BSides Bristol 2024

Sarah Armstrong-Smith

Operating at the forefront of the cybersecurity industry, Sarah Armstrong-Smith is the Chief Security Advisor at Microsoft. She has led a long and impactful career, helping businesses evolve their security strategy and capabilities to support digital transformation and cloud adoption. Working with Microsoft’s largest enterprise customers and partners across Europe, Sarah offers valuable advice on the complex and dynamic world of cybersecurity to protect people and data, ensuring stronger defences against attackers, to deliver effective resilience.

Sarah is a Fellow of the British Computer Society and has been recognised as one of the most influential and inspiring people in UK Tech, regularly contributing to thought leadership and industry publications. In 2022, Sarah published her first book ‘Effective Crisis Management’ which explores the traits and leadership skills required to succeed in the face of adversity and uncertainty. Her second book, is Amazon best seller ‘Understand the Cyber Attacker Mindset’, which explores the psychology of cyber warfare and how organizations can defend themselves against attacks.


Session

08-30
09:10
40min
[KEYNOTE] The biggest cons, and why they work
Sarah Armstrong-Smith

Fraudsters, scammers, tricksters, charlatans, con artists, swindlers - call them what you will, but they all have one thing in common - they have mastered the art of manipulation, and the power of persuasion!

In this opening keynote, Sarah will explore some of the common tactics, and techniques used by these actors, why they work, and how we can collectively reduce the probability of becoming a victim.

Make sure you stick around, as Sarah is also doing a book signing of her best selling book 'Understand the Cyber Attacker Mindset' throughout the morning.

Track 1