Rik Ferguson

Rik Ferguson is Vice President, Security Intelligence at Forescout, where he leads global thought leadership and helps shape strategic security perspectives across critical infrastructure sectors. With over 30 years' experience, he is known for connecting the dots between technology change, attacker behaviour, and the fragile thing everything depends on: trust. He was inducted into the Infosecurity Hall of Fame in April 2011.

Rik's work spans the full spectrum of cybersecurity, including IT, IoT, OT, and cyberphysical systems - environments where compromise can create consequences that go well beyond data loss. He is particularly focused on the exposure created by connected devices and operational dependencies, and on helping organisations build resilience against attacks that don't respect traditional perimeters or organisational boundaries.

He is a founding Special Advisor to Europol's European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) and contributes to public-interest cyber resilience initiatives with international and governmental stakeholders. This has included faculty roles for UNICRI programmes, contributions to UNICRI research on digital trust and organised crime, and nongovernmental stakeholder input into UN cyber discussions through the OEWG multistakeholder intersessional consultative meeting process.

In the United Kingdom, his work has been referenced in parliamentary scrutiny of cyber resilience legislation, including written evidence to the Public Bill Committee examining the Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill. His perspectives have also been included in European Parliamentcommissioned research on cybersecurity threats and policy responses. He was a selected speaker at the Munich Security Conference Cyber Security Summit.

Prior to joining Forescout, Rik served for 15 years as Vice President of Security Research at Trend Micro, where he researched the cybercriminal underground and worked with global teams to interpret evolving threats and their real-world implications. Earlier in his career, he worked on justice and law enforcement programmes at EDS, and served as a Senior Product Engineer at McAfee, focusing on network security, intrusion prevention, encryption, and content filtering.

Rik is a multi-award-winning writer and producer, frequently quoted in global media, and a sought-after speaker at leading events including RSA Conference, Mobile World Congress, GITEX, RUSI, Aspen, Virus Bulletin, Milken Institute, Webit, and others. He holds a BA (Hons) from the University of Wales. Credentials have included CEH, CISSP, and ISSAP