Bharath Sadashivaiah

Bharath Sadashivaiah

Security & Platform Engineer

ACE-CSE Cybersecurity Talk Series 2025-26

Date:

I help organise the ACE-CSE Cybersecurity Talk Series at WMG, University of Warwick, where I lead speaker engagement and relationship management across the series. The programme brings together academic experts, industry practitioners, and senior security leaders to expose students to current ideas, emerging threats, professional practice, and career pathways across cyber security.

A key part of my contribution has been working closely with invited speakers, shaping engagement with external organisations, and helping ensure that each session offers students both technical depth and wider professional relevance. Through the series, students are able to hear directly from researchers, CISOs, technical leaders, strategists, and industry specialists on topics ranging from covert action and cyber diplomacy to business continuity, identity, post-quantum cryptography, SOC operations, and cyber risk.

Technology and the Changing Nature of Covert Action

Date: 25 February 2026
Time: 13:00–14:00
Location: IMC.004

This session welcomed Prof. Richard J. Aldrich, FRHistS, Professor of International Security at the University of Warwick. The talk explored how modern science, technology, and cyber capabilities are reshaping covert action, examining performative assassinations, signature drone strikes, AI-driven disinformation, and online-recruited privateers. The session invited students to consider how advanced technologies may be accelerating new cycles of performative violence and destabilisation, while also blurring the boundaries between secrecy and spectacle, and between state and non-state actors.

Prof. Aldrich is a world-renowned expert in intelligence, security, and cyber communities. His work spans international security, cyber diplomacy, institutional memory, and intelligence studies, and he has advised governments internationally while contributing to major research initiatives in technology, security, and contemporary intelligence practice.

Fortinet Experts on Campus: Navigating the Underdark

Date: 11 February 2026
Time: 13:00–14:00
Location: IMC.002

This ACE-CSE Cybersecurity Talk Series session brought Fortinet experts to campus for a practice-oriented discussion on modern SOC operations and cyber security careers.

Navigating the Underdark — Kash Valji
Students were introduced to emerging cyber threats and the ways Security Operations Centre (SOC) analysts use threat intelligence, advanced analytics, automation, and AI-driven SOC operations to detect and mitigate attacks proactively.

Fortinet Graduate Programme — Martin Matthews
This segment focused on graduate and industrial placement opportunities, the skills Fortinet looks for, and career development pathways in cyber security and networking.

Speaker highlights
Kash Valji is VP of Fabric CSE (EMEA/APAC) and brings around 25 years of experience defending critical infrastructure, businesses, and governments across EMEA and APAC, including work on zero-day vulnerabilities and advanced persistent threats.
Martin Matthews is a senior technical leader with more than three decades of experience in networking and cyber security and currently leads a Fortinet technical sales team while overseeing graduate and industrial placement programmes.

Private Information Retrieval: post-quantum, but are we close to making it practical?

Date: 21 January 2026
Time: 13:00–14:00
Location: Online (MS Teams)

The ACE-CSE Cybersecurity Series opened Term 2 with a session led by Sofía Celi from Brave. The talk explored Private Information Retrieval (PIR) and the challenge of making privacy-preserving queries practical at scale, particularly in systems affected by computational overheads, dynamic data, and real-world deployment constraints. It also considered the relevance of PIR for recommendation systems and future directions towards practical, post-quantum-ready deployment.

Speaker Bio:
Sofía Celi is a Senior Cryptography and Security Researcher at Brave, specialising in privacy-enhancing technologies, post-quantum cryptography, and zero-knowledge proofs. They have contributed to the OTR messaging protocol, co-authored the MAYO post-quantum signature scheme, and hold leadership roles across the IETF, IRTF, and W3C. They also serve on the European Review Board at Black Hat, are an Honorary Industrial Fellow at the University of Bristol, and are a member of the Advisory Council at the Open Technology Fund. As co-founder of Criptolatinos and WinC, they are also a strong advocate for diversity in cryptography and security.

Business Continuity and Cyber Security Disruption

Date: 19 November 2025
Time: 15:30–16:30
Location: IMC.004

This session featured Adrian Hope, Chief Information Security Officer at the University of Warwick, and examined the role of business continuity in maintaining operations during cyber security disruptions. The talk explored practical strategies, key standards, and real-world challenges involved in building resilient and secure operational environments.

Speaker Bio:
Adrian Hope is the Chief Information Security Officer at the University of Warwick, where he leads efforts to protect the university’s critical information assets, including intellectual property and personal data. His experience spans leadership roles across Information Technology and central services, including HR, Procurement, Legal, and Estates Management. His approach to cyber security combines technical controls with wider organisational resilience, supply chain governance, and collaboration across institutional functions.

Identity Protocols and the Evolution of Modern Authentication

Date: 12 November 2025
Time: 13:00–14:00
Location: IDL Auditorium

This session welcomed Jon Harry, Technical Lead at Okta, to explore the evolution of modern identity protocols—from Single Sign-On, to OAuth for API protection, through to the seamless authentication model enabled by OpenID Connect. The talk highlighted major milestones in secure, user-centric access and examined how modern digital ecosystems have transformed identity management.

Speaker Bio:
Jon Harry is a global subject matter expert in Identity and Access Management and serves as the Technical Sales Enablement Lead at Okta, with a focus on securing AI-driven environments. He specialises in access management, API protection, and federation, and is known for making complex technical concepts accessible through engaging presentations, practical guidance, and hands-on technical advocacy.

Cyber Security as a Business Risk

Date: 22 October 2025
Time: 13:00–14:00
Location: IMC.002

The series welcomed Julian Meyrick, UK Managing Director at Eraneos UK Ltd, for a session on cyber security strategy and business risk. The talk focused on how organisations and boards can better understand, communicate, and quantify cyber risk in business and financial terms, bringing a strategic and board-level perspective into the student experience.

Speaker Bio:
Julian Meyrick is the UK Managing Director and Partner at Eraneos and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (FIET). He leads strategic engagements that help organisations align cyber security with business risk and decision-making. Julian has also contributed to national and industry initiatives in cyber security awareness and has held senior leadership roles across defence, security, and consulting, including earlier work with IBM and service in the British Army.

Zero Trust, SASE, and Enterprise Security Practice

Date: 8 October 2025
Time: 13:00–14:00
Location: IDL Auditorium

The opening ACE-CSE session featured Peter Jones, a senior cyber security practitioner with more than 20 years of experience across higher education, the public sector, enterprise environments, and global service providers. The session brought an applied perspective on Zero Trust architecture, SASE, SSE, and wider enterprise security transformation.

Speaker Bio:
Peter Jones is a cyber security professional at ITGL with over two decades of experience in networking and security across higher education, the public sector, blue-chip enterprises, service providers, and systems integrators. He holds CISSP and CISM certifications and specialises in Zero Trust, SASE, SSE, and security technologies from Cisco and Microsoft. He is known for combining technical expertise with strategic insight, helping organisations navigate complex security challenges while communicating cyber security practice in a clear and engaging way.

My role in the series

My involvement in the ACE-CSE Cybersecurity Talk Series centres on helping shape the series as a meaningful bridge between academic study and professional cyber security practice.

  • speaker engagement and relationship management
  • coordinating with invited experts from academia and industry
  • helping frame sessions so they are relevant to student learning and professional development
  • supporting the delivery of a talk programme that spans technical, strategic, and career-focused themes
  • contributing to a broader cyber security community experience for students at WMG

The series has been especially valuable as a way of bringing external voices into the learning environment and ensuring students encounter a wider range of perspectives on cyber security, from highly technical research topics through to organisational resilience, intelligence, identity, and enterprise risk.