AISA CyberCon 2023 Wrap
WOW. I don’t know how I am supposed to cover our experience at the 2023 AISA Cyber Conference in words but I’m going to give it go!
Amelia, Tom, Ben and I, the entire e2 Cyber Warriors’ Team, have never been to this event before so in some ways, we didn’t have anything to compare to. But it far exceeded the expectations any of us had before we walked into a sea of passionate cyber professionals and advocates.
Tuesday was an early start for both Amelia and I flying into Melbourne from our respective cities. Once we rounded up Ben and Tom from the Melbourne office, we were on route to the Exhibition Centre. After signing in, we made our way to listen to Leanne Ngo speak about reimagining cyber security education and closing the skills gap. Key takeaways was the benefits of organisations collaborating with education institutions and the importance of promoting human skills in the industry.
After a parmi (yes parmi not parma – a hot debate amongst the team) we heard Nickleby Thane’s overview of the Aviation ISAC and how it protects our skies from cyber threats before listening to Colin Smith deliver a highly entertaining presentation on “Is Pen Testing a Scam?”. Key takeaways from this session was to focus on the business context, and if the risk is even an impact for business or is it raised because the cyber person thinks it’s a risk. He still didn’t answer the question though!
After a stroll through the extensive exhibitors and bumping into old and new friends, we rounded out our day with a cheeky burger and beer in preparation for Wednesday.
The biggest of the 3 days by far, Wednesday required caffeine and a divide-and-conquer prep talk for who was attending which sessions. Dan Maslin and Nick McKenzie delivered a great presentation on how Monash University has implemented the Bug Crowd tool with some very confronting real-world statistics and numbers. We landed back at the pub for lunch (sadly no parmi’s today) and then into the exhibition area to learn more about what is happening in the industry.
After a bag full of merch and some great conversations, we caught Glen Wither’s session on the human factors. He highlighted how social factors play a significant role in cyber security as they influence human behaviour and decision-making. The key takeaway was that the most important solution to reduce human risk is understanding your own organisation, with a great importance on the social factors to ensure you are one step ahead of the attackers. We followed this up with Colin Howe’s very interesting session on the psychology of cybercrime.
The keynote address was delivered by Olympic Gold Medallist Cathy Freeman and Tony Armstrong. Inspiring on so many levels, they covered topics such as work ethic, commitment, resilience and determination all being factors to their individual success. After a few cold drinks in the exhibition area, we headed off to the Block Party. This was crazy, a whole street closed off for the cyber community to eat, drink, dance and let our hair down. I had great conversations with people who inspire me in the industry (no names to keep egos under wrap – haha!) and got to finally meet a candidate I placed in his first role many years ago, having never met due to geographical challenges!
My Thursday alarm was “snoozed” a few times but with Chris Hadfield giving the keynote address, I secured a decent seat for the 9am start. For those who don’t know, Chris Austin Hadfield is a Canadian retired astronaut, engineer, fighter pilot, musician, and writer. The first Canadian to perform extravehicular activity in outer space (quote from Wikipedia). Pretty cool!
The “cyber wiggles” delivered a great view of what their personal experiences were moving into the cyber field, the challenges they faced and how they overcame them. Ben and Amelia begged to give “FIVE GUYS” burgers a go so that sorted us for lunch and then we finished the day with some chance meetings and a team pow wow.
After all of that, a delayed flight back home and a caffeine crash, let’s just say Friday was a slow day!
On reflection, we met some incredibly inspiring people, learnt more in 3 days then I have since I left school, and we truly experienced and enjoyed what the cyber industry is all about, PEOPLE. AISA knows how to put on an event and for anyone who didn’t get to the event in 2023, I’d suggest you don’t miss your chance in 2024!
I’ll definitely see you there 😊
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