What does the Australian Cyber Security Strategy mean for Startups, SMEs and their Customers?

"Security means knowing what your systems and data are, knowing your users, customers and stakeholders. Knowing what can go wrong, and knowing how you’ll protect those systems, that data, those customers." Kris Lovejoy. 

On Wednesday 13th December, Spark Festival gathered experts to give their perspectives on the recently announced Australian Government Cyber Security Strategy, unpacking its implications for Australian startups, SME's and their customers. 

Re watch the livestream here.

Guest speakers were Brendan Dowling, Ambassador for Cyber Affairs and Critical Technology and co-author of the Australian Cyber Security Strategy, Daniella Traino, Group Chief Information Security Officer (GCISO), Wesfarmers, Ian Oppermann, NSW Chief Data Scientist and Industry Professor at UTS and Kris Lovejoy, Global Practice Leader, Security and Resiliency, Kyndryl. The panel was chaired by Harry Godber, Co-CEO at Spark Festival. 

"We need to call upon the capability within Australia to build resilience, and lead the world" Brendan Dowling. 

Brendan Dowling spoke about the measures being taken by the Government to provide education, support and gather leaders and resources within Australia to build resilience.

"We need to call upon the capability within Australia to build resilience, and lead the world" Brendan remarked. "If you are building innovative tech, expect that you will be targeted. It's up to us to be prepared and ask ourselves; 'what we will do when we get here'"? 

Daniella Traino took the audience into a commercial birds-eye perspective of cyber security impacts on the way ventures now need to think, operate and plan. 

"We (at Wesfarmers) are very conscious of taking a 'National Citizen approach' to cyber security. We take a long term view on things like risk, vulnerabilities and strategies." she said. We can be reactive, playing "whack a mole" in a commercial context, but we will always need Government support to properly defend ourselves and our customers and shareholders."

Dr Ian Opperman highlighted the work that has already been done, and the knowledge that we can draw from in understanding and acknowledging outside threats. 

"We could have a tendency towards a punitive approach, or focus on the preventative. We should start from a foundation of getting our understanding of data, systems right" he said. "There are tools and frameworks that exist, the problems we face have been solved in the past". He highlighted the example of the NSW Education Data Sharing Framework and posited that the approach should be preparedness and taking preventative measures first. 

"For anyone who doesn't know you, the number one requirement is trust. How will they know they can trust you?” Kris Lovejoy 

Kris Lovejoy joined the conversation from the East Coast of the USA, bringing a global perspective. 

"We need to focus on cultural transformation, then we need to focus on tech transformation; the structure, technology, and systems needed to enable independence for startups and SMEs." She explained Kyndryl's work across the world with many different commercial and government clients. 

"Security means knowing what your systems and data are, knowing your users, customers and stakeholders. Knowing what can go wrong, and knowing how you’ll protect those systems, that data, those customers," she said. 

Kris also gave some wisdom to business leaders who might see the opportunity in leveraging a good cyber security strategy from a sales point of view. Speaking of prospective customers, she stated:

"For anyone who doesn't know you, the number one requirement is trust. How will they know they can trust you? And once they have become your customer it's about delivering value".. 

"Have a customer you can reference, who likes you, who likes what you do and will speak to others about their experience". 

Kris also spoke at length about Kyndryl's work in India with young women, to train and certify young cyber security professionals and enrich the global cyber community with a diverse perspective. 

The audience had many questions for the speakers, and there was wonderful engagement from around 100 online live viewers, and many more viewers post-event on the stream. 

This special event was made possible with support from the Australian Computer Society, Idea Spies, Advance.org, ServiceGen, Main Sequence, Tech Council of Australia, AustCyber (Part of the Stone & Chalk Group), UTS Startups, Prime Life Partners and Kyndryl. Spark is very grateful for the support of these partners and their role in supporting the broader ecosystem.