Public Sector Cyber Security Northern Ireland 2025

Holyrood Connect’s annual Public Sector Cyber Security Northern Ireland conference will return to Belfast on 26 February 2025.

With cyber security risks on the rise, this event is aimed at anyone working within the public or third sector in Northern Ireland.

Through keynote addresses, panel discussions, and interactive masterclasses, you will gain insight into:

  • How to improve your organisation’s cyber resilience and recognise threats
  • The opportunities and challenges associated with Artificial Intelligence
  • What are insider threats and how to prevent those – How to create and implement an effective incident response plan
  • The latest developments in tackling cybercrime.

Public Sector Cyber Security Northern Ireland 2025 will also feature an exhibition, providing an opportunity for you to explore relevant solutions for your organisation.

Holyrood Connect

Holyrood Connect publishes leading Public Sector ICT news in Scotland and hosts renowned Public Sector Tech events and conferences. You can view all Holyrood Connect’s upcoming events here.


This event is free to attend for those working in the public and third sectors. Limited spaces are available for private sector attendees. If you wish to be added to the waiting list, please email eventsadmin@holyrood.com and we will notify you if a place becomes available.

 

Event Details

Cyber risks are greater than ever, highlighting the importance of implementing security into digital public services. Our speakers will delve into the importance of cyber-resilience and update on the progress made across the public and third sectors.

Let's go beyond the buzzwords: join this session to hear concrete examples of how to transform your SOC to a truly automation-first approach using proven technical capabilities. This session will walk through the capabilities needed to realize the dream of the autonomous SOC, the difference a unified platform makes and where AI fits into the picture. It's about more than technology, it's about rethinking the SOC operating model and ultimately using technology to augment the most important part of your SOC: your people.

Public sector organizations face increasingly complex cloud security challenges—grappling with limited visibility, navigating intricate compliance requirements, and defending against ever-evolving cyber threats in dynamic environments. Compounding these challenges, public sector teams often operate with limited resources and small security teams, making it difficult to upskill on complex, ever-changing cloud architectures. While outsourcing delivery is common, it doesn’t eliminate risk. So how do we ensure our nation’s data remains secure across public and private clouds while simplifying visibility, managing compliance and risk, all without requiring extensive spending? This session explores how FortiCNAPP’s AI-driven platform provides continuous threat detection, anomaly-based insights, and automated compliance monitoring. Attendees will learn how to leverage FortiCNAPP for proactive risk management, enhanced visibility across multi-cloud environments, and streamlined audits. Through real-world case studies, we’ll showcase how public sector agencies strengthen security posture while accelerating cloud adoption—through our unified platform that enables consolidation and cost savings. Join us to explore modern, scalable cloud security solutions.

Laura Gillespie, Pinsent Masons, will share some statistics and practical tips taken from cases handled over the last year. Laura is a UK cyber partner, supporting clients across all sectors, with cyber readiness and incident response. She has handled invoice fraud and business email compromise through to ransomware affecting multiple jurisdictions. She will share practical advice on how you can avoid potential pitfalls.

Artificial Intelligence can provide invaluable tools to help organisations improve their cyber security. However, it does also enable cybercriminals to carry out more successful attacks, making organisations increasingly vulnerable. Panellists will discuss the opportunities and threats of artificial intelligence.

While organisations have security measures such as firewalls in place to protect from outside attacks, threats can also originate from within. Our panellists will discuss how to raise awareness of the various types of insider threats, what some of the preventative measures are, and how to respond.

Many public sector organisations lack resources to tackle evolving cyber threats, according to exclusive polling by Holyrood magazine. Learn how to address skills gaps and create an effective incident response plan to help your organisation deal with ransomware attacks, data breaches and other cyber threats.

Hear about the latest developments in tackling cybercrime and the importance of cooperation to protect our people and economy.

Dr Melanie Ware
Business Development Manager in Cyber at CSIT
Queen's University Belfast
Maria Garcia Bueno
Regional Sales Manager, Cloud Security
Fortinet
Adam D’Arcy
Senior Lead Engineer
Workday & Technological University Dublin
Nana-Ampofo Ampofo-Anti
Senior Consulting Engineer
Palo Alto Networks
Laura Gillespie
Partner
Pinsent Masons
Mary Traynor
Principal Lawyer Cybersecurity
Information Commissioner’s Office
Mary-Ellen Nutt
Head of IT
Northern Ireland Assembly
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John Loughlin
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Michael Mullen
Detective Superintendent Cyber Crime
An Garda Siochana
Ben Harrison
Director / Founder
NI Cyber Security Cluster / Loquerion Security
Paul Gribben
Head of Digital Services
Belfast City Council
Dr. Raul Villamarin Rodriguez
Vice President
Woxsen University
Louise O’Hagan
Co-founder
Cyber Awareness Ireland
Sam Trendall
Editor
PublicTechnology
Simon Whittaker
Chair / CEO
NI Cyber Security Cluster / Vertical Structure
Jude McCorry Headshot
Jude McCorry
Chief Executive Officer
Cyber and Fraud Centre - Scotland
Kash Valji
VP of Fabric Technology (EMEA/APAC)
Fortinet
Sam Kinkaid
PSNI Regional Cyber Protect Officer
Police Service of Northern Ireland
Joe Dolan
Head of NIS Competent Authority Compliance and Enforcement
Department of Finance

For speaking enquiries, please contact: diana.taseva@holyrood.com

For sponsorship and partnership enquiries, please contact: steven.perrie-clyde@holyrood.com

For all other enquiries, please contact: eventsadmin@holyrood.com

Event Details
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