Fergus Hay

Join us as we explore the unconventional learning styles and motivations of digital natives who view system limits as a creative substrate to be bent rather than broken. This session delves into how peer validation and community clout often carry more weight for this cohort than formal credentials. Speaking alongside Fergus, hear from a former ‘The Com’ cybercriminal, Conor Freeman, who has now turned his life around, taking on red-teaming from the unique perspective of being a black-hat hacker.

While the Cybersecurity industry fights a software war on historical data sets, in this talk we explore the latest findings from our Modern Cyberwarfare R&D centres showing the power of human ingenuity as the “Golden Chain” source of modern attack threats, and how mathematical AI models are at their most powerful when they enable replication of modern attack threats at scale.

The Cyber and Defence Industry have invested billions of dollars on defences against historical attack threats. However the modern attack threat is not a middle aged cyber professional, but instead is a neuro diverse gamer hacker Teen Ager. In this talk we expose the techniques used by this generation to bring Billions of Dollars of damage to Jaguar LandRover, Marks & Spencers, MGM Grand Casino, Uber and Transport for London in the last 18 months.

In this keynote address the shortcomings of the Government in investing in National Resilience, and outline a plan for mobilising public sentiment and private capital to fill the defence spending deficit left by Western governments. Drawing on the insights, strategies and initiatives from The Resilience imperative, this is a powerful vision of building national resilience before the sun sets on our self-determination.

Focuses on surprising gamers with the realisation that their instinctive skills in pattern recognition and systems thinking are exactly what’s needed for a lucrative, purposeful career. It emphasises the use of mass media and entertainment to make ethical hacking “cool” and culturally relevant.

Modern organisations must move beyond rigid, policy-driven protocols to attract top talent who prioritise autonomy and tangible impact. It highlights that a culture embracing neurodiversity and flat hierarchies is essential for retaining unconventional minds who solve “messy” problems.

Cognitive agility and systems-thinking of gamers are critical for modern warfare, where the front lines are
increasingly digital. It explores how the military can secure national sovereignty by recruiting these
“digital natives” to defend critical infrastructure against cyber threats.