Event Overview
Southeast Asia’s digital economy is projected to reach $1 trillion by 2030, positioning the region as a critical global hub for digital innovation and economic growth. This unprecedented transformation has made the region a prime target for sophisticated cyberthreats. In 2024, Southeast Asia experienced more than 135,274 ransomware attacks, according to recent intelligence. With 67% of all regional cyber incidents occurring in a single year, this marks the highest concentration of cybersecurity challenges ever recorded in ASEAN markets.
The South East Asia Summit 2025 brings together the region’s most influential cybersecurity executives, thought leaders and innovators to address the complex challenges shaping Southeast Asia’s digital landscape. This premier virtual summit, centered around the theme “From Strategic Vision to Operational Excellence: Leading Cybersecurity in Southeast Asia’s Digital Future,” focuses on bridging the gap between cybersecurity strategy and practical implementation across ASEAN’s diverse regulatory and business environments.
The summit will provide actionable insights into emerging threats, including AI-powered attacks, quantum computing risks, supply chain vulnerabilities and the evolving geopolitical cyber warfare landscape affecting Southeast Asian enterprises. Participants will gain strategic frameworks for building cyber-resilient organizations while using cybersecurity investments to drive innovation, market expansion and stakeholder trust.
Guy Sheppard
Esti Peshin
Ali Abdulla Al Sadadi
Ruwanthi Fernando
Carolyn Bigg
Justin Ong
Atif Najam
Abid Adam
Arlene Romasanta
Past Speakers
Thought Leaders on Stage Leading Deep-Dive Discussions
Industry leaders from various sectors in the technology domain share their experience on how the role of chief technology officers (CTOs) has become indispensable across organizations. They discuss unique strategies and techniques applied in businesses, making technology an intrinsic part of their organizational DNA. Additionally, these thought leaders delve into how they have redefined leadership to enhance the organization’s resilience and share their insights on artificial intelligence, sustainability, and the future of internet.
Highlight Topics
- OT Security
- SOC as a Service: Advanced Threat Detection
- Geopolitical Impact on Supply Chain Operations
- AI-Driven Attacks: Are Enterprises Ready for a Counterstrike?
- Data Localization: Cybersecurity Implications
- AI in the Cloud: Security Risks
Agenda
9:00 AM SGT onward
Registration and Exhibition Browsing
9:55 AM - 10:00 AM SGT
Welcome and Opening Remarks
10:00 am - 10:20 AM SGT
Keynote: Changing Cybersecurity Regulations: Enterprise Readiness for Compliance
Southeast Asia faces a pivotal regulatory shift in 2025 as ambitious cybersecurity frameworks and rapid digital transformation drive a new era of compliance.
Regional harmonization under the ASEAN Cybersecurity Cooperation Strategy 2021–2025 is accelerating alongside sophisticated national data protection and cybersecurity laws that require comprehensive enterprise readiness.
This evolution presents both the greatest compliance challenge and a significant competitive opportunity in the region’s history. Organizations must navigate enhanced obligations – from Singapore’s strengthened PDPA and Malaysia’s new Cyber Security Act to Thailand’s extraterritorial enforcement and Vietnam’s forthcoming data protection law – while transforming compliance into a strategic enabler of business growth and resilience.
This session will cover:
- Future-proofing for regulatory evolution and digital economy integration;
- Enterprise risk assessment and penalty mitigation strategies;
- Regional regulatory convergence analysis and strategic implications.
Abid Adam
Group Chief Risk & Compliance Officer, Axiata
Sandra Pesic
Information Security and Data Privacy Officer, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
10:20 am - 10:40 aM SGT
Spotlight: AI Governance: Enterprise Risks and Readiness
Artificial intelligence has emerged as both Southeast Asia's greatest opportunity and most complex risk management challenge in 2025.
But this rapid AI proliferation occurs against a backdrop of sophisticated AI-driven cyberthreats, with APAC experiencing an increase in cyber incident frequency and fraud-related claims driven by deepfake attacks and AI-powered social engineering.
Attendees will gain a practical framework for translating high-level principles – transparency, robustness and accountability – into board-level risk metrics, security controls and assurance programs that keep innovation on track while meeting the expectations of regulators, customers and investors.
This session will cover:
- Building multidisciplinary AI governance structures;
- Regulatory fragmentation and compliance readiness;
- Integrating AI, cybersecurity and data protection programs.
Esti Peshin
VP, General Manager, Cyber Division, IAI - Israel Aerospace Industries
Sandra Pesic
Information Security and Data Privacy Officer, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
10:40 am - 11:20 am SGT
Panel: Putting Agentic AI to Action: Hype or Reality for Cybersecurity
Organizations stand at a critical inflection point where agentic AI is rapidly transitioning from experimental technology to practical implementation across the region's diverse enterprise landscape.
With companies implementing agentic AI and planning deployment within the next year, the question is no longer whether agentic AI will transform cybersecurity, but how quickly organizations can harness its potential while managing unprecedented risks.
Leading industry practitioners, technology innovators and risk management experts will examine the real-world implementation of agentic AI in cybersecurity across ASEAN markets, where organizations report significant decision-making improvements and achieve substantial productivity gains through autonomous AI systems.
This session will cover:
- Autonomous threat detection and response in practice;
- Security operations center transformation and alert fatigue solutions;
- Security risks and governance challenges associated with AI agents.
Jagathesh Ragavasagam
Risk and Cybersecurity Officer, Abbott
Sourabh Chitrachar
Regional Vice President/Head- Asia Technology Strategy & Operations, Liberty Mutual Insurance
Justin Ong
APAC CISO and Chief Privacy Officer, Panasonic Asia Pacific Pte.Ltd
11:20 AM - 11:50 AM SGT
Fireside Chat: OT Security: Building Strategic Cyber Defenses
Operational technology environments underpin critical infrastructure and industrial processes across Southeast Asia - from manufacturing floors and energy grids to water utilities and transportation networks.
As the region accelerates digital transformation and Industry 4.0 adoption, OT environments face a rapidly expanding and sophisticated threat landscape, requiring cybersecurity leadership that transcends traditional IT approaches.
This fireside chat will explore how leading cybersecurity executives are elevating OT security from a technical challenge into a strategic imperative – aligning governance frameworks, regulatory compliance and risk management to build resilient, mission-critical defenses against nation-state actors, ransomware campaigns and supply chain compromises.
This session will cover:
- Unified IT-OT cybersecurity strategies;
- Network segmentation and access control;
- Incident response and crisis management for OT.
Carolyn Bigg
Partner and Global Co-Chair of the Data, Privacy and Cyber Group, DLA Piper, Singapore
Sunari Dandeniya
Chief Information Security Officer, Commercial Bank of Ceylon PL
11:50 AM - 12:30 PM SGT
Panel - Supply Chain Insecurities: Establishing the Right Security Posture
Southeast Asia's position as the global manufacturing hub and digital economy powerhouse has created an intricate web of supply chain interdependencies that present both unprecedented opportunities and existential cybersecurity risks.
In the SEA region, 97% of regional companies are small and medium-sized enterprises that often lack robust security infrastructure, even as the region serves as a critical node in global supply chains.
This panel will bring together leading practitioners who have navigated the complex realities of securing supply chains across ASEAN’s diverse regulatory and operational landscape, where traditional perimeter-based security models have proven inadequate against sophisticated threat actors exploiting trusted vendor relationships.
This session will cover:
- Multi-tier vendor risk assessment and continuous monitoring;
- Zero-trust architecture implementation for supply chain access;
- AI and automation in supply chain security operations.
Jenny Tan
President, ISACA-Singapore Chapter
John Lee
Managing Director-Asia Pacific, GRF
Steven Sim Kok Leong
Chair, Executive Committee, OT-ISAC
12:30 PM - 12:50 PM SGT
Exclusive: AI in the Cloud: Moving Beyond Proof of Concept
As AI workloads demonstrate significantly higher vulnerability profiles compared to traditional cloud applications, cybersecurity leaders face the dual challenge of enabling innovation while maintaining robust security postures.
This session will explore real-world experiences from Southeast Asian organizations that have successfully operationalized AI in multi-cloud environments, examining the security architectures, governance frameworks and operational practices that separate successful AI deployments from costly security failures.
This session will cover:
- Securing the AI data pipeline – from ingestion to inference;
- MLOps security integration and DevSecOps for AI models;
- Budget reallocation and ROI measurement for AI security investments.
Reuben Athaide
Head, Cyber Security Advisory and DevSecOps, Standard Chartered Bank
12:50 PM - 1:30 PM SGT
Panel: AI-Powered Payment: Establishing the Right Digital Identity Governance
Southeast Asia's digital payment ecosystem is undergoing fundamental transformation as artificial intelligence and biometric technologies converge to redefine identity governance.
AI-powered payment systems create unprecedented financial inclusion opportunities while introducing new attack vectors, including deepfakes, synthetic identity fraud and autonomous bots, thereby challenging conventional security paradigms.
This panel will feature leading practitioners implementing AI-enhanced digital identity systems across Southeast Asia’s diverse regulatory landscape. Discussions will focus on transitioning from traditional password-based authentication toward sophisticated, multi-modal verification systems leveraging facial recognition, voice patterns, behavioral biometrics and continuous adaptive trust mechanisms to secure the region’s evolving digital payment infrastructure.
This session will cover:
- Regulatory compliance and standards alignment across ASEAN;
- Privacy protection and data sovereignty in AI-powered identity systems;
- Policy-driven orchestration and adaptive security governance.
Raina Verma
Advisory Council Member, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE)
Sujit Christy
Secretary/Immediate past president, ISC2- Colombo Chapter, Sri Lanka, President, Circulo de CISO
1:30 PM - 2:00 PM SGT
Fireside Chat: AI and Zero Trust: Redefining Endpoint Secure Access
The convergence of artificial intelligence and zero trust architecture is fundamentally transforming endpoint security across Southeast Asia, moving from traditional perimeter-based defenses to intelligent, adaptive frameworks that continuously verify every access point.
As ASEAN enterprises embrace remote work, cloud-first strategies and IoT proliferation, traditional endpoint models prove inadequate against advanced persistent threats and AI-powered attacks targeting the region.
This session will explore practical realities of implementing AI-enhanced zero trust in Southeast Asia’s complex digital landscape, addressing implementation challenges, regulatory compliance and cultural transformation required to move from implicit trust to continuous verification paradigms while enabling business innovation.
This session will cover:
- AI-enhanced identity and access management for endpoint protection;
- Performance optimization and user experience balance;
- Intelligent threat detection and automated response mechanisms.
Dr. Jassim Haji
Executive Advisor for AI & Data Science, NAIRDC
Mahesh Chandran
Director AI, Fujitsu Research
1:35 PM - 1:55 pm SGT
Fireside Chat: Building a Data-Driven to Data-First Enterprise in the Digital Era
Organizations are undergoing a strategic evolution in their approach to data - transitioning from data-driven to data-first.
Both the terms are often used interchangeably but have distinct connotations. While both emphasize the utilization of data for decision-making, data-first involves inga comprehensive data-centric approach across the organization, placing data at the core of the operations – as opposed to specific projects – to inform decision-making.
The session will delve into what it takes for organizations to scale from a data-driven to data-first enterprise.
The session will cover:
- Playbook for data-first enterprise;
- Extensive cross-functional data integration;
- New technology tools and opportunities for innovation.
Dr. Jassim Haji
Executive Advisor for AI & Data Science, NAIRDC
Mahesh Chandran
Director AI, Fujitsu Research
2:00 PM SGT onward
Closing Remarks
The Summit Experience
CPE Credits
ISMG Summits offer Continuing Professional Education Credits. Learn informative and engaging content created specifically for security professionals.
Register
Upcoming ISMG Events
October 9, 2025
Upcoming ISMG Events