Date: Wednesday 3 June

Time: 5:15pm – 6:15pm

Venue: ASPI Auditorium, Ground Floor
            40 Macquarie Street, Barton, ACT 2600

Cybersecurity is now inseparable from geopolitics, national and economic resilience, and the accelerating impact of artificial intelligence. Across energy grids, telecommunications networks, public health systems and financial infrastructure, governments and enterprises are confronting deepening technological dependence in the context of a more contested threat environment shaped by strategic competition, increasingly sophisticated and fast-moving adversaries, and rapid technological change.

On 3 June, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute will host Anne Neuberger, former United States Deputy National Security Adviser for Cyber and Emerging Technology, for a fireside conversation with ASPI Executive Director Justin Bassi on how states and enterprises should strengthen cyber resilience amid intensifying geopolitical competition, AI-enabled threats and growing dependence on critical digital systems. Within that broader context, the discussion will examine how recent advances in AI are sharpening the urgency of addressing legacy and end-of-life technology risks, making them among the most pressing and under-governed challenges in today’s cyber landscape.

Neuberger has been at the centre of some of the most consequential cyber and emerging technology policy debates of the past decade, including Washington’s post-SolarWinds response, the development of multilateral cyber norms and the Biden administration’s National Cybersecurity Strategy. Her experience spans both operational crisis response and the larger strategic challenge of strengthening resilience across the systems, institutions and dependencies that underpin national and economic security.

The discussion will be informed by ASPI’s forthcoming report, Past its Use-By-Date: Turning End-of-Life Technology Risk into Commercial Advantage, sponsored by Cisco, which examines the end-of-life challenge in today’s threat environment, the implications of AI and quantum technologies for legacy risk, and the growing strategic liability posed by unpatched networks in critical environments. Together, these issues point to an agenda that is both operational and strategic: what must be fixed, who is responsible, how decisions should be governed, what advantage accrues to those who act early, and what role government should play through its regulatory, procurement and policy levers.

This event will bring together senior policy, industry and national security stakeholders for a timely discussion on cyber resilience in a contested strategic environment, including the implications of geopolitical competition, AI-enabled threats and the persistent risks posed by end-of-life technology, and the role of government and critical infrastructure operators in responding to these challenges.​​​​​​​

Please note, this event will be conducted under Chatham House Rule to facilitate an open and candid discussion.