Anna Collard, SVP Content Strategy & Evangelist Africa at KnowBe4.

KnowBe4’s second annual KB4-CON conference for EMEA gets under way next month, with a focus on the weakest link in the security chain – humans.

Anna Collard, SVP Content Strategy & Evangelist Africa at KnowBe4, notes that humans remain the most vulnerable area of enterprise security, with social engineering attacks still among the most common ways for attackers to get into networks.

“Scammers have become increasingly sophisticated and convincing in their methods, and it is harder for end-users to tell fact from fiction. At the same time, many people are stressed and anxious, which has been found to make them even more susceptible to social engineering. Staying abreast of attackers’ techniques and knowing what to look out for can help strengthen the ‘human firewall’,” says Collard.

With the theme ‘Cyber Security Culture – Strengthening Your Human Firewall’, KB4-CON is a free, cyber security-focused virtual event designed for CISOs, security awareness and cyber security professionals in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. 

Over 6 000 people attended the inaugural event last year, rating it highly for content. This year, all KB4-CON EMEA attendees will receive a certificate for continuing education credits immediately following the event.

A highlight of KB4-CON will be Kevin Mitnick, KnowBe4’s Chief Hacking Officer and arguably the world’s most famous hacker, who will provide an insider’s perspective by demonstrating the latest techniques cyber criminals are deploying.

Keren Elazari, Security Analyst, Author & Researcher, will deliver a keynote on lessons we can learn from hackers; Perry Carpenter, Chief Evangelist & Strategy Officer at KnowBe4, will outline the keys to making security culture work; and Roger Grimes, Data-Driven Defence Evangelist at KnowBe4, will highlight the most intriguing attacks of the past year.

Anna Collard and Lynne Moses, Information Security & Governance Specialist at FirstRand Group, will be among the South African speakers participating in a panel discussion on building a successful security programme.

The event will also include sessions for channel partners only, including a talk on Seizing the Security Awareness Market Opportunity With KnowBe4, and the Partner Awards Celebration.

KB4-CON EMEA will be staged on 6 October. For more information, and to register for this event, go to https://www.knowbe4.com/kb4-con-emea.