Speakers

James Babbage is the Director General for Threats in the National Crime Agency and in that role is responsible for work with law enforcement partners, industry regulators and others to reduce serious and organised crime. A long-term employee of GCHQ, he previously established and led the National Cyber Force, publishing Responsible Cyber Power in Practice towards the end of his tenure.

Ian Beer is currently the Tech Lead for Google’s Exploitation and Offensive Research group covering Project Zero and AI-Powered Code Security. He has 18 years of experience spanning the offensive and defensive cybersecurity spectrum from applied vulnerability research and exploit development through reverse engineering and digital rights advocacy.

Eugenio Benincasa is a Senior Cyberdefense Researcher at the Center for Security Studies (CSS) at ETH Zurich. Prior to joining CSS, Eugenio worked as a Threat Analyst at the Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministers in Rome and as a Research Fellow at the think tank Pacific Forum in Honolulu, where he focused on cybersecurity issues. He also worked as a Crime Analyst at the New York City Police Department (NYPD).

Dr. Melissa K. Griffith is a Lecturer in Technology and National Security at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) as well as affiliated faculty with the Alperovitch Institute and a senior advisor to the Emerging Technologies Initiative. She works at the intersection between technology, national security, and economic statecraft with a specialization in cybersecurity, semiconductors, and artificial intelligence. Prior to joining SAIS, she was the Director of Emerging Technology & National Security and a Senior Program Associate at the Wilson Center’s Science and Technology Innovation Program (STIP) as well as a Pre-Doctoral Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC); a Visiting Research Fellow at the Research Institute on the Finnish Economy (ETLA) in Helsinki, Finland; and a Visiting Researcher at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in Brussels, Belgium. Griffith holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Juan Andrés Guerrero-Saade (better known as ‘JAGS’) is Executive Director for Intelligence and Security Research at SentinelOne and Distinguished Resident Fellow for Threat Intelligence and Adj. Professor at the Johns Hopkins SAIS Alperovitch Institute for Cybersecurity Studies. Before leading SentinelLabs, Juan Andrés was Google Chronicle’s Research Tsar, co-founder of Stairwell, and a Principal Security Researcher at GReAT focusing on targeted attacks. He worked as Senior Cybersecurity and National Security Advisor to the Government of Ecuador. His joint work on Moonlight Maze is now featured in the International Spy Museum’s permanent exhibit in Washington, DC. JAGS is the Founder of LABScon and co-hosts the Three Buddy Problem podcast with Ryan Naraine and Costin Raiu.

Sophie in ‘t Veld served as member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2024. She is staunchly pro-European and a leading voice on democracy, rule of law and fundamental rights. She was the rapporteur of the landmark European Parliament inquiry (“PEGA committee”) into the abuse of spyware. She was a member of the European liberal democrat group (ALDE/Renew), and its Deputy Leader (2014-2019), leading the Renew team in the EP LIBE committee. From 2018 onwards she chaired the European Parliament Democracy, Rule of Law, and Fundamental Rights Monitoring Group, and was the architect of the annual Rule of Law Report. 

Selena Larson is a staff threat researcher at Proofpoint on the Threat Research team. She collaborates with fellow researchers to identify and investigate advanced threats and develop actionable threat intelligence. She specializes in investigating cybercrime, ranging from initial access brokers leading to ransomware to million-dollar fraud. Selena is also the co-host of two podcasts, ‘Only Malware in the Building’ and ‘DISCARDED’, featuring unique research and insights from individuals in the infosec industry. Previously, she was a cyber threat analyst for the industrial cybersecurity firm Dragos, and a cybersecurity and privacy journalist.

Ciaran Martin is Professor of Practice in the Management of Public Organisations at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. He had a 23-year career in the UK civil service prior to joining the School, including as founding Chief Executive of the National Cyber Security Centre, Constitution Director in the Cabinet Office (2011–2014), Director of Security and Intelligence at the Cabinet Office (2008–2011), and Principal Private Secretary to the Head of the Civil Service (2002–2008).

Katie Moussouris is the founder and CEO of Luta Security, a company that creates and manages sustainable bug bounty and vulnerability disclosure programs. Ms. Moussouris is the co-author and co-editor of ISO standards 29147 Vulnerability disclosure and ISO 30111 Vulnerability handling processes. During her tenure with Microsoft, Ms. Moussouris started Microsoft Vulnerability Research as well as Microsoft’s first bug bounty program. She served as a technical advisor to the US Wassenaar delegation to help renegotiate clarifications to export control of intrusion software and technology. Ms. Moussouris led the launch of the U.S. government’s first bug bounty program, “Hack the Pentagon.” She served as an inaugural member of DHS’s Cyber Safety Review Board and continues to serve on the U.S. Commerce Department’s Information Systems Technical Advisory Committee and NIST’s Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board.

Costin Raiu is a cyber paleontologist and researcher specializing in analyzing advanced persistent threats and high-level malware attacks. He is a founder at “Art of Noh”, a visionary think-tank dedicated to the advancement of cybersecurity and founder at “TLPBLACK”, a boutique cybersecurity consulting and intelligence company. Before this, he led GReAT, the team that researched the inner workings of Stuxnet, Flame, Duqu, Turla, Lazarus or Moonlight Maze.

Costin has over 30 years of experience in ITSec, having written his first antivirus when was 16. He is a member of the Virus Bulletin Technical Advisory Board, a member of the Computer AntiVirus Researchers’ Organization (CARO) and a founding member of the MUTE Group.

Ben Read is the Director of Strategic Threat Intelligence at Wiz.io and an Adjunct Lecturer at the Alperovich Institute at Johns Hopkins’ SAIS. He previously spend 8 years as the Head of Cyber Espionage Collection and Analysis at Mandiant Intelligence. While there he ran the team responsible for tracking and reporting on state backed hackers from China, Russia, North Korea, Iran and many other countries. He was an analyst on the same team at iSIGHT Partners before it was acquired by FireEye in January 2016. Prior to iSIGHT, Mr. Read worked as a special assistant at the National Security Council’s European Affairs Directorate. 

Mr. Read holds a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, where he specialized in International Security Policy, and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and German Studies from Amherst College.

Lena Riecke is a PhD candidate at Leiden University’s Institute of Security and Global Affairs in The Hague. Her research focuses on approaches and challenges to governing commercial spyware, specifically its proliferation, use, and design. She holds a BA in Law from the University of Cambridge and an LLM in Public International Law from Leiden University. Previous publications includeUnmasking the Term ‘Dual Use’ in EU Spyware Export Control. Lena has also researched the protection afforded to civilian data under the law of armed conflict and approaches to regulating autonomous weapons systems. She gained insights into European policy-making as a Europaeum Scholar 2022-23 and was a Virtual Routes European Cybersecurity Fellow 2023-24.

Adam Segal is the Ira A. Lipman chair in emerging technologies and national security and director of the Digital and Cyberspace Policy program at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). From April 2023 to June 2024, Segal was a senior advisor in the State Department’s Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, where he led the development of the United States International Cyberspace and Digital Policy. His book The Hacked World Order: How Nations Fight, Trade, Maneuver, and Manipulate in the Digital Age (PublicAffairs, 2016) describes the increasingly contentious geopolitics of cyberspace. His work has appeared in the Financial Times, the New York Times, Foreign Policy, the Wall Street Journal, and Foreign Affairs, among others.

Dr. Michael Sulmeyer has served in many senior cyber policy roles in US military and national security structures. Most recently, he was the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy and the Principal Cyber Advisor to the Secretary of Defense, responsible for overseeing the Department of Defense’s cyber policies and operations. Outside of government, Dr. Sulmeyer was the Director of the Cybersecurity Project at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, with positions at the University of Texas School of Law and Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology. Dr. Sulmeyer was a Contributing Editor to the national security blog Lawfare and in the mid-1990s, he was the System Operator (SysOp) of The Summit BBS in Santa Barbara, California.

Max van der Horst is an Operations Lead at the CSIRT of the Dutch Institute for Vulnerability Disclosure (DIVD), a PhD candidate at Delft University of Technology, and a Virtual Routes European Cybersecurity Fellowship alumnus. His research explores the societal impact of vulnerability disclosure as an anti-abuse strategy. His work bridges ethical theory and large-scale operational practice, focusing on how unsolicited interventions can contribute to public-interest cybersecurity. Through DIVD, he has contributed to more than a million vulnerability notifications worldwide, helping reduce systemic digital risks across the internet. His work aims to inform policy, support practical decision-making, and help shape the ethical boundaries of public-interest cybersecurity.

Ollie Whitehouse is the Chief Technology Officer of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre. He aims both to maintain the NCSC’s role as the National Technical Authority for cyber security and provide influence in tackling the challenges of tomorrow. His career spans over 27 years in applied cyber-attack and defence, in addition to his role as a science advisor to wider government. Prior to joining the NCSC, Ollie held a portfolio of non-executive directorships and investment advisory positions in relation to British cyber interests. His operational tenures include over ten and half years at NCC Group as CTO, and at BlackBerry and Symantec. Ollie has given oral evidence to the UK Parliament Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy twice in 2017 and 2022 on matters related to cyber security.