Infosec 2017: What To Expect

It’s that time of year again when the cyber security industry descends on Olympia, London for the 22nd annual Infosecurity Europe 2017, one of Europe’s biggest security conferences.

The three-day event is packed full of keynote talks, technology showcases and training workshops led by some of the industry’s most high-profile figures.

Last year’s InfoSec attracted 363 exhibiting companies, along with nearly 18,000 information security professionals – a 15 percent increase from the previous year – representing industries ranging from finance and insurance to education, manufacturing and healthcare.

And this year’s event is expected to be bigger than ever. To say it has been an interesting 12 months since last year’s conference would certainly be an understatement so, with recent developments in mind, here are a few things to expect from InfoSecurity 2017.

Top Speakers

One of the first things everyone looks for at this type of event is, of course, the speaker line-up.

Kicking off the keynote sessions on day one is none other than Dame Stella Rimington, former director general for UK intelligence agency MI5, who will be discussing her career in the security service and her work in counter-subversion, counter-espionage and counter-terrorism.

Other notable speakers include: Microsoft CISO Bret Arsenault; Rik Ferguson, Special Advisor for Europol EC3; Sebastian Coe, president of the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) and an as-yet-unnamed ‘senior speaker’ from the National Cyber Security Centre
(NCSC).

There will also be a session with notable journalist and broadcaster Jeremy Paxman and the likes of John Lewis, Skyscanner, Marks & Spencer and BT Security will be represented to provide a wide-ranging perspective of the security challenges facing today’s businesses.

WannaCry

Undoubtedly one of the biggest security stories of this year has been the WannaCry ransomware attack, which tore through the NHS in the UK before rapidly spreading around the world and affecting all manner of organisations.

It is believed to have infected more than 300,000 computers in 150 countries and a decryption tool has since been released to help those that have been affected, but the attack left many organisations reeling.

Ransomware was already a hot topic and has been for some time, but the recent WannaCry episode will almost certainly see it being cited heavily across the various talks and sessions as an example of what can go wrong if security is overlooked.

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GDPR and data protection

With less than a year to go until its introduction, expect GDPR (global data protection regulations) to be an extremely prominent topic during the conference.

It replaces the previous Data Protection Directive and has been designed to remove fragmentation around data privacy laws across Europe, as well as give citizens new powers to control their personal information.

In the UK specifically the legislation is essentially an upgrade to the 1998 Data Protection Act (DPA). Several of the underlying principles are the same, but there are also some key policy changes that will dramatically impact how organisations approach data privacy.

There are also much bigger fines for companies that don’t comply, so expect vendors to talk about this a lot.

Silicon UK

Allow us to indulge ourselves. Silicon UK will be at the event all week, covering all the major events, speaking to the biggest names in the world of cybersecurity. Be sure to check us out for all the latest news, analysis and interviews.

We’ll be at stand A50 if you want to come and say hello, enter our competition to win a Google Home, and pick up a copy of the Silicon Voice magazine.

Do you know all about security in 2017? Try our quiz!