AUSCERT: What’s next in 2019?

AUSCERT: What’s next in 2019?

It’s been a month since the wrap up of our annual AUSCERT Cyber Security Conference and we’re now at the start of the second half of 2019. To kick things off for the rest of the year, allow us to recap a few initiatives we’ve accomplished in the industry and goals that our team’s looking forward to achieve in the next six months: 

“It’s Dangerous to Go Alone”

In honouring the theme from our conference, we have joined forces with the Council of Australasian Directors of Information Technology (CAUDIT) and Australia’s Academic and Research Network (AARNet) to create the Australasian Higher Education Cybersecurity Service (AHECS). Together with CAUDIT and AARNet, we are working together to address the industry’s unique cyber security challenges, with an aim to develop coordinated services that are tailored to the Australasian higher education and research sectors. This AHECS initiative will span across several tertiary institutions to build group strength and a trusted community through engagement, advocacy, and support.

In addition to this, we continue to work with the Department of Premier and Cabinet and all of the Victorian Government workforce, one of the largest and most diverse enterprises in Australia – both in delivering our member services as well as providing their team with an in-house training module on the topic of ‘Incident Response Planning’

Both of these examples showcase our commitment for our members to “Empower their People, Capabilities and Capacities” by providing an extension of their workforces and channelling the expertise gained from an AUSCERT membership directly into their business processes. 

Training courses with AUSCERT 

We are continuing with our training workshop offerings to our members and the wider information security community by providing the following options: 

1. Incident Response Planning
   Be equipped with the tools to write a bespoke incident response plan for your organisation 
   
   
2. MISP
   Set-up, configure and integrate Malware Information Sharing Platform into your organisation’s cybersecurity defense strategy 

3. Cyber Security Risk Management
   Gain the confidence to perform a risk assessment of cyber security risks and the ability to rate and assess business risks rather than technical vulnerabilities

4. Introduction to Cyber Security for IT professionals 
   Understand information security principles, cyber security as a risk to business objectives; and cultivate an appreciation of the current cyber threat landscape

Cost 
$990 for members 
$1980 for non-members

Customised in-house or group training options 
At AUSCERT we are also able to develop tailored industry and/or government content with each of our members and clients to ensure that the resulting workshop meets their needs and objectives – P.O.A 

To find out more on each of these training courses – let us know what topic(s) you’re interested in, number of people from your organisation and city/state location – please contact us via membership@auscert.org.au 

New services: MISP feed (AusISAC) and ADIR

Over the past couple of years, AUSCERT has coordinated and run a highly-successful information sharing group for the tertiary education sector, and we are pleased to announce the establishment of an AUSCERT Information Sharing and Analysis Center (AusISAC); now available to general members. Members who join will be given access to our MISP platform, where we share a curated feed of threat intelligence gathered from multiple sources, and our own malware and threat analysis. 

Cost of service: $20,000

Sign up now and receive a complimentary half-day remote MISP training session (we will cap these sessions at a maximum of 5 participants in each class!). Please note that members who subscribe to this service cannot use it for commercial purposes. 

We have also launched the AUSCERT Daily Intelligence Report (ADIR) service. ADIR is a daily summary of information security news, with a focus on the Australian cyberspace. To sign up, send us an email via membership@auscert.org.au.

UQ Cyber Security Initiative 

One of the most exciting projects we’ve been lucky to be involved in this year has been our relationship and collaboration with colleagues from UQ’s School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering through their Cyber Security Initiative. In the next six months or so, our collaboration with this team will continue to evolve in a few different ways: 

• 1 August, public seminar by Professor Corey Schou from Idaho State University  
• 30 September to 4 October, (ISC)2 and CISSP CBK training
• ‘UQ Cyber Squad’ – allowing students from any field of studies and course level to represent the University at local and international cyber-security competition 
  

Mike Holm 
AUSCERT Operations Manager