May TASK: Cognitive Warfare; IT/OT Security
Join TASK this May for a dual deep dive into cognitive warfare as a cyber hard problem and the real-world security challenges of IT/OT integration—designed for practitioners, builders, and security decision-makers navigating modern hybrid risk.
Live and in-person at TMU + Live-Streamed on Discord
Date: Wednesday, May 27th, 2026
Time: 6:00 PM
In-Person Location: DCC 208 Classroom at TMU's Daphne Cockwell Health Sciences Complex - 288 Church Street
Registration: Not required
Live-Stream: Although TASK is always best in-person, we will steam live again on Discord @ https://discord.gg/aXfY76xgVJ.
Topic: Cognitive Warfare as a Cyber Hard Problem
Speaker: Martin M. Cooke
Election influence operations resist detection, attribution, and defense not through adversarial sophistication alone but through structural properties that render them formally hard. This talk introduces the CADRE taxonomy Cognitive-Attack Detection, Attribution, and Resilience Engineering characterizing cognitive warfare as a hybrid cyber hard problem. Three cases across three democratic jurisdictions validate the framework. Two novel evaluation constructs the Influence Operation Suppression Rate (IOSR) and Legitimate Discourse Collateral Rate (LDCR), are proposed for defense assessment in democratic contexts.
Martin Cooke is a Senior Information Security Architect with over 20 years of experience spanning financial sector, government, and enterprise environments. Holding CISSP #533599 since 2015, he specializes in risk-driven security architecture using the SABSA methodology, with deep expertise in threat and risk assessment, enterprise cyber assurance, and third-party cyber risk management. His career includes senior roles at the Bank of Canada — where he led cyber assurance reviews of systemically important financial market infrastructures — as well as Deloitte, and several Canadian technology firms. Martin is currently co-authoring an IEEE paper with Bill Haegstad examining cognitive warfare as a structurally hard problem in the cyber domain, including the development of the CADRE taxonomy and a dual detection metric framework. He is equally at home translating complex security architecture into plain business language for executive audiences and diving into the technical weeds with practitioners.
Topic: Addressing the Security Challenges of IT/OT Integration
Speaker: John Wang
The convergence of Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) is reshaping how organizations operate, bringing new efficiencies alongside complex cybersecurity risks. This one-hour presentation introduces the fundamentals of IT/OT integration and explains why securing these interconnected environments has become a critical challenge across industries. Using accessible examples and real-world incidents, the session shows how cyber threats can move from traditional IT systems into OT environments, potentially disrupting physical processes, safety, and essential services. Grounded in current industry practices and standards, the presentation offers a lifecycle-based view of IT/OT security—from design and deployment to operations and future considerations.
John Wang is a cybersecurity leader, educator, and consultant with over 25 years of experience helping organizations manage security risk across complex IT and OT environments. He is a Professor at George Brown Polytechnic, where he teaches Information Security Management, and a consultant at Intelligent Connections Inc., a security consulting practice supporting public- and private‑sector clients across Canada.
John has led and advised on security governance, risk management, and incident response initiatives for major organizations including municipal, provincial, and federal governments, healthcare institutions, financial services, critical infrastructure organizations, and large enterprises. His work spans threat and risk assessments, security program development, election system security, ransomware preparedness, and executive advisory engagement.
A frequent speaker and writer, John brings a practical, business‑focused perspective to cybersecurity, bridging technical, operational, and governance considerations. He holds a BASc from the University of Toronto, an MBA from Queen’s University, and maintains PEng, CISSP, CISA, and CRISC certifications.
We look forward to see you all there!
The TASK Steering Committee