On 16th October 2025, the second edition of the Bulgarian Identity Conference (BGIDC 2025) took place at Interpred – STC Sofia. The event is Bulgaria’s leading forum dedicated to digital identity management, cybersecurity, and regulatory compliance. Organized for a second consecutive year by consulting firm IDVKM and cybersecurity solutions distributor ESCOM Bulgaria, the conference continues to grow in scope and impact.
Key Topics and Emerging Threats
Among the main topics discussed were
🔹 Proven best practices in identity management across large enterprises
🔹 How identity solutions help overcome compliance challenges
🔹 The role of Identity Management in defending against cybersecurity attacks, which now involve digital identities in over 80% of cases
🔹 A strategic perspective on IAM—how to fund, implement, and scale identity solutions within an enterprise.
The event was once again structured into two parallel tracks—business and technical—with a strong focus on the strategic importance of digital identity in modern cybersecurity.
Following its successful debut in 2024, which gathered over 100 participants from Bulgaria and across Europe and featured more than 15 local and international speakers, this year’s edition expanded with live demonstrations, an industry expo, and strategic insights. It was once again divided in two tracks – Business and Technical.
Business Panel:
The first session of the business panel, titled “Customer Voice,” presented real-life examples of how large organizations manage identity within complex corporate ecosystems. Vasil Mihaylov (BG) shared how a monolith Identity Management solution is broken up into products and services at Schwarz IT, streamlining operations and improved efficiency. Maciej Machacz (PL) showcased how One Identity’s solutions meet the evolving needs of large multinational enterprises. Nikola Madzic (AT) explained how Raiffeisenbank International, with 43,000 employees, , balances global and local identity strategies to ensure secure and scalable access. Sven Hübner (DE) from KOGIT introduced how a next-gen IAM satisfies all pillars of IT resilience.
The business panel continued with a discussion on “Compliance” and dynamics in the regulatory framework. The upcoming changes in Bulgarian Cybersecurity Act will introduce obligations under the NIS2 Directive (EU 2022/2555), which outlines measures for a high common level of cybersecurity across the Union. The DORA Regulation, effective in Bulgaria since January 17, 2025, imposes requirements on the financial sector and its ICT providers. What is NIS2 and which key areas and companies in Bulgaria will be affected was presented in detail by Ivan Pepelov (IDVKM). He also elaborated on how Identity Management can help achieve compliance with the norm. Irina Yaneva (Ernst & Young) provided detailed insights into how NIS2 and DORA will impact businesses in Bulgaria and what steps are needed for compliance, from a lawyer and an auditor point of perspective.
Stefan Beissmann (DE) from Horvath & Partners emphasized that legal requirements can be more than obligations and also serve as a driver for organizational optimization and improvement. Alexander Zhekov (BG), ESCOM showed easy and secure technologies for scanning documents and transcription of its information into digital environment. This logically lead to the question – how close is the EU to adopting digital documents under the common European eIDAS 2.0 framework? Petar Chardakov presented Ubiqu’s already implemented solution, offering a glimpse into what’s possible today and what’s ahead for digital identity in Europe.
The “Cybersecurity” panel explored the relationship between identity and security. Ivan Pepelov (BG) from IDVKM showed how the different pillars of Identity Management can improve your cyber security posture. Robert Gray (UK) from Heimdahl and Rolf Schmid (DE) from Digital Solutions & Consulting AG shared practical examples of successful cyberattacks and how they would have been prevented. Ivan Denchev (BG) from Versasec showed a practical example how an organization creates its own Personalized Identity Credential Architect.
The session concluded with a powerful live cyberattack simulation by Boris Goncharov (BG), AMATAS, illustrating the real-world risks of sensitive data breaches and the importance of proactive defense. It emphasized why we should not trust blindly code generated by AI.
The final panel of the day in the business track focused on the future of Identity and Access Management (IAM), under the theme “Strategy.”
Hristian Daskalov (BG) from the European Digital Innovation Hub “Trakia“ opened the panel with insights into EU funding opportunities and introduced the Pan-EU Innovation Ecosystem—a collaborative platform for sharing best practices across borders. Session continued with presentation by Roland Franze (DE) from Nexis, that addressed emerging risks posed by the complexity and sheer amount of non-human identities in an identity management ecosystem and showed some strategies how to manage them.
Later in the panel Ivan Pepelov (BG) from IDVKM showed some strategies to replace legacy Identity Management Systems or build them from scratch. As an addition – in a joint presentation with Galin Ganchev (BG) from Noventiq the two experts explored strategies for using existing partners and their licenses for IDM and if there is a need to upscale these capabilities with additional tools. The panel concluded with Michael Kunz (DE) from Nexis, who demonstrated flexible role management and process automation tools designed to support scalable and secure identity governance.
Technical Track: Identity in Action
The “Identity Governance and Administration” session featured live technical demonstrations tackling key challenges in identity management—ensuring the right access, at the right time, in the right way.
In the Identity Governance and Administration session, experts from IDVKM – Desislava Branimirova, Deyan Denev, Vasil Buhov, and Georgi Byutyunev – demonstrated different features of IGA tools in real use case scenarios
- People joining the enterprise and thus getting the needed access to IT applications just in time and according to the principle of least privilege
- Detection of unauthorized access to an IT application in an IGA environment
- Simplifying role models and giving people access at the right time using dynamic roles
- Applying Segregation of Duties to avoid conflict of interests and concentration of power
The Unified Identity Security Platform panel featured Michael Kunz (DE), Nexis on how AI assists in definition, organization and life cycle of roles in an enterprise. Bozhidar Navchev (BG), IDVKM showed passwordless authentication as an alternative to standard one. In addition – his colleague Valentin Hristov (BG) demonstrated in real-time access monitoring with Privileged Access Management.
A Growing Forum for Identity and Security
For the second consecutive year, the event brought together business and IT leaders, CISOs, risk and compliance experts, and other professionals from across the region. The engaging discussions and practical demonstrations underscored the growing importance of cybersecurity and pivotal importance of digital identity management and the need for continued collaboration and dialogue in this space.
“In the modern digital environment, identity management is a strategic necessity, not an option. Through the Bulgarian Identity Conference, we want to build a community in which experts and leaders unite knowledge and efforts for a more secure and sustainable digital ecosystem,” commented Ivan Pepelov, CEO of IDVKM.
The whole event outlined that Identity is a cornerstone of cybersecurity and a very important element of compliance.
0 Comments