October didn’t just mark the start of Cybersecurity Awareness Month—it also marked my first real step into the world of cybersecurity events.
After a short (but strategic) Google search, I came across the International Cyber Expo. Those two days felt like a live-action extension of my French & Politics degree—where diplomacy, global power, and digital defense collided.
The underlying theme across the sessions was clear: East vs. West—geopolitical forces shaping cybersecurity’s future.
Speaker: Prof. Salma Abbasi, CEO of eWorldwide Group
Prof. Abbasi explored the unseen AI forces transforming governance, infrastructure, and national strategy. She unpacked how nations racing to become AI superpowers are walking a fine line between innovation and instability.
Some of the key risks she highlighted included:
The biggest takeaway? We’re increasingly dependent on AI systems we don’t yet fully understand creating invisible vulnerabilities that could scale cyberattacks far beyond human reach.
This session, featuring Elizabeth Huthman (Cyber Director at KPMG) and other professionals, was especially encouraging. Most of the panelists didn’t start in cybersecurity, some came from real estate, others from FMCG or creative industries.
As someone transitioning careers myself, hearing their stories was incredibly motivating. It was a powerful reminder that cybersecurity isn’t just for technical individuals, but it’s a field enriched by diverse skills, backgrounds, and perspectives.
This was the session that made me fall in love with Assurance but also with the facilitator, Susanne Bitter, whose depth of cybersecurity experience instantly made her a role model (manifesting future mentorship here ✨).
The discussion focused on third-party risk and how cyber incidents can ripple across supply chains: a topic that feels especially urgent in the SaaS world. The timing was uncanny given Salesforce’s Drift incident, which perfectly illustrated the real-world stakes of vendor security.