Welcome to the Next IT Security – March Edition, the premier event where cybersecurity leaders and innovators converge to address the most pressing issues in the field. Our agenda is packed with insightful discussions and strategies to tackle the latest challenges and opportunities in cybersecurity.
Strategic Alliances and Partnerships in Cybersecurity: Strengthening Defenses Through Collaboration
Explore how forming strategic alliances and partnerships, such as threat intelligence sharing platforms and managed security services, can significantly enhance your organization’s defense capabilities. Learn how collaboration is crucial for effectively combating sophisticated cyber threats.
Understanding ROI in Cybersecurity: Preventative Investment and Risk Mitigation
Discover the value of investing in cybersecurity through comprehensive training programs and advanced threat detection systems. Understand how preventative measures and risk mitigation contribute to a robust ROI by reducing the risk of costly breaches and ensuring long-term resilience.
Emerging Tech, Emerging Threats: How to Keep Up with Constant Updates and Improvements
Stay ahead of the curve with insights into adopting cutting-edge threat detection tools, automated response systems, and continuous learning platforms. This session will guide you on maintaining a strong cybersecurity posture amidst rapid technological advancements.
Dark Web and Cybercrime: Uncovering the Hidden Realities
Delve into the hidden world of the dark web and its impact on cybercrime. Learn how dark web monitoring services and advanced threat intelligence solutions can provide essential insights and protection against these elusive threats.
Empower Women in Cybersecurity: Bridging the Gender Gap
Address the gender gap in the cybersecurity industry by promoting diversity and empowering women to lead. Explore initiatives and strategies that foster an inclusive environment and leverage diverse perspectives for more effective cybersecurity solutions.
Strengthen Cloud Security in Modern Environments
Focus on safeguarding cloud infrastructures by addressing challenges such as data loss prevention, shared vulnerabilities, and maintaining visibility. Gain practical insights into innovative strategies and solutions for securing your cloud environment and ensuring data integrity.
Next IT Security aims to provide our attendees with cutting-edge insights and actionable strategies to stay ahead in the ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape.
Agenda March 2025
08:00
Registration
08:15
POWER BREAKFAST
Let's open the conference with a power breakfast where you will have the opportunity for the first morning networking with colleagues from different industries and a chance to make new acquaintances and exchange business cards.
09:00
We will open the conference with this neglected topic – Dark Web. It remains a critical enabler of cybercrime, facilitating the trade of stolen data, malware, and illegal services. Therefore CISOs must understand the operational dynamics of the Dark Web, where sophisticated threat actors collaborate and exchange tactics. They even order ransomware attacks using Dark Web forums to distribute ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS).
On the other side there are advanced tools and Threat Intelligence platforms that detect and monitor these hidden activities.
Learn how to integrate these tools into your cybersecurity strategy. Learn how to develop a threat intelligence program that includes Dark Web surveillance, partnership with law enforcement, and real-time threat feeds to enhance your organization’s resilience against these hidden threats.
09:25
Cyber threats are evolving rapidly, necessitating strategic alliances among Nordic organizations to bolster defenses. Many data breaches result in tons of compromised sensitive data sold on the Dark Web.
What can significantly improve detection and response capabilities is – Collaborative defense strategiy, such as sharing threat intelligence and pooling cybersecurity resources. Leveraging regulations like the NIS2 Directive ensures cross-border cooperation and compliance.
Learn how forming alliances with other organizations, cybersecurity vendors, and government entities can provide early warnings and coordinated responses to cyber incidents. You will also find out how to create or join cybersecurity alliances to share intelligence, resources, and best practices to improve collective defense capabilities and compliance with regulations.
Ola Pontén
CISO
SCA
10:00
Cybersecurity is not just a cost center but a strategic investment that can significantly reduce risk exposure and enhance business resilience.
CISOs must evaluate cybersecurity investments in terms of ROI, focusing on preventative measures like EDR, advanced firewalls, and continuous security awareness training.
Find out how to present cybersecurity spending as an insurance mechanism that prevents costly breaches, and secure buy-in from executive leadership. The recovery costs and reputational damage avoided are compelling arguments for prioritizing cybersecurity investments. Highlight your potential savings from preventing breaches. Develop a cybersecurity roadmap that aligns with your organization’s risk tolerance and business goals.
10:20
Coffee break and 1-1 meetings
10:50
As compliance requirements like the NIS2 Directive grow stricter, the importance of strategic collaborations in cybersecurity cannot be overstated.
In this session explore how you can share resources, such as SOCs (Security Operations Centers) through partnerships, to enhance capabilities in threat detection, response, and regulatory compliance. Collaborations leverage collective expertise and resources.
You will be encouraged to engage with industry peers, national CERTs and international cybersecurity agencies to create a unified defense strategy.
11:15
With the increasing frequency and severity of cyber attacks in the Nordics, understanding the ROI of cybersecurity investments is more critical than ever. Successful ransomware attacks demonstrate the financial impact of insufficient cybersecurity measures.
Instead of viewing cybersecurity as a cost, convince your Board it is a strategic investment. Proactive investments in cybersecurity awareness programs, MFA, and endpoint protection can act as both preventative and mitigating measures against extremely costly incidents.
By demonstrating how security investments prevent financial losses and ensure business continuity, you can make a compelling case to the board.
Learn how to develop a business case that showcases the financial benefits of cybersecurity investments, such as reduced downtime, lower incident response costs, enhanced customer trust and ensuring compliance.
Henrik Thomsson
Head of IT Security at Lidl Sverige
Mikael Varverud
CISO
Iptor
11:50
The rise of AI-driven cyber threats, such as Deepfake-based phishing and automated malware, calls for an equally sophisticated defense. Leveraging AI and machine learning (ML) in cybersecurity can help detect anomalies, predict potential threats, and automate responses. Tools which use ML to identify threats autonomously, are becoming essential.
By adopting AI-driven cybersecurity solutions, organizations can enhance threat detection capabilities, reduce false positives, and improve response times. This proactive approach helps mitigate risks from emerging threats that evolve rapidly, such as AI-generated phishing scams.
This session will explore how to integrate AI and ML tools into your cybersecurity stack to strengthen defenses against evolving threats, as well as to ensure regular updates and training to stay ahead of the curve, and establish a dedicated AI task force to focus on advanced threat detection and mitigation.
12:10
Lunch Break
13:15
In an era where cyber threats transcend borders, NATO’s approach to cybersecurity offers valuable insights into how strategic alliances can serve as powerful multipliers of defense capabilities.
Join us for an exclusive session led by a NATO cybersecurity official, who will share their experiences and lessons learned from coordinating cybersecurity efforts among member states.
This session will delve into NATO’s approach, which emphasizes collaborative defense, real-time intelligence sharing, and joint incident response mechanisms to counter sophisticated cyber adversaries.
The discussion will cover:
- NATO’s Cyber Defense practise
- The Role of Collective Cyber Deterrence
- Leveraging Shared Resources and Expertise
Why Attend: In this era of global cyber instability, understanding NATO’s approach to cybersecurity can provide a strategic advantage for organizations in the Nordics. By adopting similar collaborative models, CISOs and IT leaders can enhance their organization’s defense capabilities. This session is a unique opportunity to gain firsthand knowledge from one of the world’s leading cybersecurity coalitions and apply these insights to your own strategic initiatives.
Mario Beccia
Deputy CIO for Cybersecurity
in NATO
13:40
As cloud adoption grows, so do the risks. Not one data breach happened because of cloud misconfigurations, which exposed millions of records.
This session will explore advanced techniques for securing data in cloud environments, mitigating shared infrastructure vulnerabilities, and maintaining comprehensive visibility and control over cloud security.
Advanced cloud security strategies, including micro-segmentation, encrypted storage, and zero-trust network access (ZTNA), are essential to mitigate these risks. CISOs should focus not just on securing SaaS, but also IaaS environments.
Learning from recent breaches you can ensure robust access controls and real-time monitoring. Learn how to conduct a thorough cloud security audit to identify vulnerabilities and gaps.
14:05
Technologies bring new opportunities but also introduce unprecedented vulnerabilities that cybercriminals are quick to exploit. For example, the 2024 attack on Sweden’s IoT-based smart grid, where hackers manipulated energy data to cause localized blackouts, highlights the critical need for securing emerging tech.
This panel will help understand how attackers leverage emerging technologies to create more sophisticated and hard-to-detect threats to new technology and critical infrastructure. The potential for quantum computers to break traditional encryption methods and the vulnerability of 5G networks to new forms of attacks underscore the need for a proactive cybersecurity strategy.
Jörgen Ottoson
CISO&DPO
BITS DATA i Södertälje AB
14:40
Cybersecurity is a collective effort, and strategic alliances are key to staying ahead of adversaries. Building alliances with government bodies, industry peers, and international cybersecurity firms enables faster threat detection, joint response capabilities, and shared intelligence. Platforms like the European Cyber Security Organization (ECSO) facilitate such collaborations.
Strategic alliances are key to strengthening defenses against evolving cyber threats. This session will examine how partnerships help organizations navigate compliance and regulatory landscapes, enhance their defenses, and optimize cybersecurity investments.
15:00
Coffee Break & 1-1 meetings
15:30
Cybersecurity is an investment in risk management, and not an expense. This is the mantra for your Board! Measuring the ROI of cybersecurity involves assessing the cost of breaches avoided, downtime prevented, and brand reputation preserved. Advanced analytics tools can provide insights into potential financial impacts and areas for improvement.
This session will delve into how effective communication of cybersecurity ROI to stakeholders enables better decision-making and prioritization of cybersecurity initiatives.Discover how to develop a detailed ROI report for your cybersecurity strategy; how to use metrics such as reduced incident response times, improved threat detection rates, and lower compliance-related fines to justify further investment.
15:55
Despite the rapid growth of the cybersecurity sector, women remain significantly underrepresented, comprising less than 25% of the global cybersecurity workforce. This gender gap represents not only a diversity issue but also a missed opportunity for bringing diverse perspectives to cybersecurity strategy and problem-solving. A report from (ISC)² highlighted that teams with diverse backgrounds are more innovative and effective in addressing complex cybersecurity challenges.
This quarrel will explore strategies to encourage and support women in leadership roles, address challenges they face, and showcase success stories of female professionals in cybersecurity, inspiring the next generation of leaders.you will see if diverse teams are able to drive better decision-making and foster innovative approaches.
You will find out about diferent approaches to recruit, retain, and advance women in cybersecurity roles within your organization. Should you establish mentorship programs, sponsorship opportunities and leadership training specifically designed to support women. Or should you collaborate with tech communities, and women-focused cybersecurity groups like Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS) to create a pipeline of talent.
Jelena Zelenovic Matone
Founding board member and first president of Women4Cyber & Woman Cyber Force, CISO at
European Investment Bank and Board member of World Economic Forum
16:30
As organizations increasingly rely on cloud services they must tackle issues related to shared responsibility models, misconfigurations, insufficient identity and access management (IAM) and lack of visibility into cloud workloads. Supply chain attacks further illustrated the danger of lateral movement and privilege escalation in hybrid cloud environments, requiring a more sophisticated approach to cloud security.
You must attend this discussion and hear first hand experience on implementing robust cloud security practices, such as Zero Trust Architecture, micro-segmentation, continuous monitoring, and cloud-native security tools. Learn how to conduct a cloud security audit to identify vulnerabilities and potential misconfigurations. How to leverage cloud-native security services provided by cloud vendors to gain deep visibility and control.
Johan Templeman
CISO Teamtailor
Christoffer de la Motte
CISO
MFEXbyEuroclear
17:05
The conference concludes with a forward-looking keynote that explores the dual impact of rapid technological growth on cybersecurity and the need for continuous adaptation, learning, and strategic partnerships to maintain a resilient defense posture.
The rapid pace of technological evolution is transforming the cybersecurity landscape, presenting both unprecedented opportunities and challenges. The integration of 5G, quantum computing, AI, and IoT into business operations brings new vulnerabilities. For CISOs and IT leaders, staying ahead of technological evolution is critical to prevent sophisticated attacks and ensure resilience. Embracing these technological advancements with a proactive cybersecurity strategy can provide significant competitive advantages. Find out about strategic priorities to tackle future cyber threats collaboratively.
Attend this keynote to learn how to develop a long-term cybersecurity roadmap that incorporates emerging technologies and their potential risks. Hear this final thoughts from our expert and get your takeaway to implement and advocate for stronger, more resilient cybersecurity practices in your organization.