Friday 31 July · 10am–4pm · Birch Building
Tech Talks Conference
Accessible computing and cybersecurity talks drawn from speakers' real experience in industry and academia — just before the 5pm launch of the BushBash CTF.
Programme
10am · 15 min
Welcome and Opening Address
Peter Woodhead · CSSA (ANU Computer Science Students Association)
Opening remarks to kick off Bush Week Tech Fest, welcoming attendees and setting the stage for the day's talks and panels.
About the speaker
Peter is a computing and cybersecurity student at ANU in his penultimate year of study and is the CSSA's first ever Cybersecurity Officer. In 2026 he proposed and build the Bush Week Tech Fest as the lead event organiser. He is primarily interested in Cyber Incident Response, Crisis Management, and Critical Infrastructure/Operational Technology.
10:15am · 30 min
From Elite Syndicates to Chatbots: The Democratisation of Cybercrime
Rodman Ramezanian · Wiz (subsidiary of Google)
Cybercrime has changed dramatically. What once required elite technical expertise and significant resources can now be accelerated by AI, cloud platforms, and automation — creating a new era where attackers can operate at machine speed. In this session, I'll take the audience through the evolution of modern cyber threats, drawing on my experiences working with some of Australia's largest organisations and critical government environments. We'll explore how attackers are adapting, how defenders must respond, and the career lessons I've learned along the way, from starting as a university graduate to becoming a Lead Solution Engineer at Wiz (now part of Google).
About the speaker
Rodman Ramezanian is a strategic cybersecurity professional supporting Australia's Federal Government and Defence organisations to modernise and secure their cloud environments. An ASD-endorsed IRAP Assessor, he helps agencies identify and manage risk, strengthen assurance, and securely adopt cloud technologies. Known for translating complex security concepts into clear, practical guidance, Rodman combines deep technical expertise with executive-level strategy across cloud security, governance, and risk management. He holds numerous industry certifications, including CISSP, CCSP, CISA, CDPSE, CCISO, AWS Certified Solutions Architect, Google Professional Cloud Architect, Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect and AI Engineer, and MITRE ATT&CK.
10:45am · 30 min
A Day in the Life of a Cyber Security Analyst
Kaitlin Wickham · ANU Information Security Office
Have you ever wondered what happens when a hacker tries to hack a big organisation? Is someone paying attention? Who? How? Come along to hear one of the University's own cyber security analysts talk about what it's like to identify malicious behaviour and stop it spreading across the University network. We'll cover some high-level concepts for understanding how cyber threat actors work and how that informs what a Security Operations Centre does to defend. For the cyber nerds, we'll also get into threat hunting and threat intelligence, what an alert is and why it's the start of uncovering active intrusions, the MITRE ATT&CK framework, and a few other things — and if that was gobbledegook to you, don't worry: no technical experience or expertise is necessary. Hope to see you there!
About the speaker
KT Wickham (she/they) is a Cyber Security Analyst within the Information Security Office at the Australian National University. For almost six years, they've worked within the University's Cyber Integration Centre focusing on endpoint-based detections, incident response, and automation. She loves data science and has done significant analysis of MITRE ATT&CK TTPs, mitigations, and other incident trends. Before the Information Security Office, she worked at ANU's Cyber Institute as a research assistant and studied maths and international relations at the ANU. On the weekends, you can find them camping, hiking, or reading a good book.
11:15am · 30 min
Cyber Defence: Theory Meets Reality
Callum Wilkin · Irradiate Security
This high-level talk bridges the gap between academic theory and the high-stakes reality of live defensive operations. We'll explore how defenders survive at scale, why translating technical threats into business risk is a critical skill, and how the technical foundations learnt in courses build the foundation of a career in cyber security.
About the speaker
Callum is the Lead Subject Matter Expert at Irradiate Security, where he spearheads defensive operations with a primary focus on high-impact security operations and incident response. With an extensive background spanning over a decade across the Defence, Government, and private sectors, Callum brings a battle-tested perspective to resilience, using his experience in complex environments to build systems that balance technical rigor with practical, human-centric needs. While the industry often focuses on automated solutions, Callum's primary objective is to ensure organisations can translate complex technical concepts into actionable, mission-driven insights. He is a firm believer that technical excellence must be paired with human-centric design, focusing his efforts on empowering individuals to navigate the nuances of modern threats rather than relying solely on static security controls.
Morning Tea
11:45am – 12pm
Light refreshments provided. Please indicate any dietary requirements when registering on Humanitix.
12pm · 30 min
The Skill They Forgot to Teach You: Lessons from the Useless Half of a Good Tech Team
Zac Bendtsen · Valkyrie Consulting
Students are trained to build and run environments, but almost never trained to translate that to the end users and buyers. The real value is being able to explain what you do to someone who controls a budget (or signs your pay cheque), and that gap is where careers stall or take off. AI has arguably made this worse: when anyone can generate competent code or a polished pitch on demand, the scarce skill becomes judgement, trust, and the ability to have a real conversation. Government sales is our bread and butter, so I'll ground it in how the market actually works here, why a salesperson paired with a technical presales person is the most effective unit, and why the presales person who can talk AND do the tech is the rarest person in the room. It's pitched to be useful and a bit self-deprecating, with a few war stories from deals I've watched go sideways. Students should walk out with a career path most of them have never heard named, and a new appreciation for why soft skills make a big difference.
About the speaker
Zac Bendtsen is co-founder of Valkyrie Consulting, a Canberra firm that acts as the sales function for technology companies selling to Government. His career path is anything but conventional: selling everything from cars to mortgages before landing on the 24/7 incident response watch floor at the Australian Cyber Security Centre, then into cyber security sales, and eventually founding Valkyrie. Along the way he's sat on every side of the deal — buyer, seller, vendor and delivery partner — and contributed to over $200 million in Government programs. His talk is about the one AI-proof skill his entire career is built on, and the one no university degree teaches.
12:30pm · 30 min
The Perfect Career Path™
Jocelinn Kang · Nodalys
A talk for anyone considering their place in the workforce, their career trajectory, the path they should take, and what happens next. Jocelinn is more than two decades into her career and still on that journey. It's not a straight line. Come for the story so far, and steal what's useful.
About the speaker
Jocelinn Kang is the founder and managing director of Nodalys, a boutique national security consultancy working across cyber security, geopolitical risk, and digital resilience. After a career in government ensuring the confidentiality of packets, she moved to a think tank to ensure the integrity of policy conversations, helping decision makers understand the security significance of technology developments. Now she works to ensure the availability of communication networks, the backbone of digital resilience.
Lunch
1pm – 1:45pm
Lunch provided. Registration on Humanitix is the right place to indicate your dietary requirements.
Panel session
1:45pm · 50 min
Panel Discussion with CommBank Executives: ANU Exclusive
Commonwealth Bank of Australia
An ANU-exclusive panel with three cybersecurity leaders from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, moderated by Professor Richard Buckland (UNSW, director of CySEA). The panel is delivered remotely by video call (50 minutes) — watch it live with everyone in the Birch Building, or join the call from wherever you are.
Harrison Mitchell
Senior Offensive AI Researcher (Red Teaming), CommBank
Harrison thinks like an attacker to uncover weaknesses and help teams understand how threats operate, researching offensive uses of AI as part of CommBank's red team.
Samuel Ward
Senior Manager, Purple Team, CommBank
Samuel brings together offensive and defensive security, turning attack-simulation learnings into practical improvements to detection and response.
James Campbell
Senior Cyber Detection Engineer, CommBank
James focuses on spotting and responding to threats in real time through data analysis and alert investigation.
Professor Richard Buckland teaches cybercrime, cyberterror and cyberwar at UNSW, is a multi-award-winning educator, and directs the Cyber Security Education Alliance (CySEA).
Panel session
2:45pm · 30 min
Academia Panel: Computing and Cyber Research at ANU
Australian National University (ANU)
An academic panel exploring current computing and cyber security research at the Australian National University — what the School of Computing is working on right now, and how students can get involved in research.
Dianshu Liao
ANU School of Computing
Kaiwen Yang
ANU School of Computing
Kaiwen Yang is a first-year PhD student in Computer Science at ANU. His research focuses on software engineering and software supply chain security.
Alwen Tiu
ANU School of Computing
Panel session
3:15pm · 30 min
Cyber Industry in Canberra Panel
Redacted Information Security & Malware Security
A panel on the cyber security industry in Canberra, featuring practitioners from local firms Redacted Information Security and Malware Security — what the local industry actually looks like, and how to break into it.
Remy has over a decade of experience across Federal Government, law enforcement and the military. He is an IRAP Assessor, GIAC Certified Security Leader and ISO 27001 Lead Auditor, with a background in ADF Cyber where he commanded the first Army Cyber Protection Team. Redacted makes Red Team tools, develops capability for Defence projects, and produces an AI platform for government security assessments.
Miranda Riddell
Manager & AI Security Consultant, Malware Security
Miranda leads delivery of offensive security engagements for government, defence and critical infrastructure. Beginning her career in the ACSC's Cyber Hygiene Improvement Programs (CHIPs) team, she is now one of few Australian practitioners actively red-teaming AI systems and tracking emerging adversary tradecraft. She enjoys breaking things to understand how they work, and using that insight to help organisations assess risk, map attack surfaces, and secure frontier technologies. In her spare time, she also builds bespoke AI solutions for clients where the challenge is too interesting to ignore. She is an ANU School of Computer Science Alumni.
James Thomson
Principal Cyber Security Consultant & Director, Malware Security
Simon Smalley
Director & Principal Consultant, Redacted Information Security
3:45pm · 15 min
Closing Address and Thank You
Antony Hosking & Peter Woodhead · ANU College of Systems and Society / CSSA
Closing remarks and thanks to wrap up Bush Week Tech Fest, delivered by Professor Antony Hosking (School Director, ANU School of Computing) and Peter Woodhead (CSSA).
About the speaker
Antony Hosking is Professor and School Director of the School of Computing at the Australian National University. He is a Distinguished Scientist and Life Member of the Association for Computing Machinery, an elected Member of Association Internationale pour les Technologies Objets, and a Professional Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He serves on program and steering committees of major ACM conferences, with research interests in programming languages, software systems, and software assurance, and has served two stints on the Executive Committee of the ACM Special Interest Group on Programming Languages. He studied Computer Science at the universities of Adelaide, Waikato, and Massachusetts at Amherst, receiving BSc (Mathematical Sciences), MSc 1st class Honours (Computer Science), and PhD (Computer Science) degrees respectively. Prior to joining ANU he served over 20 years on the faculty of Purdue University — West Lafayette as Assistant Professor and tenured Associate Professor of Computer Science. He is an Honorary Professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and has extensive consulting experience as a testifying intellectual property expert to US Federal District Courts and the US Patent and Trademark Office.
