GOhack25 Symposium

Cantonal Councilor Mario Fehr has been Head of the Security Department of the Canton of Zurich since 2011. In this role, he is responsible for the Social Welfare Office, the Migration Office, the Sports Office, and the cantonal police, among other things. A law graduate (lic. iur., University of Zurich), he is committed to ensuring a safe, social, and sporty canton. Before his election to the Government Council, he was a member of the Adliswil City Council, as well as a member of the Cantonal Council and National Council.

As a senior security expert at the Federal Office for Cybersecurity (BACS), Hans-Peter Käser works on developing guidelines and standards to strengthen the cybersecurity of critical infrastructures and companies in Switzerland. He is also a regular speaker at various events.

He is passionate about sharing his knowledge of cybersecurity. As a lecturer on cybersecurity at various universities, he brings his many years of practical experience to innovative teaching formats and lectures.

Reto Inversini holds a degree in geography/climatology from the University of Bern and in information technology from Bern University of Applied Sciences. He currently works for Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), where he is part of a team setting up an Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) for the railway sector in Switzerland. Previously, he worked for the Swiss Governmental Computer Emergency Response Team (GovCERT) at the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC, now BACS). Reto also teaches network forensics and intrusion detection at the University of Applied Sciences in Bern.

Carina is an OT security specialist at a Swiss energy provider and found her way from building services engineering to physical security and safety engineering to cyber security. Today, she secures our electricity grid operations in a practical and compliant manner, from auditing to access control.

Critical infrastructures are her passion, as energy supply has a direct impact on our society and our daily lives.

Jérôme Stettler has been head of the Digital Transformation department at Supercomputing Systems AG since 2012, where his responsibilities include information security. With his team of around twelve people, he develops complex software solutions for industrial and medical technology projects worth millions.

He has many years of experience in software development and project management, was previously responsible for international development projects at Siemens Switzerland AG, and holds an MAS in Management, Technology, and Economics from ETH Zurich. He is also co-head of the Cyber Security Practice Circle at Next Industries, a network platform of Swissmem, asut, and swissT.net.

Aanjhan Ranganathan is a tenured Associate Professor of Computer Science at Northeastern University, USA. He researches the security and privacy of wireless networks, focusing on autonomous cyber-physical systems and smart ecosystems. His work has shaped defenses against wireless threats and earned recognition such as the NSF CAREER Award and ETH Zurich’s Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award.

Dr. iur. Michèle Balthasar is a lawyer and the founder and managing director of Balthasar Legal AG. She advises companies on data protection, the use of artificial intelligence, and energy and IT law.

As an external data protection officer under Swiss data protection law and a certified ISO 27001 lead auditor, she combines legal expertise with practical experience in cybersecurity and digitalization.

Marc Bischoff has been responsible for IT and digitalization at Zweifel Chips & Snacks AG since 2022. Previously, he held senior IT positions at various companies. He has a background in technical IT and further education, supplemented by an MAS in Business Engineering and a postgraduate degree in Employee and Business Management. In his current role, he is primarily involved in the optimization and further development of relevant core processes and changed value chains, value creation from new technologies, and IT security.

Christian Folini is a Swiss application security engineer, author, and lecturer with over twenty years of experience. He is co-leader of the OWASP ModSecurity Core Rule Set (CRS) project, author of the ModSecurity Handbook (2nd edition), and civilian representative at Switzerland's National Cyber Security Center (NSC).

He is also a board member and program director of the Swiss Cyber Storm conference, speaks regularly at international conferences, and maintains a broad network of security experts worldwide.

Anne-Sophie Morand is a lawyer and works as Data & AI Governance Counsel in the IT industry. She is considered a legal expert on digital issues such as data protection and AI. She lectures on these topics at various universities and is also active in various expert committees. After completing her doctoral thesis, she worked for the Swiss Parliament, the EDÖB, and the law firm Walder Wyss, among others. She also holds an LLM in IT Law from the University of Edinburgh.

Christina Kistler is Co-CEO of GObugfree and shapes the company's strategic direction. With nearly 20 years of leadership experience in various industries, she brings entrepreneurial thinking and international expertise to cybersecurity. She is passionate about democratizing cyber protection and relies on collaborative approaches and the involvement of external expertise. Christina holds an MBA from the University of St. Gallen and an MAS in Digital Leadership from HWZ Zurich.

Oliver Ittig has been program director at FFHS for the BSc in Computer Science and the practice-integrated bachelor's program in Computer Science since 2014 and also heads the BSc in Cyber Security, which was introduced in August 2023. He is responsible for the strategic and operational implementation of the degree programs—from their orientation and content design to their execution—supported by a team of lecturers, subject specialists, and research assistants.