Why Cyber Security Demands More in 2025
Chris Fraser
CEO and Founder at Aspire
Chris Fraser opens the summit with a high-level look at the evolving cyber landscape and the priorities shaping strategy in 2025. Drawing on Aspire’s work with organisations across sectors, he’ll set the tone for a day focused on practical insights and strengthening resilience.
Headline Speaker Inside the Mind of a Fraudster: How Human Behaviour Fuels Attacks
Tony Sales
Britain’s Greatest Former Fraudster
One of the few people in the world to have operated on both sides of cyber crime, Tony Sales, once dubbed “Britain’s Greatest Fraudster”, is now a leading authority on social engineering and cyber crime. In this keynote, Tony reveals the psychological tricks used in social engineering attacks. Expect real-world examples and candid insights. Tony brings the human element of cyber risk into focus. Delegates will leave with practical steps to reduce exposure and strengthen awareness across their organisation.
Leading Through Crisis: Executive Lessons in Response and Recovery
Joanne Morgan
IT Service Director at Gateshead Council
Cyber incidents are defining moments for leadership. This session offers a first-hand account of how Gateshead Council managed a serious attack, working across teams to protect core services, maintain public confidence and support employees through a period of uncertainty.
Joanne Morgan, IT Service Director at Gateshead, shares how priorities were clarified, how internal and external communication was handled, and how the experience helped to shape future strategy and organisational culture. The session highlights the structure, focus, and leadership that supported a successful recovery, along with the lessons that continue to influence the council’s approach to risk and resilience. This is a practical, senior-level perspective on responding to a cyber attack in a public sector context, where services must continue, scrutiny is immediate and the response has to hold up to both.
Inside the SOC: Live Hacks and the New Face of Threats
Bob McKay, Cyber and Infosec Director
Dean Wright, Security Engineering Lead
Marc Thomas, Incident Response Lead
The cyber threat landscape is changing in unexpected ways. Join Bob McKay, Cyber and Infosec Director and members of the Aspire SOC team as they share shares insights on the latest attacker tactics and trends. From deepfake scams to advanced intrusion techniques, this session uncovers how modern attacks can play out, what the team is seeing on the ground, and the key lessons learned from defending against them every day.
Lessons Identified: What Happens When The Cyber Dust Settles
Dr Zibby Kwecka, Chief Information Security Officer at Arnold Clark
In this session, Dr Zibby Kwecka, Chief Information Security Officer, shares what the aftermath of an attack and speed of recovery can reveal about an organisations cyber readiness and the effectiveness of its incident response. This will include lessons identified at Arnold Clark during a large-scale cyber incident in 2022, as well as first-hand insights of response and recovery from other enterprises breached by cyber criminals in recent years.
Ransomware Under the Microscope: A Forensic Investigation
Paul Abbott
Consulting Specialist and Former Director of KNP Logistics Group
Back by popular demand, Paul Abbott returns to our stage to reflect on the ransomware attack that led to the collapse of KNP Logistics Group: a 158-year-old organisation that entered administration following a major breach in 2023. In this session, Paul is joined by Bob McKay, Aspire’s Cyber and Infosec Director, to examine the technical side of the incident. Through live “what if” scenarios, the SOC team will demonstrate how the attackers gained access, how containment might have been possible, and how recovery outcomes could have differed. With a combination of lived experience and technical insight, this session offers a rare look at the decisions, vulnerabilities, and lessons that matter most when everything is at stake.
Talking Tech to the Board: Turning Cyber Risk into Business Strategy
Lisa Forte
Global Keynote Speaker and Cyber Security Expert
Cyber security is a board-level issue, but how do you make it land with executives? In this session, you will discover proven strategies for translating technical risk into language that resonates at the exec level. Expect a session that is practical, grounded, and empowering for anyone responsible for securing leadership support.
Headline Speaker Real-World AI in Security: What Works, What Doesn’t (Yet), and Where All This Is Going
Ben Hanson
Senior Security Strategist and Advisor at Microsoft
AI presents a major opportunity for security teams to move beyond traditional reactive models and take a more preventative, proactive approach to protecting their organisations. In this session, Ben Hanson, Senior Security Strategist and Advisor at Microsoft, shares practical insight into what this shift looks like in the real world. He’ll cut through the hype highlighting what works, what doesn’t (yet), and where AI use in security is heading. He will also focus on the critical-but-overlooked human skills that are essential to making the most of AI. Expect honest insights, practical takeaways and ideas to help you get more value from AI, however your security operations are delivered.
