OzCyber Unlocked AustCyber

To celebrate International Women’s Day on 8 March, Michelle Price sits down with three leading women in cyber and technology. Joining us on episode 19 of OzCyber Unlocked is Kate Pounder, Chief Executive Officer of The Technology Council of Australia, Professor Lesley Seebeck, Honorary Professor at the ANU and in our spotlight, we’re joined by Melinda Cilento, CEO of CEDA. 
Despite the clear business case for gender parity, women are still significantly underrepresented in senior executive teams across the nation’s top public companies, as well as being underrepresented in the pipeline for these roles. 
In this episode, Michelle Price asks our panel about how we can get more women in to positions of power and why only there are only 18 women leading companies in Australia’s top 300 listed ASX companies. 
We’re also discussing some sobering statistics found by the 2021 Australian Census that it will take 65 years for women to hold 40 percent of executive leadership positions in Australia and whether gender quotas are helping women or hindering them. 
Kate and Lesley reflect on their careers, offer some fantastic advice and talk about why stereotypes and discrimination have no place in our modern society. 
For the special edition of our spotlight, Melinda Cilento speaks about the economic cost of a lack of diversity and what benefits diversity and inclusion can bring to not only the financial side of a business, but day-to-day operations. In fact, Melinda points us to research out of Canada that shows organisations that had three or more female board members, managed cyber security risks better than those with fewer. 
“The more diversity and inclusion – the better” 
Useful links:
Australia's gender equality scorecard: https://www.wgea.gov.au/publications/australias-gender-equality-scorecard
 CEW Census: https://cew.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/CEW-Census-2021-Media-Release-210908.pdf

https://apo.org.au/node/313941#:~:text=Key%202021%20findings%20include%3A,%2Dlisted%20companies%20(6.2%25)


 

It’s our first episode of OzCyber Unlocked for 2022! This month, AustCyber's CEO Michelle Price speaks to two passionate advocates for building Australia’s next generation of cyber employees - Evan Williams, the Australian Director at Microsoft 365 Business Group and Dr Bobby Cerini, Questacon’s General Manager of Science and Learning & Deputy Director.
Dr Cerini runs us through Questacon’s new Australian Cyber Ready Program, which was launched during Australian Cyber Week. Designed for students aged 8-13 and their teachers, the program aims to improve cyber security skills, awareness and job readiness through a series of interactive and creative challenges. 
AustCyber has also partnered with Microsoft to deliver a new Cyber Security Traineeship Program. Mr Williams discusses why this program is important for participants, industry and our economy, and explains how cyber ‘boot camps’ will encourage anyone from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines to get involved in the sector with a focus on diversifying the talent pool.
We also discuss how we can continue to build, inspire and ensure programs such as these continue well into the future. 
This month, our spotlight features Dr James Curran from Grok Academy. A not-for-profit organisation, Grok Academy is the amalgamation of the Australian Computing Academy (ACA) and Grok Learning. Their focus is to educate, empower and inform through learning platforms, curriculum, professional development, and teaching resources. 
Useful links: 
Questacon’s Cyber Ready Program – https://www.questacon.edu.au/cyber-ready-programQuestions –  cyberready@questacon.edu.auCyber Security Traineeship Program (site to be relaunched soon) –  https://www.megt.com.au/news/2019/12/cyber-security-traineeship-program Volunteer at Grok Academy – grokacademy.org or support@groklearning.com 

This month, we look back at what has been one of the most challenging years on record. The pandemic and lockdowns dictated changes to our ways of working. On the upside, we all became more deeply connected to the cyber physical world around us. Unfortunately, it also meant greater risk from cyber criminals and foreign state actors.
In episode seventeen of ‘OzCyber Unlocked’, AustCyber’s CEO Michelle Price speaks to Hamish Hansford (Group Manager and Head of the Cyber and Infrastructure Security Centre at the Department of Home Affairs) and Chris Painter, (President of The Global Forum on Cyber Expertise Foundation) about how the speed of change has exposed new vulnerabilities; how we can protect our digital borders; the progression of critical infrastructure legislation; the ongoing cyber skills shortage in Australia, and the big trends that will have an impact on 2022 and beyond.
This month, our cyber spotlight features Vikrim Sharma (Founder and CEO of Quintessence Labs). In a world where data is too important to be compromised, Quintessence Labs delivers powerful data protection, enhanced by the quantum power of nature. This includes centralised enterprise key and policy management, a high-speed true random number generator, an integrated hardware security module, and highly secure encryption for data in uncontrolled environments.
For more information about the organisations featured, visit:
Cyber and Infrastructure Security Centre at the Department of Home Affairs: www.cisc.gov.auThe Global Forum on Cyber Expertise Foundation: www.thegfce.org Quintessence Labs: www.quintessencelabs.comCatch up previous episodes of ‘OzCyber Unlocked’ during the Christmas break:
Under siege: Are we ready for a cyber attack on Australia’s hospital system?: https://bit.ly/3m5wv0EThe state of Australian cyber – 2021 observations from retired MAJGEN Dr Marcus Thompson: https://bit.ly/3dOsU2yIntentional or unintentional? The impact of insider threats: https://bit.ly/3ueW4ixThe Essential Eight – keeping your digital infrastructure secure: https://bit.ly/3lW2LCuCyber threat intelligence – a deep dive into why it matters: https://bit.ly/2ZEd4nr'Cyber shift’ – how do we improve diversity & workplace culture to enact real change?: https://bit.ly/3m22bDhPathways into cyber security – how to plan, upskill and maximise career opportunities: https://bit.ly/2XTrJtJ

On Monday 25 October, as part of Australian Cyber Week 2021, we hosted our first ‘AustCyber after dark’ session where we stepped through the facets of a hypothetical cyber-attack on a hospital – the impacts on and responses of the medical system, government, crucial parts of our society and how it could impact us all.
Through the eyes of Australia’s top cyber experts, including Matthew Nevin (CEO of Cybermerc), John Ellis (CISO of Bupa), Chris Painter (President of the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise) and Jessica Hunter (Acting First Assistant Director-General at the Australian Cyber Security Centre), the audience heard how Australia would respond should a potentially devastating cyber incident occur and importantly, how ready we are.
This episode was recorded live and is now released as a special edition of ‘OzCyber Unlocked’. The episode features an opening address by the Hon Karen Andrews MP, Minister for Home Affairs, and is hosted by AustCyber’s CEO Michelle Price. 

In episode fifteen of ‘OzCyber Unlocked’, host Michelle Price reflects on the topics of our past five episodes with retired MAJGEN Dr Marcus Thompson AM, a regular listener of this podcast. 
Among many things, Marcus runs his own advisory, Cyber Compass, is a strategic advisor at ParaFlare, a senior advisor to Macquarie Telecom Group, and a Director at Penten and Engineers Australia. He is also the immediate past and inaugural Head of Information Warfare for the Australian Defence Force.  
Deliberately, the topics of our last several pods are topical for all Australian organisations. This includes insider threats, the Australian Government’s Essential Eight mitigations for managing cyber risk, cyber threat intelligence, diversity in Australia’s cyber workforce and careers and pathways in the cyber industry. 
Discussion traverses these topics as they relate to the various cyber-physical challenges currently faced by the economy, the impending critical infrastructure legislative changes, and the heightened awareness around cyber-attack methods including ransomware.
This month, our cyber spotlight features Ben Whitham, Co-founder and General Manager at Penten. Founded in 2014, Penten is one of Australia’s fastest growing and successful cyber security companies focused on innovation in secure mobility, applied artificial intelligence and tactical communications security.
Useful links:
Harmonised taxonomies of security and resilience: a suitable foundation for the security discipline (a thesis by Marcus Thompson): https://bit.ly/3zKGso0MITRE ATT&CK: https://attack.mitre.org/‘Australian organisations are quietly paying hackers millions in a 'tsunami of cyber crime' (James Purtill, 16 July, ABC Science): https://ab.co/3CTg4dVEssential Eight (Australian Government; Australian Signals Directorate): https://bit.ly/3m0GlA0Penten: www.penten.comPenten’s Export Commercialisation Playbook for Australian Cyber Startups (UK Edition): https://bit.ly/3EU0tfRCatch up on the past five episodes of ‘OzCyber Unlocked’:
Intentional or unintentional? The impact of insider threats: https://bit.ly/3ueW4ixThe Essential Eight – keeping your digital infrastructure secure: https://bit.ly/3lW2LCuCyber threat intelligence – a deep dive into why it matters: https://bit.ly/2ZEd4nr'Cyber shift’ – how do we improve diversity & workplace culture to enact real change?: https://bit.ly/3m22bDhPathways into cyber security – how to plan, upskill and maximise career opportunities: https://bit.ly/2XTrJtJ

One subject that often flies under the radar in the world of cyber security is insider threats. But this is a very real risk for Australian businesses. Some of today’s most damaging security threats do not originate from malicious outsiders or malware, but from trusted insiders with access to sensitive data and systems. 

In episode fourteen of ‘OzCyber Unlocked’, AustCyber’s CEO Michelle Price speaks to Tracie Thompson (CEO and Co-Founder of HackHunter) and Dan Holman (CEO and Co-founder of WorldStack) about how human and technical threats are used to steal IP that is used in a variety of nefarious ways by cyber criminals. 

This month, our ‘cyber spotlight’ features Adam Bennett (CEO and Founder of Red Piranha). Red Piranha is an Australian cyber security company that has built a comprehensive platform of threat management tools that ensures advanced protection, threat detection and incident response.

For more information about the organisations featured, visit:
HackHunter: www.hackhunter.ioWorldStack: www.worldstack.ioRed Piranha: www.redpiranha.netAdditional links to products mentioned during the podcast:
WiFi Pineapple and O.MG Cable available at https://hak5.org/BBC video about Molka WiFi camera plague in South Korea: https://youtu.be/ggYIsnUgUdU