Chester Wisniewski is Director, Global Field CISO at next-generation security leader Sophos. With more than 25 years of security experience, his interest in security and privacy first peaked while learning to hack from bulletin board text files in the 1980s, and has since been a lifelong pursuit. 

Chester works with Sophos X-Ops researchers around the world to understand the latest trends, research and criminal behaviors. This perspective helps advance the industry's understanding of evolving threats, attacker behaviors and effective security defenses. Having worked in product management and sales engineering roles earlier in his career, this knowledge enables him to help organizations design enterprise-scale defense strategies and consult on security planning with some of the largest global brands.

Based in Vancouver, Chester regularly speaks at industry events, including RSA Conference, Virus Bulletin, Security BSides (Vancouver, London, Wales, Perth, Austin, Detroit, Los Angeles, Boston, and Calgary) and others. He’s widely recognized as one of the industry’s top security researchers and is regularly consulted by press, appearing on BBC News, ABC, NBC, Bloomberg, Washington Post, CBC, NPR, and more.

When not busy fighting cybercrime, Chester spends his free time cooking, cycling, and mentoring new entrants to the security field through his volunteer work with InfoSec BC. 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chester-wisniewski/ 

Mastodon: https://securitycafe.ca/@chetwisniewski 

"One Community, Many Voices” means that while we are united by a common mission, to protect our digital assets, we each bring unique perspectives and skills that strengthen our collective defense. Whether you're writing policy or code, your voice matters. Cybersecurity isn’t the job of one team or one title, it’s a shared mission. As threats become more complex and fast-moving, the strongest defenses come from collaboration across disciplines. That’s why, for the first time, BSides has launched a GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance) track to recognize the critical role that GRC professionals, risk leaders, and policy makers play in protecting what matters most.  Let’s explore how developers, auditors, security engineers, and GRC teams can work together to tackle real-world challenges, from securing applications to managing third-party risk and responding to zero-day threats. By breaking down silos and elevating new voices leads to smarter decisions, faster responses, and security that works.