Keynotes

Keynote #1:

Title: Agentic AI for Operational Technology Security: Enhancing Visibility, Security Assessment, Auditing, and Proactive Testing in Cyber-Physical Environments

Abstract: Operational Technology (OT) environments are undergoing rapid digital transformation, leading to deeper interconnection with IT, cloud, and industrial IoT ecosystems. While this convergence improves efficiency and operational insight, it also expands the cyber-attack surface and exposes critical infrastructures to increasingly sophisticated threats. This keynote examines how OT security can be strengthened through an integrated strategy centred on asset visibility, continuous security assessment and auditing, and proactive testing, supported by emerging agentic AI techniques.

The talk will present a research- and industry-aligned perspective on how intelligent autonomous agents can assist security teams in mapping complex OT assets and communication flows, identifying misconfigurations and policy violations, prioritising exploitable weaknesses, and supporting controlled validation activities in cyber-physical environments. Particular attention will be given to the distinction between conventional IT security assumptions and the safety, availability, and determinism requirements of OT systems.

The keynote will also discuss practical case studies from critical and regulated sectors, including industrial control and digitally transformed operational environments, illustrating how agentic AI can support risk-informed auditing, adaptive security assessment, and proactive resilience testing while respecting operational constraints. The overall aim is to outline a realistic pathway towards more scalable, intelligent, and resilient OT security assurance.

Bio: Dr Mohamed Chahine Ghanem is Associate Professor in Cyber Security at Keele University and the University of Liverpool, where he serves as Director of a Research Theme, and also retains a Senior Advisor position in Cyber Resilience in Fintech Industry. Before joining academia, he gained over 15 years of industry experience in senior law enforcement and corporate roles, including CISO-level responsibilities and leading security management, governance, and auditing activities in major firms. His professional work has spanned cyber resilience, digital forensics, risk assurance, and the security assessment of complex IT, OT, and cyber-physical environments. He holds an Engineering Degree in Computer Systems, an MSc in Digital Forensics and IT Security, and a PhD in Cyber Security Engineering from City, University of London. He is Co-founder of CyDRA, focused on security by design and resilience in OT. His research centres on applied AI for cyber security, OT security, cyber resilience, and digital forensics. He has published widely in leading journals, serves in editorial roles including ACM Digital Threats: Research and Practice, chaired CIOT 2025, and is a frequent speaker at major academic conferences and industry events.

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Keynote #2:

Title: Cybersecurity for Connected Cars: Architecture, Risks, and Use Cases

Abstract: In this keynote, the cybersecurity challenges of connected vehicles are explored, with a focus on their architectures, communication technologies, and emerging services. The talk will provide an overview of the main security risks and vulnerabilities affecting connected cars, including Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks and their potential impact on vehicle connectivity and road safety. Particular attention will be given to securing vehicle platooning through the use of a secure protocol, highlighting how secure communications can help ensure the integrity, authenticity, and reliability of information exchanged between vehicles. Finally, the keynote will discuss approach.

Bio: Rida Khatoun is currently a Full Professor at Télécom Paris, Paris, France. He received the M.Sc. degree in computer engineering and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Technology of Troyes (UTT), Troyes, France, in 2004 and 2008, respectively. His research interests include cloud computing security, the Internet of Things security, vehicular networks security, security architecture and intrusion detection systems..

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Keynote #3:

Title: Fuzz me if you can! A look at fuzzing for web applications

Abstract: Fuzzing is a powerful technique for finding vulnerabilities in software applications, including web applications. Primarily, a software testing technique, fuzzing involves sending a large number of random or semi-random inputs to an application to see how it responds. Guided fuzzing, on the other hand, uses feedback from the application to generate more targeted inputs, increasing the chances of finding vulnerabilities. Although guided fuzzing has demonstrated remarkable success in identifying vulnerabilities, such as memory-corruption bugs, in native software, it has not been widely adopted for web applications and, when adopted, results are much less impressive. In this talk, I will start with the basic mechanics of fuzzing as a security tool for bug-finding purposes, and then I will dive into the challenges of fuzzing for the web ecosystem. Last but not least, I will give a look of what I expect to see in the future of fuzzing, with a constant focus on web applications.

Bio: Elias Athanasopoulos is an associate professor in Computer Science with the University of Cyprus. He received his BSc in Physics from the University of Athens and his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Crete. Before joining University of Cyprus, he was an assistant professor with Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. Elias was a Microsoft Research PhD Scholar, as well as a Marie Curie fellow with Columbia University and FORTH.  His research interests are system security and privacy.  He has several publications in all major systems, system-security, and privacy venues, such as IEEE Security and Privacy (Oakland), IEEE European Security and Privacy, ACM CCS, Usenix Security, Usenix ATC, NDSS, EuroSys, PETS, CHI and ACM TOPS.