Government Cyber Security Showcase New South Wales
Registration, coffee and hellos
8:00 AM - 9:00 AM (60 mins)
Settle in, grab a coffee and meet a few friendly faces before we begin.
Lake Room
Welcome & How to Make the Most of Today
9:00 AM - 9:10 AM (10 mins)
A short welcome, plus a few quick tips to help you connect, share and get real value from the day. We’ll also run a couple of quick polls to see what everyone’s interested in and what people are working on right now.
Lake Room
State Scene Setter: Government Spending, Direction and Priorities
9:20 AM - 9:30 AM (10 mins)
A short briefing from the Chair to get everyone aligned, comfortable, and ready for a great day of ideas and connection.
Lake Room
Beyond the Breach: How CISO and CDAO Cooperation Can Drive Decision Assurance
9:30 AM - 9:50 AM (20 mins)
The next step in government reliability isn't just about protecting data; it’s about increasing trust in the decisions made from it. True "Decision Assurance" happens when security and data leaders stop working in silos and start building a single chain of trust. This session moves beyond simply reacting to security incidents; it offers a roadmap for NSW leaders to ensure that every government action is based on accurate, untampered, and high-quality information.
- The Integrity Chain: Shifting focus from "Is the system secure?" to "Is the decision accurate, unbiased, and untampered with?"
- The Unified Risk Register: Mapping frameworks to pivot executive conversations to mission-critical decision risks.
- The Decision Quarantine: Using CDAO-mapped data lineage to isolate "poisoned" insights and stop corrupted data from reaching AI models or policymakers.
- Logic-Based Detection: Treating shifts in data variance and distribution as high-priority security alerts to catch manipulation that firewalls miss.
- Context-Aware Guardrails: Building a "share-first" ecosystem where integrated metadata allows for high-velocity innovation without sacrificing integrity or governance.
Lake Room
Identity-Driven Cyber Defense for Government: Bringing Identity Intelligence into the SOC
9:50 AM - 10:10 AM (20 mins)
As NSW Government agencies progress the priorities of the NSW Cyber Security Strategy 2026–2028 — including Zero Trust, operational resilience, rapid incident response, and stronger governance — identity security is emerging as the foundation of modern cyber defence.
This plenary session explores how agencies can strengthen security outcomes by gaining greater visibility and control over human, privileged, third-party, and non-human identities, including AI agents and service accounts.
We will examine how identity intelligence helps reduce excessive access, improve threat detection, support least privilege, and provide SOC teams with the critical context needed to respond faster to identity-centric attacks.
Designed for CISOs and senior cyber leaders, the session position's identity security as a strategic capability for reducing cyber risk and strengthening resilience across government environments.
Lake Room
Digital Government Runs on Trust and Cyber Now Decides It
10:10 AM - 10:40 AM (30 mins)
NSW’s digital transformation agenda depends on citizen confidence in government systems. This session explores how cyber resilience has become central to public legitimacy, not just IT performance.
- Cyber resilience as a foundation of digital government
- Public expectations around transparency and accountability
- Rebuilding trust after disruption, not just restoring systems
Lake Room
Beyond the Eight: Cyber Risk in the Age of Frontier AI
10:40 AM - 11:00 AM (20 mins)
The ASD is retiring the Essential Eight in favour of a new risk-based Essentials series. Five Eyes agencies have warned Frontier AI will reshape cyber risk in months, not years. Both shifts expose the same blind spot: our controls were built for human users. Most agencies know how many laptops they own, few know how many AI agents are accessing their systems. Identity governance is becoming AI governance. This session explores what government needs to get ahead of now.
Morning Tea & Mingling
11:00 AM - 11:30 AM (30 mins)
It's time to grab a coffee - connect, recharge and explore our exhibition floor before the track discussions begin!
Lake Room
Welcome from Track Chair
11:30 AM - 11:40 AM (10 mins)
Setting the tone for the priorities and thorniest challenges facing cyber governance, strategy and risk professionals.
Bel Parco Room
Welcome from Track Chair
11:30 AM - 11:40 AM (10 mins)
Setting the tone for the priorities and thorniest challenges facing cyber detection and response professionals.
Lake Room
Westpac’s approach to Cyber
11:40 AM - 12:00 PM (20 mins)
Westpac operates in one of Australia’s most highly targeted and regulated environments, making cyber security a core business function rather than a support capability. This session explores how Westpac is embedding security across operations, using real time intelligence, strong governance and continuous uplift to stay ahead of evolving threats.
- Embedding cyber security across the organisation to support resilience and long term risk management
- Strengthening detection, response and visibility in an increasingly complex threat landscape
- Balancing security, regulation and customer experience while enabling business outcomes
Bel Parco Room
Anticipate. Adapt. Respond: Agentic AI for Managing Cascading Cyber Risk in Connected Government
11:40 AM - 12:10 PM (30 mins)
- Agentic AI is transforming cyber defence from isolated detection and response into continuous reasoning—anticipating vulnerabilities, assessing cascading impacts and supporting coordinated decisions across complex government ecosystems.
- Through CSIRO's ThreatModelling-GPT and TAPE research projects, this keynote demonstrates how AI agents can help security teams move from reactive operations to proactive, resilient cyber defence.
Lake Room
Fostering Secure AI Innovation While Ensuring Responsible Governance
12:00 PM - 12:20 PM (20 mins)
For many agencies, it is not the ideas or intent that hold projects back, it is the process.
Forward-thinking agencies are moving from reactive administration to proactive strategy, putting systems in place that make good governance second nature.
- How do you maximise AI opportunities in a world of compliance and regulation.
- How do you build governance mechanisms into the AI development process from the start.
- How do you build trust with stakeholders about AI development alongside regulatory process.
Bel Parco Room
Detecting and Responding to AI-Driven Data Risk
12:10 PM - 12:30 PM (20 mins)
AI is transforming how government agencies deliver services and support decision-making, but it also introduces new security and data protection risks.
From unsanctioned AI tools to risky prompts and sensitive data sharing, traditional controls may not provide the visibility needed to detect emerging threats.
This session explores how agencies can strengthen detection and response capabilities for AI-related risks, helping protect citizen data, reduce exposure, and enable responsible AI adoption with greater confidence.
Lake Room
Cyber Leadership for a Digital State
12:20 PM - 12:50 PM (30 mins)
Cyber resilience now demands executive ownership, not just technical expertise. This session explores how NSW is strengthening leadership capability to govern cyber risk alongside service delivery, reform and innovation.
- Elevating cyber to executive decision-making
- Aligning cyber with digital, risk and reform agendas
- Building leadership confidence under scrutiny
Bel Parco Room
Cyber After the Breach - What NSW Learned the Hard Way
12:30 PM - 1:10 PM (40 mins)
Recent incidents across NSW result in valuable lessons for other agencies. This session examines how real-world breaches are reshaping policy, investment and operational priorities across the state.
- What NSW incidents reveal about systemic vulnerabilities
- How agencies are strengthening preparedness post-breach
- Translating lessons learned into structural reform
Lake Room
From Defence to Resilience: Rethinking Cyber Strategy for the AI Era
12:50 PM - 1:10 PM (20 mins)
AI is rapidly reshaping the threat landscape, yet many government security strategies have not evolved to keep pace. This session explores why traditional approaches are falling short for NSW agencies, and what a modern, fit-for-purpose strategy looks like.
- Understand why your current strategy may already be outdated and the key assumptions AI has fundamentally changed
- Learn four critical strategic shifts to move from reactive defence to continuous, resilience-led security
- Discover how to position security as an enabler for safe AI adoption and improved mission outcomes
Attendees will leave with a clear, practical framework to modernise their security posture and confidently respond to emerging AI-driven risks.
Lake Room
Risk Made Real: Turning Everyday Staff into Cyber Defenders
1:10 PM - 1:30 PM (20 mins)
Cyber risk only becomes meaningful when people understand how it affects them, their colleagues and the communities they serve. This session explores practical, evidence-based approaches to making cyber threats relatable for non-technical staff and embedding awareness into everyday behaviours across large NSW Government workforces.
- Using real-world incidents and human-centred storytelling to translate abstract cyber threats into practical lessons.
- Designing awareness programs that drive measurable behaviour change rather than compliance completion rates.
- Sustaining engagement through ongoing reinforcement, leadership modelling and integrating cyber into daily workflows.
Bel Parco Room
Scaling national cyber resilience in Horizon 2 of the Australian Cyber Security Strategy
1:10 PM - 1:30 PM (20 mins)
This information session outlines how Horizon 2 of the Australian Cyber Security Strategy is scaling national cyber resilience, with a focus on operational performance, a whole-of-economy approach, and targeted, high-impact action.
- Outlines how Horizon 2 is shifting from foundational uplift to real-time operational resilience across government, industry and citizens.
- Emphasises a whole-of-economy approach, strengthening collaboration across critical infrastructure, businesses and supply chains to deliver coordinated national response.
- Highlights targeted, high-impact actions to build the human firewall, protect critical systems, and embed secure-by-design technology to reduce cyber risk at scale.
Lunch: Wander, Discover, Connect
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM (60 mins)
Grab lunch, have a wander, and chat with industry partners and peers about practical ideas you can take back to work. Arguably the most important part of the day!
Lake Room
Roundtable 1: Safe adoption and protecting against AI threats in Government - Presented by Salttech
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM (60 mins)
The public sector faces both opportunity and risk with generative AI. This session explores how to set guardrails, audit AI models, and align with Australia’s emerging critical infrastructure legislation.
Lake Room
Roundtable 2: Proving Security Works: Executive Metrics That Stand Up to Audit
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM (60 mins)
Lake Room
Roundtable 3: Cloud Security Without Compromise - Presented by Wiz
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM (60 mins)
Meeting Compliance and Agility Goals: Government is under pressure to innovate quickly while maintaining strict compliance. This session demonstrates how cloud security can enable speed and resilience without creating policy or compliance gaps.
Lake Room
Roundtable 4: Balancing Data Access and AI Security - Presented by Proofpoint
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM (60 mins)
How organisations enable AI experimentation without compromising sensitive data.
Lake Room
Roundtable 5: AI vs. AI: Defending Government Systems Against Machine-Driven Attacks
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM (60 mins)
With adversaries weaponising AI, agencies must evolve their defences. This session examines how AI/ML can detect, predict, and counter novel threats faster than human-only teams.
Lake Room
Roundtable 6: Critical Systems Under Pressure – OT Resilience in a Time of Change
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM (60 mins)
As government becomes more reliant on interconnected OT systems, attackers are leveraging new tools and techniques to automate and scale attacks.
This session examines key OT challenges and how organisations can protect critical infrastructure while maintaining operational continuity against ever evolving regulatory frameworks.
Lake Room
Roundtable 7: Identity-Driven Cyber Defense for Government: Bringing Identity Intelligence into the SOC
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM (60 mins)
As NSW Government agencies progress the NSW Cyber Security Strategy 2026–2028, identity is becoming a critical component of cyber defence. With attacks increasingly targeting identities, agencies need greater visibility and control across workforce, privileged, third-party, and non-human identities.
This roundtable brings together government cyber leaders to discuss how identity intelligence can strengthen SOC operations, improve threat detection, reduce excessive access, and support faster incident response.
Discussion topics include:
- Identity visibility across government environments
- Managing privileged, third-party, and non-human identities
- Reducing identity-related risk through least privilege
- Bringing identity context into SOC workflows
- Supporting Zero Trust and cyber resilience initiatives
- Preparing for AI-driven identities and emerging threats
This session will provide an opportunity for peer discussion and practical insights on using identity security to strengthen cyber resilience across government.
Lake Room
Roundtable 8: The Essential 8 in the Age of AI: Governing Non-Human & Machine Identities
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM (60 mins)
While the Essential 8 remains the gold standard for cyber hygiene, its implementation faces a new, non-human challenge. In 2026, the rise of "Agentic AI" and the explosion of machine identities have created a landscape where the most privileged "users" in your agency are no longer people—they are service accounts, APIs, and autonomous bots. This roundtable will dive into the practical friction of reaching Maturity Levels 2 and 3 when your administrative surface is increasingly automated.
Lake Room
Roundtable 9: Cyber resilience in the age of AI: Turning risk into strategic advantage - Presented by Censys
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM (60 mins)
Lake Room
Roundtable 10: Intelligence-Led and Coordinated Cyber Response: Turning Objective 2 into Operational Reality, Presented by Filigran
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM (60 mins)
- The intelligence gap: The Strategy calls for coordinated, intelligence response and a shift to tri-annual threat assessments. How many agencies are actually consuming and acting on threat intelligence in a way that changes what they do day-to-day?
- The sharing problem: Cross-agency intelligence sharing is named in the Strategy, but what's blocking it? Trust, classification, resourcing, tooling or all the above?
- The starting point question: If you had to take one concrete step toward coordinated intelligence response in the next 90 days, what would it be and what would get in the way?
Lake Room
Can Government Move Fast and Still Be Trusted?
3:30 PM - 4:00 PM (30 mins)
NSW is being pushed to adopt AI, automate services and modernise at speed while remaining trusted and accountable. This panel explores how government leaders are balancing urgency with security and assurance.
- Speed vs safety in digital and AI adoption
- Where trust is most at risk as systems accelerate
- What ‘responsible pace’ looks like in practice
Lake Room
Closing Remarks: What We’re Taking with Us
4:00 PM - 4:10 PM (10 mins)
We’ll pull out a few highlights from the day, share what’s coming next, and point you to ways to stay connected.
Networking Reception: Stay for a Chat
4:10 PM - 5:10 PM (60 mins)
Wrap up the day with good conversation and a few new connections. Thanks for making GIW your one-stop shop for benchmarking, industry updates, and great conversations.
