Press Release originally published on EIN Presswire, October 7, 2026.
Antonio Brandao, Director, Cybersecurity Services & CISO at BCNET, has been confirmed as an advisor to Operation: Defend the North Vancouver 2026, a national cybersecurity exercise taking place in Vancouver, British Columbia on October 15th.
Produced by siberX, the exercise brings together partners from across Canada’s security community to examine a question that is becoming increasingly urgent for organizations in every sector: what happens when an advanced AI system is not hacked, but compromised through its own logic?
Operation: Defend the North 2026 Vancouver places participants inside high-pressure scenarios where AI-driven logistics, trade, security, and decision-making systems are functioning technically — but have been strategically undermined by adversaries who understand how those systems think. The next wave of risk may not look like malware. It may look like optimization.
“AI is reshaping how organizations operate — and how adversaries attack them. Operation: Defend the North gives Canada’s security community the opportunity to stress-test our readiness against the threats that do not look like traditional attacks. That is the work that matters right now, and I am committed to contributing to it.” — Antonio Brandao, Director, Cybersecurity Services & CISO, BCNET
Brandao’s advisory role places him at the centre of a country-scale cyber readiness initiative at one of the most consequential moments in the evolution of AI-enabled security threats. A former Brazilian Army Lieutenant Colonel who coordinated operations for 1,500 personnel and spent seven years as a cybersecurity professor at Brazil’s Academia Militar das Agulhas Negras, Brandao progressed internally at BCNET from SIEM Systems Administrator to Cybersecurity Architect to his current role — a career defined by the intersection of command discipline and technical depth. At BCNET, a not-for-profit shared services consortium serving 44 post-secondary member institutions across British Columbia, he leads cybersecurity readiness across a sector that faces increasing threat complexity with constrained resources.
Beyond his institutional role, Brandao is a recognized voice in Canada’s cybersecurity community. He has spoken at BCNET CONNECT, BSides Vancouver, the TRU Privacy and Security Conference, VanTUG, siberX, and ISACA Vancouver, and created Canada’s first national Cyber Scenarios Challenge — a 60-hour online Capture the Flag competition open to all Canadian universities and colleges. He is the author of Unlock the Secrets of the Dark Web, a four-volume series available in Kindle and paperback editions, and earlier this year received the 2026 ISACA BC Cyber Excellence Community Leadership Award for sustained, high-impact contribution to British Columbia’s cybersecurity community.
Operation: Defend the North is produced by siberX, a global cybersecurity events and training organization led by Founder and CEO Mahdi Raza, whose signature annual events and immersive crisis simulations have made siberX a defining presence on the Canadian and international cyber calendar since 2018.
For more information on Operation: Defend the North Vancouver 2026, visit siberx.org/defendthenorth.
About Antonio Brandao
Antonio Brandao is Director, Cybersecurity Services & CISO at BCNET, based in Vancouver. A former Brazilian Army Lieutenant Colonel and seven-year military academy cybersecurity professor, his certifications include CISSP, GCDA, and GWAPT, alongside advanced SANS coursework in incident response and threat hunting. He holds a Bachelor and Master of Military Science from institutions in Brazil, a bachelor’s degree in Information Systems from Universidade Católica de Santos, and honours diplomas from Seneca Polytechnic. Brandao served as Results and IT Manager for Modern Pentathlon at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and volunteered at the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games. He is the author of Unlock the Secrets of the Dark Web, a four-volume series available in Kindle and paperback editions. For full speaker and media details, visit abrandao.net.
