2026-05-15 –, Ville-Marie
AI is reshaping cybersecurity and the modern workforce faster than most of us can track —
automating analysis, writing code, simulating attacks, and raising the bar on what it means to be
effective. For professionals, two questions keep surfacing: Am I still relevant? How do I keep
up?
This dual keynote addresses both directly.
In the first half, Salini reframes AI as the ultimate force multiplier for experienced practitioners
— not a threat, but a new frontier to own. Drawing on historical parallels and field evidence, she
makes the case for shifting from a reactive posture to an opportunistic one, and reclaiming the
hacker's original edge: curiosity.
In the second half, Varsha tackles the reality of an always-on world where rising expectations
make it harder to slow down - more tools, more updates, and a constant push to move
faster.Through practical insights and real-world examples, her talk focuses on moving beyond
reactive urgency, offering a more intentional approach in a world that never truly powers down.
Two perspectives. One complete map for anyone navigating the age of AI
English
Varsha Dwarakanathan is a Senior Product Security Engineer at Bloomberg. She excels at
navigating the often “impossible” middle ground between rapid innovation and rigorous defense,
specializing in security by design and embedding resilience directly into the development
lifecycle. Through hands-on technical engagement — including architecture and design reviews,
threat modeling, and code reviews — she focuses on identifying and mitigating vulnerabilities
early and at scale.
With a bachelor’s degree in computer science and a master’s degree in cybersecurity, Varsha
brings pragmatic, technical security expertise to Bloomberg, where she develops ways to help
multi-disciplinary teams with competing priorities find collectively-optimal solutions.
Outside of work, Varsha is an enthusiastic tennis player and a regular on the competitive circuit,
driven by equal parts discipline and the delusion that going pro is still on the table. An animal
lover at heart, she channels that energy into her growing plushie collection – at least until she
can retire to her own animal sanctuary.
Salini Mishra is a Senior Product Security Engineer in Bloomberg’s Chief Information Security
Office, where she focuses on identifying vulnerabilities, strengthening application security, and
building tools to proactively defend against emerging threats. She works closely with the
company’s engineering teams by bridging the gap between high-level defense strategy and
hands-on technical execution, ensuring that security is a core component of the development
lifecycle rather than an afterthought.
With a rigorous background in computer engineering and cybersecurity, Salini brings a
breaker-fixer mindset to the intersection of software integrity and modern innovation. Prior to
Bloomberg, her experience includes advancing security initiatives within research and
development environments, where she contributed to the design of resilient, cloud-native
architectures and microservices intended to sustain enterprise operations for decades. Known
for her analytical mindset and deep curiosity about how systems can be both broken and
secured, Salini is passionate about advancing modern security engineering, particularly as
artificial intelligence reshapes the tools, techniques, and challenges within the cybersecurity
landscape.
Outside of work, Salini’s curiosity refuses to sit still—sometimes literally. Trained in Indian
classical dance, she’s rarely able to keep her feet grounded. She’s an avid escape-room
enthusiast, hosts murder-mystery nights at home, and has a long-standing fascination with
espionage and spycraft. When she’s not decoding puzzles, she stays active by learning boxing,
happily trading keyboards for gloves.