, 15 October 2020

The 2020 digital edition of Avast's annual conference brought together AI and cybersecurity communities

The first virtual edition of CyberSec&AI Connected took place last Thursday, October 8. Building on 2019’s award-winning physical event, 2020’s digital format brought together researchers, professors, tech professionals, journalists, and AI and cybersecurity specialists from across the world. 

From the Czech Republic to the U.S., France to Argentina, Mexico to Japan and India to Canada, attendees from across the globe logged in to listen to top experts and specialists working at the intersection of AI, machine learning and cybersecurity.

“This year, with travel restrictions around the world disrupting the way we all learn, work, meet, and research, it was critical we still found a way to once again bring the global cybersecurity and AI communities together,” said Michal Pechoucek, CTO at Avast and AI Professor at CTU. “This desire was why we decided to host the conference virtually. With so much uncertainty about when we will be again able to regularly meet in person, we wanted to play our part in keeping our communities connected.”

Those who tuned in saw and engaged with presentations, panel sessions, workshops, and Q&As with a global cast including: 

• Roger Dingledine, Director, Researcher, and Co-founder of the Tor Project
• Hany Farid, Professor at Institute UC Berkeley
• Carmela Troncoso, Professor at EPFL Switzerland
• Garry Kasparov, Chess Grandmaster and Avast Security Ambassador
• Lorenzo Cavallaro, Professor at King’s College London
• Celeste Fralick (Senior Principal Engineer and Chief Data Scientist at McAfee)
• Samir Kumar (Managing Director at M12 - Microsoft’s Venture Fund)
• Clive Thompson (Journalist at WIRED)

“On behalf of Avast and CTU, I want to thank all the speakers, panelists, workshop hosts, organizers, and attendees who came together to make 2020’s CyberSec&AI Connected a truly global event,” said Michal. “As in 2019, I was inspired by the different ways individuals, organizations, technologists, and scientists from diverse groups and backgrounds approach the challenges and opportunities we all face in today’s digital landscape.”

To check out the full conference program, visit the event website. Additionally, all presentations and workshops from the day continue to be available to delegates via CyberSec&AI Connected’s Virtual Library. 

“Even during a pandemic, CyberSec&AI Connected was able to shorten the global distance between cybersecurity and machine learning experts,” said Luca Demetrio (Università degli Studi di Genova) who presented the workshop ‘Efficient Black-box Optimization of Adversarial EXE Windows Malware’. “It was so delightful and inspiring to discuss with other people in these fields. I felt honored to be part of such an important event.”

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If you missed 2020’s event and want to find out about future CyberSec&AI Connected conferences, make sure to register your interest.