Cyber security

A cybersecurity founder who had a $100 million exit is back with a new idea and a $9.2 million Seed round from Paladin Capital

- June 16, 2025 2 MIN READ

Serial cybersecurity entrepreneur Michael Watts is back with new startup, kicking off a proactive cloud security platform, Circumvent, with US$6 million (A$9.2m) Seed round from Paladin Capital Group. Watts was previously founder and CEO of Cloud Conformity, which Paladin backed in 2018 with a US$3.1 million Series A. The following year the startup was acquired… Read more »

Chris Mathwin, James Dao, Jackie Vullinghs, Soroush Pour
AI/Machine Learning

US-Australian cybersecurity startup hacks $4.75 million Seed round

- March 10, 2025 2 MIN READ

An Australian-American cybersecurity startup has raised US$3 million (A$4.75m) in Seed funding to develop its artificial intelligence-driven defensive systems. The round for Harmony Intelligence was led by Airtree Ventures, alongside 30 strategic investors, including First Row Partners, Maxwell Capital, and execs from Canva, Adept AI, and Plaid as well as The Lean Startup author Eric… Read more »

DeepSeek
AI/Machine Learning

Chinese gen AI app DeepSeek has been banned from Australian government devices

- February 5, 2025 2 MIN READ

DeepSeek, the hedge fund-backed Chinese version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, has been prohibited on Australian government-issued systems and devices following a risk assessment by the Department of Home Affairs. Department secretary Stephanie Foster issued a Protective Security Policy Framework direction on Tuesday saying “the use of DeepSeek products, applications and web services poses an unacceptable level… Read more »

DeepSeek.
AI/Machine Learning

Chinese AI DeepSeek has big privacy and security problems – here’s what it knows about you

- February 5, 2025 3 MIN READ

The Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company DeepSeek has rattled the tech industry with the release of free, cheaply made AI models that compete with the best US products such as ChatGPT. Users are rushing to check out the new chatbot, sending DeepSeek’s AI Assistant to the top of the iPhone and Android app charts in… Read more »

Cyber security

National Reconstruction Fund slings $22.5 million at data security startup Vault Cloud

- December 20, 2024 2 MIN READ

The National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC) has gone into Christmas shopping mode, investing nearly $50 million in two days in two tech companies, today announcing $22.5 million for 12-year-old sovereign cloud data security company Vault Cloud. The equity investment comes just 24 hours after leading a $50 million raise for Adelaide IoT and satellite maker… Read more »

Alastair Macgibbon
Cyber security

Tech giants are ‘wilfully blind towards criminality on their sites’ says Australia’s former cybersecurity boss

- November 1, 2024 3 MIN READ

Social media companies are being “contemptuous” to the Australian people and have done “nothing” to help protect their users from scams and crimes, according to former government cyber security tsar Alastair MacGibbon. MacGibbon, who after a 15-year career with the Australian Federal Police served as special adviser to the Prime Minister on Cyber Security and… Read more »

AI/Machine Learning

‘Near tech’ workers are the solution to Australia’s cyber security & AI skills shortfall: ACS

- October 23, 2024 3 MIN READ

Australia is struggling to find technology workers with the right cyber security and artificial intelligence skills but could tap 1.1 million “near tech” workers with similar capabilities to reskill and support the workforce, the 10th annual ACS Australia’s Digital Pulse report has found. Demand for cyber security skills has increased by 80% in Australia since… Read more »

Cybersecurity
Cyber security

Cracking your first job in cybersecurity can be hard – here’s how to do it

- October 18, 2024 7 MIN READ

Despite Australia’s everlasting cyber security skills shortage, graduates and industry newcomers are struggling to get a foot in the door. AustCyber’s latest Sector Competitiveness Plan showed some 125,791 people were employed in the Australian cyber security workforce in 2022, with 51,309 of those workers in roles with a “dedicated focus” on cyber security. Meanwhile, it’s estimated 85,000… Read more »

smart devices connected at home
Cyber security

The Australian government wants to set minimum cybersecurity standards for smart things in your home

- October 16, 2024 3 MIN READ

The Australian government has introduced its first-ever standalone cyber security act. Along with two other cyber security bills, it’s currently being reviewed by a parliamentary committee. Among the act’s many provisions are mandatory “minimum cyber security standards for smart devices”. This marks a crucial step in defending the digital lives of Australians. So what devices… Read more »

Cyber security

Industry lobby group Australian Cyber Network launches in the wake of AusCyber’s demise

- October 14, 2024 3 MIN READ

Australia’s cyber security industry has welcomed a new advocacy and growth champion with the launch of the Australian Cyber Network (ACN) – a not-for-profit set to pick up where its predecessor AustCyber left off. Launched Wednesday at Parliament House in Canberra, ACN said its goal is to address the “current and future needs” of Australia’s cyber security… Read more »

Fred again...
Cyber security

Cybersec startup Kasada took a deep dive into how scalpers use bots to grab tickets to gigs like Fred again… and found a massive problem

- March 15, 2024 5 MIN READ

Fred again.., one of electronic music’s hottest artists, secretly arrived in Australia on February 27. In true Fred again.. fashion, that very same day, he announced a raft of shows in arena-sized venues across Sydney, Melbourne, and the Gold Coast. According to multiple sources, this amounts to over 100,000 tickets for shows in the coming… Read more »

robot typing
Politics

myGov is getting rid of passwords as part of its upgrade

- January 1, 2024 3 MIN READ

MyGov will be modernised with passwordless logins and a new Digital Inclusion Standard, the federal government has announced in responding to a scathing audit that warned current legislation “impedes service delivery” through the underfunded platform. The government’s response to the myGov user audit – an election promise that began in September 2022 as a “myGov revolution” and handed down its findings in… Read more »

cyber hacking
Cyber security

The data breach at DNA biotech 23andMe reveal the risks of interconnected data

- October 30, 2023 3 MIN READ

On Oct. 6, news broke that 23andMe, the genomics company that collects genetic material from thousands of people for ancestry and genetic predisposition tests, had a massive data breach. But as it turns out, the company’s servers were not hacked. Rather, hackers targeted hundreds of individual user accounts — allegedly those that had repeated passwords.… Read more »