International leaders in cyber security will speak at CYBERUK 2026 in Glasgow next month to discuss accelerating defences in the face of rising online threats.

CYBERUK 2026, seen as the UK’s flagship cyber conference, will welcome over 2,500 attendees from industry, academia, and government for a programme of world-class keynote speeches, panel sessions, tech talks, interactive workshops and an exhibition focused on the next decade of cyber defence.

The National Cyber Security Centre – a part of GCHQ – has recently announced the latest speakers to be confirmed for the summit taking place at the SEC Glasgow, including:

• Anne Keast-Butler, Director of GCHQ
• Stephanie Crowe, Head of the Australian Cyber Security Centre
• Keri Gilder, CEO, Colt Technology Services
• Rajiv Gupta, Head of the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security
• Margaret Heffernan, Author, CEO and Professor of Practice at the University of Bath
• Yoichi Iida, Japan’s National Cyber Director and Deputy National Security Advisor
• Claudia Plattner, President of the German Federal Office for Information Security
• Geoff White, Author, journalist and podcaster

They will be joined by leaders from the NCSC including CEO Dr Richard Horne and UK government ministers who will give keynote addresses.

Senior representatives from industry including Google Cloud, Anthropic and PQ Shield as well as leading academics from the University of Glasgow have also been confirmed today via the CYBERUK website.

Places are still available for private sector delegates to register for CYBERUK 2026 until Thursday 2 April.

“Cyber security has never been more important for our collective resilience and prosperity and at this critical juncture, the question we must ask is not whether but how we should accelerate our defences to stay ahead of growing online threats,” Dr Richard Horne, CEO of the NCSC, said. “This will be central at CYBERUK 2026, and I’m delighted to be hosting key international partners and cyber security experts to examine this question and how we can tackle common challenges, risks and vulnerabilities.

“I’d strongly encourage leaders across the cyber and business communities to seize the opportunity to engage with this flagship event and be a part of this crucial conversation.”

The overarching theme of this year’s event – which takes place in the conference’s tenth year – is ‘The Next Decade: Accelerating our Cyber Defence’ and will seek to answer questions including:

• How can the UK strengthen its resilience to the cyber challenges of the next decade?
• How do we align economic growth with resilience and make cyber choices benefiting the whole economy?
• How do we defend critical systems – including with AI – in an uncertain world?
• How has the threat evolved in the last 10 years and how has our approach to cyber defence evolved?
• What actions can we take now to shape trends, policies and the technology evolution?

CYBERUK will be delivered by the NCSC and sponsors across four distinct tracks of activity: Resilience, Technology, Threat, and Ecosystem.

You can find more information about accessing the event and CYBERUK 2026’s programme, exhibitors, speakers and sponsors here.

To read more security news, click here.