Cyber Insights from Retail with Tesco

Our December event will be taking a deep dive into security at the UK's biggest supermarket with not one, not two but three brilliant sessions focusing on how Tesco handles security at scale.

📍 Venue: Tesco Office,Lever Buildings, 85 Clerkenwell Rd, London EC1R 5AR
📅 Date: Wednesday, 10th December
🕕 Time: 6-8PM

🎟️ RSVP now and join us on the 10th December!

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Retail Under Siege: Cyber Threats of Summer 2025 - Harry McLaren
In this fast-paced session, Harry McLaren, Head of Cyber Defence, explores the surge in cyber threats that targeted retailers over summer 2025. From ransomware and MFA fatigue to supply chain compromise and phishing innovations, attackers exploited operational blind spots during peak trading periods. This talk highlights key incidents, emerging adversary tactics, and practical defence strategies to help retail security teams stay ahead of the curve.

Harry McLaren is a seasoned cybersecurity leader with decades of experience in technology, specialising in threat intelligence, prevention and detection engineering, and security automation. As Head of Cyber Defence, he drives strategic initiatives to enhance organisational resilience against evolving cyber threats. Harry is passionate about advancing security engineering practices and fostering innovation in cyber defence operations. He regularly contributes to industry discussions and thought leadership, helping shape the future of cybersecurity.

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Fostering a security mindset through partnerships - Michael Doherty
Security in a business context requires a deeper understanding of the business domain, Software developers are not security expertise, and security tools generate a lot of noise, creating frustration and fatigue. Security strategies cannot be universally applied; they need to be tailored to align with specific business goals, technological environments, product domain, etc. In this talk, you will hear how Tesco’s Security partners with software engineering to inculcate a security mindset in everything they build for our customers and shopping experiences to be safer and secure.

Michael Doherty is a cybersecurity expert with two decades of experience spanning network security, security architecture, content anti-piracy and application security. Michael heads the Security Partnering team which interfaces into Tesco’s online and customer product domains, where he drives secure by design practices to enable the business in delivering its goals securely. Michael is passionate about transforming security through innovation, to remove friction for engineering teams. He firmly believes security must serve align with the goals of the business.

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Demystifying Supply-chain Levels for Software Artifacts (SLSA): Building Trust in Your Software Supply Chain - Niket Vaidya
Software supply chains are increasingly targeted by attackers, yet many teams struggle to understand how to secure them effectively. Frameworks like SLSA offer guidance, but their layered structure can be confusing and hard to implement. This talk simplifies the SLSA levels, showing how each contributes to building trust in your CI/CD workflows. You’ll learn practical ways to adopt SLSA without slowing down development, helping your team strengthen security and integrity across the pipeline.

Niket Vaidya is a Senior Cybersecurity Engineer with nearly 20 years of experience across financial services, retail, and fintech sectors. He holds advanced degrees in Cybersecurity and an Executive MBA, bringing technical depth and strategic insight to modern security challenges. Currently, Niket partners with Tesco’s engineering teams across UK/ROI and Central Europe, focusing on security engineering to deliver resilient, scalable solutions.

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