S. patents and is a member of Standards Australia’s Cybersecurity and technical contributor to AU AI Safety standards. Recognised with the CSIRO Julius Career Award (2022), he also won the 2024 Australia AI Innovator-Cybersecurity Lead Award.
Victor is an Information Technology and Risk Management professional with over 30 years of experience across the Financial Services, Payments, Healthcare, and Consulting industries with a passion for creating and implementing enterprise-wide business & technology solutions.
Alexey, a Director at Accenture, brings over 15 years of expertise in cybersecurity strategy, risk management, quantum risk, and cryptography. He currently holds the position of APAC Quantum Security Lead and Director of Cyber Strategy at AN/Z.
Prior to Accenture, Alexey honed his expertise at EY, contributing to the Global Innovation Quantum Technology Lab and leading Global Quantum Security efforts. Before EY, Alexey served as a County Information Security Officer at Deutsche Bank's Moscow Branch.
Alexey is a vocal advocate for best practices and proactive risk management in cyber strategy and quantum security. His thought leadership includes authoring articles, contributing to international reports, producing educational videos, and speaking at industry conferences.
James is Director of ASPI’s Cyber, Technology and Security (CTS) program.
In this role, James leads ASPI’s largest team to develop original, rigorous and data-driven research and policy recommendations to address emerging security challenges. CTS spans cyber and critical infrastructure security, critical and emerging technologies, national resilience and social cohesion, and hybrid threats. This includes disinformation, economic coercion and other ‘grey zone’ activities. CTS works with partners from governments, academia and civil society, and industry spanning the Indo-Pacific and globally.
James is a senior national security practitioner with nearly two decades experience in foreign policy and intelligence. He has provided influential advice to government at the highest levels, driving policy responses to evolving global threats and those impacting Australia’s place in the world. This included serving as Intelligence Liaison Officer to Australia’s Foreign Minister and representing Australia abroad through diplomatic postings to Indonesia and Malaysia, where he worked closely with international partners to further stability and resilience against shared threats. James has also led teams central to Australia’s intelligence policy and coordination effort; international partnerships; protective security; enterprise capability; governance and oversight; and enterprise risk.
His strategic insights and ability to build connections have been instrumental in shaping policies and responses to transnational and emerging security threats. James is well-regarded for bridging intelligence collection and analysis with policy implementation. His vision is grounded in collaboration across public and private sectors along with integration of advanced technologies to bolster national preparedness and response capabilities.
James holds a Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours in International Relations from Monash University. He specialised in terrorism studies.
Detective Superintendent CRAFT has been a member of the New South Wales Police since November, 1994 and
was originally station at Campbelltown in south western Sydney. Matt commenced criminal investigation duties at
Campbelltown in early 1997. In 2003, he was confirmed to the rank of Detective Sergeant attached to the
Professional Standards Command, Covert Investigations Unit.
As a senior investigator attached to PSC, he managed major criminal investigations involving NSWPF employees.
With the exception of 2 years general duties policing, his area of expertise is primarily in criminal investigation.
Moreover, whilst performing criminal investigation duties, he has been involved in a number of critical incidents /
major investigations for the offences of murder, sexual assault, armed robbery, fraud and drug offences.
In 2008 Matt was promoted to the rank of Detective Inspector as the Professional Standards Manager for the Deputy
Commissioner Specialist Operations. As the Professional Standards Manager for Specialist Operations, he reported
to the Deputy Commissioner and provide advice and performed a monitoring function for all criminal and
departmental investigations that involve police officers attached to the Specialist Operations Command.
During 2011 and 2012 he relieved extensively as the Staff Officer to the Deputy Commissioner Specialist Operations
and the Deputy Commissioner Field Operations where he gained corporate exposure on how the senior executive
team of the NSW Police Force functions and goes about achieving its corporate goals. In 2012 Matt took the
opportunity to transferred into the Fraud & Cybercrime Squad and performed the role of investigations co-ordinator
focusing on cyber enabled fraud and identity crime offences.
Finally, in 2018 Matt was promoted into his current role as the Commander, Cybercrime Squad, State Crime
Command. As the Commander of the Cybercrime squad, he is responsible for providing high level corporate advice
on cyber dependant and cyber enabled crime, in the context of organised and serious crime. As the corporate
spokesperson for cybercrime for the NSWPF, Matt sets the organisations strategic direction and develop key
stakeholder relationships with partner law enforcement agencies and external bodies.
Tania Ezra is a dedicated Technology Specialist at Microsoft, based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia. With over 20 years in technology and program management and a passion for innovation within compliance, Tania has made significant contributions to the field of compliance in highly regulated industries and specialises in Essential 8. She holds multiple postgraduate degrees, and numerous professional qualifications. At Microsoft, Tania leverages her expertise to passionately drive technological advancements and support business solutions, particularly focusing on endpoints, security and compliance to solve real business problems. She has been recognized with awards for her work with highly regulated industries including government, banking, healthcare and space.
Tom is a seasoned digital and technology leader with extensive experience in project and line management across digital and Microsoft platforms. With a track record of success in both startup and enterprise environments, he excels in leading teams to deliver complex IT-enabled change projects while effectively engaging stakeholders.
From defending highly sensitive military systems in international war zones to mitigating cyber risk in corporate environments; I've dedicated my career to protecting information and data against the actions of cyber threats, adversaries and malicious actors.
Nivi is a cybersecurity thought leader and Deputy Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at UNSW Sydney. In this role, Nivi collaborates with cross-functional teams to develop and oversee enterprise-wide cybersecurity policies, risk management frameworks, security architecture, and strategic initiatives. Before joining UNSW, Nivi led enterprise security strategy and architecture at Vodafone. Passionate about emerging technologies like cloud security, AI, quantum computing, and edge computing, Nivi advocates for secure adoption and promotes these innovations through thought leadership across platforms and conferences.
Andreas has worked in the cyber industry across Latin America, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Oceania. During this time, he has supported both local and global organisations in preparing for and responding to major cyber incidents spanning a wide variety of threats such as ransomware, sabotage, commercial espionage, data breaches and more. He specialises in Cyber Crisis management and Incident response and has done so exclusively for the past 12 years. His extensive experience in managing and collaborating on cyber incidents across the world has equipped him with deep insights into how these events impact organisations and what common factors between them, lead to a more successful response and organisational resilience.
Tony Vizza has been involved in the information technology, information security, privacy and the law for more than 25 years.
Tony has completed a Bachelor of Science in Computing Science from the University of Technology, Sydney and a Global Executive MBA from the University of Sydney which included study at Stanford University in the United States, The London School of Economics in the UK and the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore in India. Most recently, Tony completed a Juris Doctor law degree at the University of New South Wales.
Tony’s information security credentials include CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional), CCSP (Certified Cloud Security Professional), CIPP/E (Certified Information Privacy Professional / Europe), CRISC (Certified in Risk and Information Systems Controls), CISM (Certified Information Security Manager) and he is a certified ISO/IEC 27001 Senior Lead Auditor. Tony is a Senior Member of the Australian Computer Society (ACS), a Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia and a former member of the Board of Directors for the Australian Information Security Association (AISA).
Tony is an expert speaker on information security, privacy and cyberlaw and a regular contributor to numerous cyber security and IT industry publications. Tony most recently was a partner heading up cyber advisory services at a large advisory firm and has undertaken cyber risk advisory work for ASX50 firms, APRA regulated entities and within the critical infrastructure sector. Today, Tony is the Managing Partner and Founder of Novera, a digital risk management advisory which provides cybersecurity, AI and privacy risk management services. Tony also provides court-appointed expert evidence services in cybersecurity breach legal matters.
Chris Wright is the Chief Executive Officer of AUCyber, leading the company’s strategic vision and overseeing its operations. Prior to joining AUCyber, Chris was the CTO and CISO of ASX-listed technology firm 5G Networks and the founder of Security Shift.
He has held several leadership positions across technology businesses, with expertise in cyber security, IT infrastructure, and product management.
If you're interested in speaking at the event, please contact Jack via email.
