AI Inside: Rethinking Third Party Risk for a New Era

We are thrilled to invite you to the ISACA Sydney Chapter August 2025 In-Person PD Session.

Join us on Wednesday 27th August, 2025 for an evening of professional development, industry insights and networking. This in-person event is a great opportunity to connect with fellow professionals in the field and gain valuable knowledge to enhance your skills

Presentation: AI Inside: Rethinking Third-Party Risk for a New Era

While organisations continue to address traditional third-party and vendor risk challenges, the widespread integration of AI technologies into commercial products has introduced a new class of risks that are often hidden, complex and poorly understood. From opaque model behavior and data governance pitfalls to regulatory ambiguity and systemic concentration, AI powered solutions demand a fresh approach to third party risk management. This sessions explores the evolving threat landscape and offers insights for identifying and mitigating AI related risks embedded in such ecosystems.

Speaker: Raheem Sar

Raheem, currently CISO - APAC Region, has several years of progressive leadership experience across financial services, insurance, telecoms, critical infrastructure and technology sectors with a solid foundation in Security and Business Operations. He has a proven track-record building and scaling security capabilities across architecture, engineering, operations, governance, risk, compliance, and crisis response, while aligning the cyber strategies with business growth, regulatory expectations and operational resilience. Recognised for delivering global frameworks at scale, and for partnering with executives and boards as their trusted advisor.

Outside of work, Raheem enjoys exploring the world through photography, capturing stunning landscapes. He’s an avid traveller, hiker, and a pilot, who is driven by curiosity and a love for adventure.

Panel: Evolution of Third-party Risk, Accountability and Trust.

This panel brings together industry leaders to unpack the emerging challenges of managing AI embedded in vendor ecosystems - including ethical implications, regulatory uncertainties and resilience at scale. Expect a thought-provoking discussion aimed at helping practitioners rethink third-party risk with AI in the mix.

Panelists:

Smita Mylavarapu

Smita is a highly experienced security professional with diverse expertise, including governance, compliance, and risk. As a Managing Principal for GRC at Thales Cyber Services, she has a strong track record of successfully guiding organisations to enhance their security posture. She's particularly focused on collaborating with businesses to align with industry standards and frameworks, making compliance and standardisation achievable and straightforward. Smita holds a Master's degree in Cybersecurity and possesses a wealth of credentials that demonstrate her extensive background in information security.

Leron Zinatullin

Leron is a forward-thinking technology executive specialising in cyber strategy, management and delivery. He has led large scale, global, high value security transformation programs to improve cost performance and support business strategy. Leron currently serves as a CISO for a payments technology company where he rolled out a responsible AI framework, resulting in increased productivity.

Phil Meyer

Phil Meyer is a Technology Strategist at Microsoft where he has worked for over 34 years. He helps Microsoft Partners create new solutions based on the full breadth of Microsoft products and technologies. His main areas of expertise are Modern Work, Migration to the Cloud, Artificial Intelligence and Security. He has held roles in Product Marketing, Business Development and Team Management in his career at Microsoft.