Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey everyone. I wanted to give you a quick KBI Media update. The team and I will be covering the Microsoft AI Tour here in Sydney at the ICC on December 11th. Join experts, industry leaders and peers to explore the ways AI can drive growth and create value for your company. We will be on the ground hosting podcasts and interviews and everything else in between. We hope to see you there. But for now we put together a snapshot from Microsoft's National Security Officer, Australia and New Zealand, Mark Anderson. So here's Mark.
Mark, thanks for joining. Now I know we're on a rapid fire interview and I wanted to understand from you more about the Microsoft AI Tour that's taking place on December 11th at the ICC here in Sydney.
[00:00:48] Speaker B: Yeah, sure. The Microsoft AI Tour is Microsoft's major event that's taking place in Sydney like you say, on the 11th of December at the ICC. And at that event we'll be bringing together around 5,000 people, Vasprim customer and partner community, as well as some special guest appearances from some visiting Microsoft US Execs as well. In terms of customer led sessions though, which is what it's all about, we will have folks from the Australian Federal Police, CSIRO, CommBank and Telstra, just to name a few, all of whom are going to be sharing their AI journey with us. But the bit for me that's really going to make this thing exciting and really special is that at the event they'll be showcasing what they've done with AI and they've gone and they've moved beyond the hype. This is not about what they could do, this is about what they have done. So you're going to hear some amazing stories about how real business value is being realized with AI. So it should be an awesome event from that point of view.
[00:01:42] Speaker A: Now for people who know you, they know that you are a security person, security expert. So maybe can you share what we can expect next week with Microsoft and security? And is it also demonstrating what you're already doing in the market as well?
[00:01:57] Speaker B: Yeah, so it's going to be a bit of both. But these three things that immediately spring to mind for me that you'll hear about at the tour next week. The first of all is when I mentioned a moment ago about visiting usx, we're going to have Brett Arsenault, who's our chief Cybersecurity advisor, and Brett's going to be sharing some amazing insights for what we've learned over the past year of our implementation of our Secure Futures Initiative journey. Second, and this for me and I know we're not supposed to have favorites, but I almost feel like if I was going to pick a favorite child, this might be it. We're going to formally announce and talk about a new branch of a global team in Australia called Mystic. Well, the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center. And third, it is an AI event after all. So you will hear some key stories around the use of Security Copilot and how it's being used by our customers in that relentless battle against our cyber adversaries. So plenty of cybersecurity content at that event as well.
[00:02:51] Speaker A: Okay, so mystic, another academ or mstic? I believe so, correct. Maybe tell us a little bit more about that.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: Yeah, like I say, it's probably wrong to have a favorite child, but I've been working with this team at a global level for so long. I'm so excited about this. So mystic mstic, like you say, not mystic as in my this is a team that has been predominantly based up until now in the US with scatterings around Europe and a few in the Middle East. And these are the folks that are our dedicated nation state threat hunters. So these are the folks that are watching what our most skilled and advanced cyber adversaries are up to and what they do is that from their watching and their learning we're able to protect not only Microsoft platforms and services but also our customers implementations on our platform as well. And what we're going to be announcing next week is the establishment of Mystic, a Mystic forward operating base in Australia, which I think is a great example of the investments that Microsoft is making in Australia to build local capacity in the security space. I mean you've probably heard me talk before about Australia is really that hub or that ability has the ability to become the protection hub for the region because we're uniquely positioned, we have great skills, pathways, we also have some amazing talent in country plus also if you probably remember, we made an announcement just about a year ago now actually with the Australian government, the Australian Cybersecurity Centre of Australian Signals Directorate around Max, the Microsoft ASD cybershield. So that public private collaboration is going to be strengthened even further when we actually have people in country on site being able to sit shoulder to shoulder with those organizations. And if you've not heard of mystic before and for most people they may not have. If you want to get I'll just give you one of their recent greatest hits I think, which is very Australian specific. You may remember earlier in the year when the Australian government announced that they'd named and shamed Alexander Ermakov as the perpetrator of the Medibank incident. Well, it was actually the Mystic Global team that provided key pieces of evidence to the government that actually helped in the identification of Yermakov. So I'm really excited about bringing them in country. And the person that's going to be talking next week is a lady called Jackie Barr, who's actually joined us from one of those secret government agencies. And I'm not going to spoil her thunder. She will talk about it next week. She'll talk about where she's come from, she'll talk about her team and the types of organizations and spooky organizations that they work with in Protection of Australia, our customers and the company. So that's definitely one not to miss.
[00:05:19] Speaker A: And then I also want to ask about another acronym. So tell me more about SFI and I'm sure we'll hear more about it. And again, it's just a little bit of a teaser to see what people can expect from the event. But can you share anything about this on that front?
[00:05:35] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Sfi, Secure Future Initiative. I think the interesting part about that is, whilst it's really Microsoft's own internal security uplift program, it's an area that our customers have been really keen to hear about, because, to be quite frank about it, at Microsoft, we're not novices at cybersecurity. We've got a fair few pieces of talent in the organization that really know what they're doing. But as the last 18 months have shown, and we've publicly spoken about this, we've shown that nobody is immune to cyber attack. And the areas of risk that may have been acceptable 12, 18, 24 months ago are no longer. So as our adversaries have turned the dial up to 11. So secure future Initiative was really that reboot of our security strategy. And what we've talked about in publicly, and Brett's going to give you a bit of an update on, is what have we done in response to being targeted by these advanced adversaries, not only from a technical controls perspective, which I think is what most of us cyber nerds want to hear about, but also culturally as well. What have we done? So customers are really interested in hearing about that story because they go, well, if it's happening to you, it could happen to us. And what can we learn from somebody that is at that forefront of leading that change in a large global organization? So Brett is definitely one to listen to. You'll hear some stuff that may have already been published out, but knowing Brett, he will probably bring in some amazing side stories that are not necessarily published out there either. So again, another one not to miss.
[00:06:59] Speaker A: And just my last question for you, Mark, is obviously you know people are going to attend on the 11th at the ICC. What can people sort of walk away with? What can they sort of learn?
[00:07:08] Speaker B: Post this event, I think I mentioned it right near the start. It's about how do we move beyond the height. We've talked about the hype of things like AI for the past past few years. Now you're going to hear about now the real world implementation of this and how it is impacting customers, it's impacting our customers. So for me, that's what I would hope people really take away is that we've moved beyond hype. We've moved to actual implementation and the benefits that can be realized by it. And also that people will go away going we're not going to be the first. People are already treading that path for us. So for me, if nothing else, take that away on the AI side and on the security side. As I say, my two favorite children, definitely the mystic team and definitely Brett. So you will learn a lot from that. Especially even if you're a seasoned professional cyber nerd, you will learn quite a lot from those two speaker.
