I speak and write on AI security, cyber risk, and cybersecurity law and policy, with a focus on what these issues mean for the executives and boards who have to make decisions about them.
● Speaking
Selected talks and panels
Keynote · Barcelona · November 2026
Barcelona Cybersecurity Congress
The evolution of trust: why proof matters in the age of AI
A keynote on how trust in cybersecurity has evolved, and why, as AI makes it easier to fake almost anything, organizations now have to prove their security rather than simply claim it.
Keynote and track host · October 2026
RiskX
What frontier AI means for the cybersecurity professional
A look at how frontier AI changes the work of security teams, plus hosting the event’s cybersecurity track.
Panel · New York
New York Tech Week
Accelerating New Nuclear with AI
A Deep Tech Week panel on nuclear, security, and AI: how AI can accelerate new nuclear energy, and the security it will take to do it safely.
Speaker · Salt Lake City
University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law
Security, Nuclear Energy, and AI
Remarks on securing the convergence of nuclear energy and artificial intelligence, and what it takes to protect critical energy infrastructure as AI scales.
Panel
DOE CyberCon
Cybersecurity Operations
A panel at the U.S. Department of Energy’s cybersecurity conference on how security operations teams across the DOE enterprise detect, respond, and keep pace with evolving threats.
More talks
- US–Africa Nuclear Energy Summit (Ghana, August 2026): AI, security, and the future of the nuclear workforce
- Nuclear Deterrence Summit: AI and Security for Data Centers
- SQMS Quantum Summit: Public-private partnerships
- Energy Empowered Summit: Cybersecurity policy and regulation
Webinars
- Intelligent Energy: The AI-Nuclear Nexus: NICE Future Initiative, March 2026. How nuclear energy, including small modular reactors, can power AI data centers, and how AI can speed up nuclear deployment.
- Zero Trust in the Middle Mile: Using AI to Right-Size Access, Shrink Alert Noise, and Prove Compliance: GovInfoSecurity (ISMG), presented by Microsoft. How federal agencies partway through Zero Trust can use AI to right-size access, cut alert fatigue, and generate compliance evidence from existing telemetry. Available on demand.
In the press
- Microsoft’s $60 Million Genesis Mission Commitment Puts Nuclear AI at the Center: POWER Magazine, July 2026. Interviewed on Microsoft’s role in the Genesis Mission and the SPARK coordination hub.
● Topics
What I speak on
- AI security and agentic AI risk: harnesses, guardrails, and governing AI agents at scale
- Cyber risk quantification: moving boards from heat maps to dollars, and how AI changes the evidence
- Cybersecurity law and policy: why AI needs security laws, and how to write them
- GRCops: bringing automation to governance, risk, and compliance
- Critical infrastructure: AI, energy, and the national laboratory ecosystem
● Publications
Selected writing
- Risk, Uncertainty, and the Adversary: Rethinking Cyber Risk When AI Changes the Evidence
- AI Needs Security Laws. We Already Know How to Write Them.
- The Harness Matters More Than the Horse: A CISO’s Guide to AI Agent Harnesses
- From DevOps to DevSecOps to GRCops: The Next Evolution of Cyber Risk
- Managing Risk at Agent Scale: Governance, Operations, and Quantification for AI Agents
- 10 Questions Corporate Counsel Must Ask Before Green-lighting AI Solutions
See all writing on this site →
Microsoft Tech Community
Articles published on Microsoft’s Public Sector Blog.
- Microsoft Spark: Powering America’s Genesis Mission for Scientific Discovery
- ITAR Compliance in the Microsoft Cloud: Navigating GCC, Azure Commercial, and Azure Government
- A CISO’s Guide to Securing AI: Securing AI for Federal, DIB, and DoW Entities
- Achieving ATO and ATU for Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365: A Foundational Guide
- Why FedRAMP Adherence Matters for AI in Government—and How Microsoft Makes It Practical
- Navigating AI Adoption: Legal Considerations Every Organization Should Know
● For event organizers
Speaker bio
Bryan Lopez is Senior Vice President, Global Field CISO, Commercial Cybersecurity at Mastercard, where he leads the Global Field CISO organization and advises CISOs, executives, and boards on cybersecurity strategy, risk, and emerging technology. Before Mastercard, he was a senior leader at Microsoft, where he led AI, cloud, and cybersecurity strategy across the U.S. Department of Energy, the NNSA, and the national laboratories, including Microsoft’s work on the Genesis Mission. Earlier in his career, he held technology and cybersecurity leadership roles at Sandia National Laboratories and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, and served as President and Chair of InfraGard New Mexico. He holds a Master of Legal Studies in Cybersecurity Policy, Law, and Regulation from Texas A&M University School of Law, along with CISSP and CISM certifications.