Richmond, Surrey, UK; 30 March 2022 – Major General Tom Copinger-Symes CBE, Director of Strategy and Military Digitisation with UK Strategic Command, has been announced as the main opening keynote speaker at Infosecurity Europe, Europe’s most influential information security event. The exhibition and conference will run from Tuesday 21-Thursday 23 June 2022 at ExCeL London, and visitor registration is open here.
In his gripping presentation –Tackling the Uncertain Future of Security Threats – Maj Gen Copinger-Symes willdescribe how UK Defence is meeting the threats and opportunities of the Information Age, in a current environment which is characterised by geopolitical shifts, systemic competition, and rapid technological change. The insights and experiences he shares will help security professionals from all kinds of organisation to adapt to the changing threat landscape and anticipate, prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from risks.
Maj Gen Copinger-Symes spent his early career with The Royal Green Jackets, and in posts at the Permanent Joint Headquarters and Ministry of Defence. For the past decade he has focused on improving how the Army and Defence use their data and information. In 2014 he formed and commanded 1st Intelligence Surveillance & Reconnaissance Brigade, created to integrate the Army’s intelligence collection and exploitation capabilities. As a Major General, he commanded those capabilities, pioneering the response to a new era of great power competition. In 2019 he took up his current post, created to increase the Army’s adoption and exploitation of digital technology.
Nicole Mills, Exhibition Director at Infosecurity Group, says: “It’s a privilege to be able to learn from the officer who’s leading the digital transformation of the UK’s armed forces. Major General Copinger-Symes’s talk will be an absolute must-see, particularly in the current context, where we’re witnessing first-hand the role that information and its security plays in international conflict. He has a unique perspective into the security risks that surface during times of disruption, and the strategies and tactics used to exploit vulnerabilities. Visitors will be able to take these insights back to their organisations to sharpen defences against the threats they face.”
In his talk, Maj Gen Copinger-Symes will explore how the ubiquitous availability of information, coupled with rapid technological development, has changed the character of warfare. As well as the risk of conventional war, threat actors have developed cyber capabilities and misinformation strategies that allow them to attack below the threshold of conflict. Success against today’s Defence challenges requires strategic thinking, interoperability, cultural change and much more rapid capability development and delivery – of both hardware and software.
Maj Gen Copinger-Symes says: “How does a nation cope with increased sophistication of cyber and information warfare, accelerating geopolitical threats and exponential developments in technology? With more and more of our life and work being empowered by, but also reliant on, data and digital technology, threat actors large and small have developed cyber capabilities and misinformation strategies. I am looking forward to speaking at Infosecurity Europe in June, to share how UK Defence is adapting to meet these threats and, where possible, turn them into opportunities. Whilst the future is uncertain, it is our job to plan, to prepare, and to protect our nation, our citizens and our allies from these threats.”
The full Infosecurity Europe 2022 conference programme and keynote agenda are now available on the event website, including the details of a number of lively and fascinating Panel Discussions. One of these, Cybersecurity as a Joint Public-Private Security Imperative (Tuesday 21 June, 12.20-13.00), will further explore the topic of the main opening keynote speech, as well as the overall theme of the conference – Stronger, Together. The panel will bring together international experts, decision makers and thought leaders to discuss cooperation at national and global scale to strengthen long-term strategies.
Panel member Nitin Natarajan, Deputy Director, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), explains: “We’ll be talking about how we protect data in times of constant connection, and the steps that individuals, businesses and governments can take to increase our global resilience against threat actors. At CISA, for example, we recently set up our Joint Cyber Defence Collaborative, where we bring together industry and government to really look behind the curtain and have discussions on how we can plan together for future cyberattacks. We have partners all over the globe that we work with every day to share information about the tactics, techniques and procedures that folks are seeing from adversaries, and share best practices for countering them.”
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About Infosecurity Europe
Infosecurity Europe brings together information security professionals attending from every segment of the industry, as well the leading industry suppliers showcasing their products and services, industry analysts, worldwide press and policy experts. Expert practitioners are lined up to take part in the free-to-attend conference, seminar and workshop programme. Find out more at https://www.infosecurityeurope.com
About RX (Reed Exhibitions)
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About RELX
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