At 16, Greg van der Gaast broke into a nuclear facility. He was caught, recruited by the FBI and Department of Defense as an undercover operative, and went on to spend 25 years advising some of the world's largest organisations as a CISO and strategic security consultant. On 20 May 2026, he will be in Malta.

BMIT is bringing Greg to headline The Cybersecurity Imperative 2026 (TCI), BMIT's annual flagship cybersecurity conference, taking place at the Portomaso Suite, Hilton Malta. TCI 2026 brings together CISOs, IT professionals, risk managers, compliance officers and business leaders for a morning of insight and debate on one of the most pressing challenges facing organisations today.

A keynote speaker unlike any other

Headlining this year’s event is Greg van der Gaast, who is also the author of the bestselling titles What We Call Security and Rethinking InfoSec.  Greg will draw on his experience from both sides of the threat to challenge how businesses approach security. His session will explore how attackers think, why traditional security models are failing, and how organisations can shift from a reactive, compliance-driven posture to one that builds genuine resilience and measurable business value.

A full morning of expert sessions

Beyond the keynote, TCI 2026 features sessions that go well beyond theory.

Christian Bajada, Head of Information Security at BMIT Technologies, brings frontline experience from running security operations at one of Malta's most established technology providers directly to the audience.

David Vassallo, CTO at Cybersift, presents “From SIEM to Sentient SOC: A Blueprint for the Agentic Era”. The session examines how AI is reshaping threat detection and response, and where human judgment still makes the difference.

Burcin Suer, Cybersecurity Specialist at BMIT, takes on “How to Adopt Artificial Intelligence Without Opening the Door to Attackers”. Her session offers hard-won practical guidance for organisations moving fast on AI adoption without fully reckoning with the risks that come with it.

The event closes with a fireside chat titled “The Blind Spot Nobody Talks About: When Leadership and Security Don’t Speak the Same Language”, moderated by David Kelleher, Cybersecurity Specialist at BMIT. The panel will explore a question most boardrooms avoid: when the CEO and the CISO use the word "secure", are they actually talking about the same thing?

With regulatory pressure on cybersecurity governance tightening across sectors and AI expanding the attack surface faster than most organisations are tracking, the cost of getting security wrong has never been higher. The Cybersecurity Imperative 2026 is designed for organisations ready to move beyond basic security and build something that is proactive, business-aligned and genuinely resilient.

Attendance is complimentary but places are strictly limited.

Register now at https://tech.bmit.com.mt/the-cybersecurity-imperative-2026