| DATE: | January 9th, 2026 |
| TIME: | 2:00pm to 4:00pm (PST) |
| VENUE: | Hybrid Zoom Online meeting (link pending) & In-Person at Sophos Inc. (Map) |
| TOPIC: | Cybersecurity for the year ahead: The threat as I see it |
| PRESENTERS: | Chester Wisniewski (Presenting in person) |
| RECORDING: | |
ABSTRACT
Those who learn lessons from the past are better prepared for the future. Well, that’s the way I see it anyhow. In this presentation I will take us on a journey through time and cyberspace using data as our sextant. We will start our journey discussing a few high-profile InfoSec stories recently in the news to observe headline making trends, we’ll then explore the current crop of threat actors undermining our security foundations and we will wrap-up with a discussion on the most impactful risk reducing activities leaders and practitioners can take to lower their chances of being victimized.
BIOGRAPHY
Chester Wisniewski is Director, Global Field CISO at next-generation security leader Sophos. With more than 25 years of security experience, his interest in security and privacy first peaked while learning to hack from bulletin board text files in the 1980s, and has since been a lifelong pursuit.
Chester works with Sophos X-Ops researchers around the world to understand the latest trends, research and criminal behaviors. This perspective helps advance the industry’s understanding of evolving threats, attacker behaviors and effective security defenses. Having worked in product management and sales engineering roles earlier in his career, this knowledge enables him to help organizations design enterprise-scale defense strategies and consult on security planning with some of the largest global brands.
Based in Vancouver, Chester regularly speaks at industry events, including RSA Conference, Virus Bulletin, Security BSides (Vancouver, London, Wales, Perth, Austin, Detroit, Los Angeles, Boston, and Calgary) and others. He’s widely recognized as one of the industry’s top security researchers and is regularly consulted by the press, appearing on BBC News, ABC, NBC, Bloomberg, Washington Post, CBC, NPR, and more.
When not busy fighting cybercrime, Chester spends his free time cooking, cycling, and mentoring new entrants to the security field through his volunteer work with InfoSec BC. Chester is also available on LinkedIn and Mastodon.