CISO Perth 2025: ransomware trends and cybersecurity innovation
CISO Perth 2025, hosted by Corinium Global Intelligence, brought together over 35 cyber leaders to discuss the future of cybersecurity in Australia.
Key topics included ransomware trends, vendor risk management best practices, and incident response innovation.
The Perth cybersecurity community showcased its expertise at the CISO Perth event two months ago, featuring 35 distinguished speakers and panellists.
Under Professor Dan Haagman's thoughtful leadership and organised by Maddie Abe and the Corinium Global Intelligence team, the event brought together industry leaders ,including Caitriona Forde, Gavin Ryan, Faiza Khawar, Mia Araminta, Serena King, and many other respected professionals.
Ransomware reality check
Matt O'Kane delivered the event's standout presentation on ransomware mitigation trends in 2025, bringing energy and practical wisdom through real-world case studies.
His key takeaways, supported by Notion Digital Forensics, provided actionable incident response strategies.
"Clutter is the enemy," O'Kane said.
The fourth principle emphasised ensuring defensible decision-making by prioritising functional, informational, and recovery aspects of incidents.
"Leverage tools that can reduce tool clutter,” he said.
"Use cloud to better secure during an incident."
Rethinking vendor risk management
The event sparked important discussions around third-party cyber risk, questioning whether organisations place unrealistic security expectations on vendors.
A simplified vendor assessment approach emerged using just two key questions.
Does the vendor have security assurance certification such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, or IRAP?
Do they support Single Sign-On?
This streamlined method reportedly addresses 90 per cent of security concerns, raising compelling questions about whether effective identity management with suppliers might be more critical than comprehensive third-party risk management frameworks.
Community collaboration
The event highlighted Perth's collaborative cybersecurity culture, with Team Cloudflare representatives Marc Poor, Adam Boyce, Steve Pollard, and Prayna Prasad contributing valuable perspectives alongside local professionals like Prashant Singh and Miriam Sanchez-Blanco.
Moving forward
CISO Perth demonstrated the strength of regional cybersecurity communities in driving practical solutions through collective wisdom.
The discussions around ransomware preparedness and vendor risk management reflect real-world challenges that professionals face daily.
The success of this event, with its diverse contributors and engaged dialogue, reinforces Perth's position as a vibrant cybersecurity hub committed to collaboration, innovation, and practical security excellence in addressing evolving threats.