At the start of June, the bright and best of the cybersecurity community walked into the halls of London’s Excel centre for the Infosecurity Europe conference and exhibition.

This year’s event saw a multitude of expert speakers across eight stages, with around 13,000 visitors attending more than 200 talks and meeting around 400 exhibitors.

For headlines, it turned out to be a notable week in London at NHS England reported a ransomware attack against a major partner, so it was notable that talks at Infosec included a keynote stage debate on whether to pay or not, as well as an examination of the ransomware ecosystem.

Conferences such as Infosecurity Europe have always been about learning, and this talk by Bitdefender very much stated that there is a need for practitioners to “relearn” how the ransomware economy works, and what defenders are actually dealing with.

Keynote Learnings

In a similar vein, the keynote panel on the problem of spyware delivered information on how this type of malware can affect businesses. More than just something used on dissidents and protesters, spyware can be used against any person who the operator chooses and also bring that infection into the workplace if they use the same device for corporate application access.

This year’s keynotes saw the content move from a pure cybersecurity concept to wider issues. The third day saw Claire Williams, former team principal of Williams F1, talk about her experiences and lessons learned from running a team facing an uphill challenge against its competitors, and a regulatory model that has to be complied with.

Those who have watched F1 in the past will be familiar with Williams’ successes with Damon Hill and Nigel Mansell, but this is a team with an eye on the future and as demonstrated by the Netflix series ‘Drive to Survive’, the world of F1 is ultra competitive where it's operations are in a highly technical environment. 

Meanwhile, the Hall of Fame inductee for 2024 was CISO Stephen Khan, who used his time on the keynote stage to discuss his years of experience in leading teams, and his top five tips on how to be a great security leader.

Vendor Community

Infosecurity Europe is very much the place to see the vendor community though, and as well as many familiar names, there were spots for emerging and start-up entities, who had opportunity to present themselves to this professional audience.

Among those new exhibitors, Mindgard were named as the winner of the Most Innovative SME award, and it's always so positive to see the advancement of innovation from around the UK, and further afield.

“Infosecurity Europe 2024 was an outstanding success and we were delighted to welcome the brightest minds in information and cybersecurity together for three days of learning, networking and meetings,” Saima Poorghobad, portfolio director at Infosecurity Europe told SC UK.

“There are so many highlights to mention – the analyst events, the new exhibitors joining this year, the exponential growth of Women in Cyber moving to the keynote stage, the world-class line-up of speakers on the keynote stage and all the other theatres showcasing insights and innovations from the across the sector. Our new Tomorrow’s Topic Theatre focussed on Channel Distribution and the high attendance reflected its role within the industry. The wider central throughfare created an open style environment that was really well received and helped visitors navigate the show floor. We look forward to the 2025 edition of Infosecurity Europe which is our 30th edition and set to be our best yet!”

Despite taking itself virtual in the years affected by the pandemic, Infosecurity Europe appears to be well attended, well organised and addressing the key issues that professionals in this industry are dealing with now, and will be dealing with in the future. 

Dan Raywood Senior Editor SC Media UK

Dan Raywood is a seasoned B2B journalist with over 20 years of experience, specializing in cybersecurity for the past 15 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes. Outside work, Dan enjoys supporting Tottenham Hotspur, managing mischievous cats, and sampling craft beers.