On July 23, we hosted our third TMC Toronto meetup at Ted Rogers School of Management in Toronto. The event, titled “Risks with Agentic AI,” attracted over 60 in-person attendees who were eager to hear fresh insights and network.
We’re excited to share a quick summary of how it went. The presentation slides are included below, too, for each talk.
Welcome & Opening Remarks
• Registration: Khaula Kareem, Samira Parveen & Duronke Owoleso helped run a smooth check-in desk.
• Land acknowledgement: Nour Mousa opened the evening by honouring the traditional custodians of the land.
• Chapter Vision: Dr. Jamil Ahmed, the leader of the TMC Toronto chapter, emphasizes the importance of strengthening our TM and cybersecurity community through mutual collaboration. He highlights that unforeseen technical challenges in the cybersecurity world can arise, requiring assistance from our cybersecurity specialist peers to resolve issues quickly. This is precisely where our community comes into play.
Talk #1 — Adam Saeed
“AI & LLMs in InfoSec: New Frontiers & Threats”
• Senior Manager, Information Risk, Manulife — and a CISSP trainer.
• Key takeaway: “Your LLM already knows more about you than you think.”
• Adam’s recommended self-check prompt: “Please list the user-specific information you have inferred about me from me.”
• Controls that work: AI-aware API gateways, prompt-injection tests, and red-team jailbreak drills baked into every release.
Link to presentation:
AI-LLM-Info Sec Presentation.pdf (6.0 MB)
Talk #2 — Helen Oakley
“Agentic AI: Threats & Mitigations”
SAP’s global security lead broke down why autonomous agents—tools that perceive, plan, and act without constant human nudging—introduce new attack classes such as memory poisoning, identity spoofing, and agent-communication hijacking. Her three-layer defense model (Proactive, Reactive, Detective) sparked a lively Q&A.
Link to presentation:
Helen Oakley - Agentic AI TM presentation (TMC meetup Toronto - July 2025).pdf (4.0 MB)
Slido Quiz & Prizes
This quiz, hosted by Owen Tang, featured a recap of the speakers’ sessions. We had 50 participants. The grand prize was a physical copy of Patrick Lencioni’s “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.” Congratulations to Spencer Brawner for winning the prize!
Closing Wrap-Up
Emmanuel Guilherme (Chapter Leader) thanked our speakers, sponsors, and volunteers, then teased upcoming hands-on workshops that will push Toronto to the forefront of safe autonomous-system design.
Emmanuel further mentioned that in 2023, the Canadian AI market generated approximately USD 18.8 billion in revenue and is projected to surge to USD 152.7 billion by 2030, an annual growth rate of nearly 35%.
Our generative AI sector alone earned USD 1.52 billion in 2024 and is forecast to exceed USD 10.3 billion by 2030. Between Q2 2024 and Q2 2025, the share of Canadian businesses using AI more than doubled from 6.1% to 12.2%.
Nearly half (48%) of technology leaders are already deploying agentic AI, and 57% plan to invest within six months.
Networking & Refreshments
Our event fostered numerous new connections, all while offering complimentary food and drinks. This demonstrates the collaborative nature of Toronto’s cybersecurity scene, even amidst its technical prowess.
Shout-Outs
• Leadership Team: Jamil Ahmed • Emmanuel Guilherme • Nour Mousa • Quin Iris F. • Duronke Owoleso • Syeda Maheen Munir • Rabia Bajwa • Samira Parveen • Sumit Giri • Khaula Kareem • Owen Tang • Sooraj Jha
• Venue & Sponsors: Huge thanks to IriusRisk and Toronto Met University for making the evening possible.
• Special appreciation to Syeda Maheen Munir for capturing the night’s photos.
See you at Event #4!