Today, the New South Wales Government and six leading universities announced a new body to collaborate on cyber security research and skills development: the NSW Cyber Security Network. 

The network is backed by a $2 million investment by the Berejiklian Government and led by the University of New South Wales, which Commonwealth Bank has collaborated with in this area for several years under the SECedu program. It promises to foster collaboration between cyber security researchers and teachers at Macquarie University, the University of Newcastle, the University of New South Wales, the University of Sydney, the University of Technology, Sydney, University of Western Sydney and University of Wollongong.

Commonwealth Bank welcomes this investment and looks forward to further collaboration with the NSW Government and our industry peers.

“Commonwealth Bank views cyber security as a shared responsibility for government, industry, academia and the whole community,” said Yuval Illuz, chief information security and trust officer at Commonwealth Bank. “Collaboration and investment in technical talent and research are the key ingredients to building capability. 

The stated goals of the network are aligned to what the bank and UNSW set out to achieve with SECedu, a cyber security capability program established in early 2016 that aims to train the next generation of cyber security professionals. 

Over the past two years, SECedu has:

• Provided UNSW students with a new Security Engineering Lab for hands-on teaching of security courses;
• Co-developed a set of new, applied cyber security courses, including web application security and digital forensics;
• Provided UNSW students ready access to industry expertise, with five Commonwealth Bank employees making hands-on contributions as teachers; 
• Provided high school students (with emphasis on young women) exposure to cyber security careers;
• And supported the postgraduate research of several UNSW students.

The NSW Cyber Security Network is the next logical step in developing a state-wide capability. Each university involved demonstrates specialist strength in discrete aspects of cyber security – between them they boast world-class research in everything from machine learning and anomaly detection to network security, cryptography and system assurance.