Main Stage
8:00am
Registration & Exhibition
9:30am
Cyber Ireland & NCSC Address
Gordon Smith
MC
Dr. Eoin Byrne
Cluster Manager - Cyber Ireland
9:55am
Keynote: NCSC Address: Cybersecurity State of the Nation Address
Richard Browne
Director - National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)
10:10am
Keynote: Dr. Jayne Goble – KPMG
Dr. Jayne Goble
Global Leader for OT Cyber Security Services, KPMG
10:25am
The Global & Irish Cyber Threat Landscape
Cyber threats continue to evolve in scale, sophistication and impact, creating new challenges for organisations across every sector. This session will examine the global and Irish cyber threat landscape in 2026, exploring trends in incidents, attacks, threat actors, emerging risks and the geopolitical factors shaping cybersecurity. National and international threat experts will discuss what these developments mean for the cybersecurity capabilities, services and solutions organisations need to strengthen resilience and stay ahead of evolving threats.
Moderator: Jacky Fox
Global Secure Digital Core Lead - Accenture
Colm Stapleton
Director of Operations - National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)
Bharat Mistry
Field Chief Technology Officer - TrendAI
11:00am
Coffee Break & Exhibitors
11:30am
It takes a Village: Creating Ireland’s Next Cyber Start-Up
Ireland can strengthen it’s cyber resilience domestically and be a global player in cybersecurity through building our cybersecurity innovation ecosystem. This depends on the collaboration between key actors across start-ups (founders), buyers (private and public sector), investors (capital), and ecosystem enablers. This session will explore the role of these key groups and lessons that can be learned to realise Ireland’s cyber ecosystem potential.
Moderator: Ronan Coleman
Director - Cyber Innovate
Andrea Manning
CISO - Acorn Life
Michael Hayden
Senior Client Advisor - Enterprise Ireland
Matthew Conlon
CEO - Cytidel
Barry Downes
Managing Partner, - Sure Valley Ventures (SVV)
12:10pm
Winning the Cyber Talent Race in the Age of AI
As AI reshapes the cybersecurity landscape, organisations must rethink how they attract, develop and retain talent in a global competition for skills. This session will explore the impact of AI on cybersecurity teams and skills, from automation, orchestration and oversight to the emergence of new roles spanning cybersecurity, AI and risk management. Education and training pathways needed to build a sustainable talent pipeline to maintain Ireland’s competitive advantage in cyber and AI.
Fireside Chat
Moderator: Janet Lavelle
Director of People Ops, Security & Enterprise IE - Ekco
Barry O'Sullivan
Professor - University College Cork (UCC)
12:30pm
Cibearshlándáil (Cybersecurity through Irish)
Large Language Models (LLMs) can understand and translate hundreds of minority and low-resource languages, yet many of their safety mechanisms have been developed and tested primarily using English language data. This session explores how language differences can create challenges for AI safety systems, highlighting cases where harmful intent may be more difficult for models to detect when expressed in less resourced languages. The presentation will examine the implications for multilingual AI governance, trust, and security, with a particular focus on Irish. The session will conclude with an overview of emerging resources and evaluation initiatives, including Ireland’s first AI Language Benchmark Leaderboard for Irish, designed to improve understanding of how AI systems perform across the language ecosystem.
Mary Uí Choileáin
Founder - DeisAI
12:45pm
Quantum Readiness: Preparing for the Post-Quantum Era
Hazel Murray
Chair of Cybersecurity - MTU
1:00pm
Lunch
2:00pm
National Cyber Defence and Digital Services
Gerard Kirrane
CTO - National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)
2:15pm
Cybersecurity in the Boardroom
Cybersecurity has become a board level priority due to its risk to business and EU regulations, requiring board members to understand and oversee cyber risk as part of broader business resilience. This session will take the board’s perspective on how to manage cyber risk, including AI adoption, moving beyond compliance to build lasting resilience, and what the board requires from cybersecurity leaders.
Moderator: Pat Larkin
President - Ekco
Joseph Stephens
Director of Resilience - National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)
Maureen Breslin
Chartered Director (C Dir) & Independent Non-Executive Director
2:40pm
Securing AI: From Shadow AI to Autonomous Agents
AI adoption is accelerating across organisations, often without the visibility, controls or governance needed to manage risk effectively. This session will explore how AI risks are reshaping the cybersecurity landscape, from shadow AI and low code tools to autonomous agents and emerging frontier models. Attendees will gain insight into the growing AI attack surface, how large organisations are approaching AI risk, and where opportunities exist for security solutions.
Moderator: Deirdre Morris
Principal Officer - National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)
John Higginson
Global Lead for Cyber Incident Preparedness - Palo Alto Networks
Paul Brady
VP - Enterprise Security & Resilience - Optum
Barry O'Sullivan
Professor - University College Cork (UCC)
John Hetherton
Security Specialist - OpenAI
3:20pm
Closing Remarks
Dr. Eoin Byrne
Cluster Manager - Cyber Ireland
4:00pm
Conference Close
Cyber Workshops (Maginnes 2)
11:30am
Simplifying Supply Chain Security: Practical Actions for NIS2 Compliance
Presenter: Glenda Deveney
A fast-paced, interactive session that cuts through the complexity of NIS2 influenced supply-chain security. Through live polling, practical scenarios and focused discussion, participants will work through four key areas: Know, Prioritise, Contract and Assure, and leave with clear, practical actions they can apply to supplier and procurement processes.
12:15pm
Building National Cyber Resilience through Cyber Range Technology
Presenter: Dean Brennan
How can cyber ranges help build and test national cyber resilience? This session explores how a national cyber range infrastructure can strengthen our ability to prepare for and respond to cyber threats. A live cyber-attack demonstration will bring these concepts to life, followed by Q&A and open discussion.
2:00pm
Quantum Security for Industry: What Should We Be Doing Today?
Presenters: Dr Anila Mjeda and Hannah McAleese
Quantum computing is often presented either as a distant threat or as a highly technical research topic. For organisations, however, it creates both new cybersecurity risks and new approaches to securing information.
This workshop brings together expertise from RÍNN Quantum, Ireland’s national Research Ireland centre for quantum information science and technology, to explore what the move towards quantum technologies actually means for industry.
We will introduce the core quantum concepts needed to understand the security implications before exploring which cryptosystems are threatened by quantum computers, Harvest-Now-Decrypt-Later attacks, NIST-standardised post-quantum cryptography (PQC), and the role of Quantum Key Distribution (QKD).
Participants will then work through short industry scenarios to consider where PQC, QKD, both or neither may be appropriate, before identifying practical actions organisations can start taking today to understand their exposure and prepare for the transition to quantum-secure systems.
No prior knowledge of quantum computing is required.