Karissa Breen [00:00:01]:
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’ve put together a snapshot from Microsoft’s National Security Officer, Australia and New Zealand, Mark Anderson. So here’s Mark. Mark, thanks for joining.

Karissa Breen [00:00:35]:
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.

Mark Anderson [00:00:48]:
Yeah. Sure. The Microsoft AI tour is a Microsoft’s major event that’s taking place in Sydney, like you say, on 11th December at the ICC. And at that event, we’ll be bringing together around 5,000 people, Basran 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 gonna 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 the 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.

Mark Anderson [00:01:34]:
So you’re gonna hear some amazing stories about how a real business value is being realized with with AI. So it should be an awesome event from that point of view.

Karissa Breen [00:01:42]:
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?

Mark Anderson [00:01:57]:
Yeah. So it’s going to be a bit of both, but these these three things that 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 US execs, we’re going to have Bret Arsenal, who’s our chief cybersecurity advisor. And Bret’s gonna be sharing some amazing insights for what we’ve learned over the past year of our implementation of our Secure Futures initiative journey. 2nd, and this for me, and I know we’re not supposed to have favorites, but if I almost feel like if I was gonna 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 MSTIC, well, the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center. And 3rd, 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.

Karissa Breen [00:02:51]:
Okay. So MSTIC, another acronym, or MSTIC, I believe. So

Mark Anderson [00:02:56]:
Correct.

Karissa Breen [00:02:57]:
Maybe tell us a little bit more about that.

Mark Anderson [00:02:59]:
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. It’s I I’m so excited about this. So MSTIC, MSTIC, like you say, not MSTIC as in m y. 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.

Mark Anderson [00:03:36]:
And And what we’re going to be announcing next week is the establishment of of MSTIC, a MSTIC 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 become 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, or the Australian Signals Directorate around Max, the Microsoft ASD Cyber Shield. 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 And if you’ve not heard of MSTIC before, and for most people, they may not have, if you wanna 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 Irmakov as the perpetrator of the Medibank incident.

Mark Anderson [00:04:46]:
Well, it was actually the MSTIC Global team that provided key pieces of evidence to the government that actually helped in the identification of Irmakov. 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.

Karissa Breen [00:05:19]:
And then I also wanna 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?

Mark Anderson [00:05:35]:
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 we’ve got a fair few 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’s 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.

Mark Anderson [00:06:13]:
So Secure Future initiative, it was really that reboot of our security strategy And what we’ve talked about in publically, and and Bret’s going to give you a bit of an update on this, 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 what have we done? So customers are really interested in hearing about that story because it it 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 Bret is definitely one to listen to. You’ll hear some stuff that may have already been published out, but knowing Bret, he will probably bring in some amazing side stories that are not necessarily published out there either. So, again, another one not to miss.

Karissa Breen [00:06:59]:
And just my last question for you, Mark, is, obviously, you know, people are gonna attend on 11th at the ICC. What can people sort of walk away with? What can they sort of learn post this event?

Mark Anderson [00:07:09]:
I I think I mentioned it right near the start. It’s about how do we move beyond the hype. 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 we can be realized by. And, also, that people will go away going, we’re not going to be the first.

Mark Anderson [00:07:36]:
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 2 favorite children, definitely the MSTIC team and definitely Bret. 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 2 speakers.