SANS Cyber Engagement — Ottawa

Tuesday, September 29, 2026

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SANS Cyber Engagement — Ottawa

Join SANS Institute for a full-day Cyber Engagement in Ottawa featuring expert-led sessions on AI security, OT/ICS defense, and network security — delivered by three of SANS’s leading faculty members. Spend the day with practitioners, build your skills, and connect with peers across the Canadian cybersecurity community.

Tuesday, September 29, 2026 | 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM

Ottawa Conference & Event Centre

200 Coventry Rd, Ottawa, ON K1K 4S3, Canada

Why Attend

Spend the day with SANS faculty and practitioners exploring practical approaches to three of the most pressing areas in cybersecurity today: AI-enabled threats, operational technology defense, and network security. Whether you are responsible for IT, OT, or leadership, there is something in this day for you.

This is a free event intended for The Canadian Armed Forces and Government of Canada.

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Check-in & light refreshments

September 29, 2026

09:00AM - 09:30AM EDT

In-Person

Welcome & opening remarks

September 29, 2026

09:30AM - 10:00AM EDT

In-Person

Session 1 — The Emerging Threat Horizon: AI, Influence, and the Battle for Trust

Leaders are entering an era where emerging technologies are reshaping not only cyber operations, but also decision-making, organizational trust, and resilience. Artificial intelligence is accelerating the speed and scale of cyber threats through automated reconnaissance, intelligent phishing, deepfake-enabled deception, and AI-assisted offensive operations. At the same time, the rapid adoption of AI systems is introducing new risks involving data integrity, model manipulation, autonomous agents, third-party dependencies, and the misuse of trusted digital platforms. Compounding these challenges is the rise of cognitive cyber operations, where adversaries use misinformation, synthetic media, and AI-generated content to influence personnel, disrupt public confidence, and manipulate strategic narratives. These threats increasingly target leadership decision cycles, employee behavior, and institutional credibility as much as traditional technical systems.

This session examines how AI-driven cyber capabilities, information manipulation, and digital trust risks are converging into a new generation of emerging threats relevant to leadership at every level. Attendees will gain insight into AI-enabled influence operations, synthetic identity and impersonation threats, the manipulation of trusted data, and the growing importance of resilience, governance, and cyber-informed leadership. The discussion focuses on practical leadership priorities for preparing organizations to operate securely and confidently in an increasingly contested digital environment.

Learning Objectives:

Understand how artificial intelligence is accelerating emerging cyber threats targeting operations, leadership decision-making, and organizational trust.
Recognize the strategic risks associated with AI system manipulation, autonomous technologies, third-party dependencies, and the erosion of digital trust.
Identify how deepfakes, misinformation, synthetic identities, and AI-driven influence campaigns can impact personnel, public perception, and organizational resilience.

September 29, 2026

10:00AM - 11:15AM EDT

In-Person

Presented by

Chris Edmundson

Solution Delivery Manager at World Wide Technology

Session 2 — OT Cyber Threats to Canada: State of the Nation 2026

In 2026, the question of whether adversaries can reach Canadian operational technology has been answered. CSE has confirmed that a Russian-aligned group accessed a Quebec water treatment facility and reached the controls for pumps and chlorine dosing. The same pattern is playing out across the energy, water, and manufacturing systems Canadians rely on every day.

This session gives government attendees a current picture of the OT threat environment: the groups active against North American critical infrastructure, how they get into industrial control systems and stay there, and what a year of frontline incident response and threat intelligence from Dragos says about where defences fail.

Canada's response is taking legal shape. With Bill C-8 now law and the Critical Cyber Systems Protection Act obligations approaching for designated operators in pipelines, power, nuclear, transport, and beyond, Peter examines what the legislation demands of OT environments and where the gaps between compliance and defence will appear.

Then, what works. Using the SANS Five ICS Cybersecurity Critical Controls as the frame, Peter walks through the defensive priorities that matter most, where AI is changing the equation for attackers and defenders alike, and the concrete steps government stakeholders can take now.

September 29, 2026

11:15AM - 12:30PM EDT

In-Person

Presented by

Peter Jackson

Principal Industrial Consultant at Dragos

Lunch & networking

September 29, 2026

12:30PM - 01:30PM EDT

In-Person

Session 3 — Attack and Defend: A New Breed of AI-Driven Web Application Attacks

Everything is a web application; you may not realize it, but attackers do. Your enterprise security appliance, your AI tools, and your ERP are all susceptible to the same types of attacks, and AI is accelerating exploit development. For example, WordPress vulnerabilities that used to cost $500,000 to develop can now be had for a mere $25 in AI tokens. In this talk, we will walk through the development of an exploit for a recent vulnerability, show how attackers exploited it, and explain how defenders must proactively deploy security controls to defend against this new breed of attacks. The talk will switch between the attackers' and defenders' points of view to illustrate how defenses work and how attackers may attempt to bypass them. You will learn how to better defend against the “unknowns” presented by this new breed of attacks and how to detect these attacks early. The talk will include live demonstrations of how these attacks and defenses work.

September 29, 2026

01:30PM - 02:45PM EDT

In-Person

Presented by

Dr. Johannes Ullrich

Dean of Research at SANS Technology Institute

Q&A, wrap-up & closing remarks

September 29, 2026

02:45PM - 03:00PM EDT

In-Person

Meet the Speakers

Chris Edmundson

Solution Delivery Manager at World Wide Technology

Chris Edmundson brings more than 25 years of IT, security operations, identity, architecture, and cloud security experience to SANS training, helping students connect tactical cloud defense to the operational decisions they face at work.

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Peter Jackson

Principal Industrial Consultant at Dragos

Peter Jackson leads the SGS ECL Cyber team of ICS Cyber Security Engineers supporting the industrial sector in New Zealand. His background includes control and safety systems experience as a TÜV certified Functional Safety Engineer.

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Dr. Johannes Ullrich

Dean of Research at SANS Technology Institute

Dr. Johannes Ullrich is the Dean of Research for SANS Technology Institute, a SANS Faculty Fellow, and founder of the Internet Storm Center (DShield.org) which provides a free analysis and warning service to thousands of Internet users and organizations.

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SANS Cyber Engagement — Ottawa