Round Two: Day Two

I don’t remember much of round two. The adrenaline dump was real and my memory of what happened is scattered. Unlike my overflowing note book from CyberCon, I don’t have my scrawled GP-style handwriting to refer to. I have glimpses of memories, like backing my opponent up into the corner but being unable to will my legs to move in and finish the combo.

The rest of the memories are what I’ll call ‘witness accounts’ from my corner and friends and family watching at home. They tell me my opponent looked mad when I punched her (seems reasonable) and she would charge inside with some windmill arms while I shot long straight, accurate and hard punches at her head – which kept bouncing back. Alas, that seemed to be round two. I remember very little except for a slight frustration in being unable to use my footwork to manage distance and a strong desire to not quit, not now, not ever.

Day two of CyberCon was less dramatic, it started with breakfast with members of the Australian Women in Security Network where I was incepted with a bunch of new pathways to apply communication skills to and new areas to continue developing my technical skills. It was fabulous to hear from these inspiring people about what they do, how they arrived there and what they’re excited about.

Something which struck me from the very beginning of CyberCon and across my forrays into various spaces in the sector these last 18 months, is how passionate the professionals who work in the space are, and how there is an openness to the sector which I haven’t experienced in other sectors – it’s refreshing and energising.

Despite beginning my day in a more civilised manner than round two of my boxing match, day two still proved to be full of fantastic stories, Geoffrey Robertson kicked off D2 with his keynote. One of the highlights was hearing his account of visiting Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, and the shambles of a failed CIA attempt to spy on their confidential conversation via a proxy – a dodgy Spanish surveillance team.

It was a funny and insightful talk for anyone who has an interest in espionage, human rights and the scope of the human experience. Robertson also raised some important questions such as the oft-repeated ‘guardrails’ in AI development, specifically the lack of clarity on what those guardrails are or what they’re guarding.

‘Future is now: Cautious reflections and bold predictions on cyber security in the years to come’ was a panel discussion featuring Ian Yip, Chathura Abeydeera, Katherine Robins, Dushyant Sattiraju moderated by Ivano Bongiovanni. Key themes which came up in this lively discussion were the lack of Government investment developing the start-up culture in Australia, leading entrepreneurs to look overseas. It was strange to learn that despite boasting 5 quantum computing companies, the Australian Government invested in a US company to further the nations quantum computing goals. Other notable topics were data poisoning, skills shortage and tech debt. All jotted down for future study.

I took advantage of the breaks to catch up with some people I had met via the multiple platforms and networks I’m now happily part of – it’s so nice to put faces to LinkedIn profile photos and Slack and Discord chats. I also dropped by Cybereen to say hi and thank Adri Leite of Cliffside Security for facilitating fortnightly mentorship meetings – which have been invaluable to navigating entry into the cybersecurity space.

‘Building a cyber champion in an NFP’ was a talk which was close to my heart as I had spent an early chunk of my career working in the NFP sector. Looking back now, through a cyber lens, the management of data and balancing Government reporting requirements with stretched organisational budgets and resources is a challenging riddle to solve. Adrian Bole, Danny Wen and Rodney Anderson provided actionable advice on navigating this and provided another new perspective of cyber to consider.

‘L’affaire du télégraphe. The Bordeaux hackers of 1834’ with Darren Arnott was a nice chunk of history about an analogue hack that was executed beautifully. The story of the Bordeaux hackers once again illustrated that humans have always looked for ways to breach a system; while some resist the urge to act others cannot ignore the potential gains.

The talk which stayed with me the most, and was my favourite during my CyberCon experience was ‘A cyber journey around the world – Are we ready for a cyber war?’ with Odaya Amsellem. Early on Amsellem detailed her history, which included service in the Israeli Defence Force, near Jerusalem and the gaza Strip. She now calls Australia home and is an AISA WA committee member. Despite her accomplishments and keen insights; a number of audience members walked out of the room.

For me, assessing the threat landscape and Australians response seems like a vital conversation that very few people are engaged in and the birth place of Amsellem provided substance to support her arguments, as she stated ‘even Israeli children know how to create a strong password’.

I enjoy learning and thinking about geopolitics, so I found value in considering the global implications of what Australia does and does not do. In her talk, Amsellem called for a sense of urgency ‘Australia has to wake up – we have a responsibility to the people’ and this talk, more than any other got me thinking about the direction that I take my career and where the high-impact areas may be. Considering the might of offensive security deployed by the US, Israel and Russia and the flex of cyber deterrence, in comparison Australia looks mid. These nation-states play the long game, visible in events such as this years pager attack by Unit 8200 – which was 15 years in the making.

Several audience members hung around to chat with Amsellem after the presentation concluded, and I shared that considering Australia’s position in the Five Eyes Alliance, the need for urgency should be obvious. Even for a newbie like me, it seems we are underforming on our responsibilities and perhaps not taking threats and education seriously enough. Based on the responses to cyberattacks in the last few years, and new cybersecurity legislation passed last week, the answer does appear to be no, we’re not ready for a cyberwar.

Day two wrapped with a brilliant keynote by Mikko Hyppönen, ‘No turning back: We can’t uninvent things’ There were so many quotes filling my notebook from CRO Hyppönen such as ‘Internet deleted geography’ As he illustrated, the rate at which technological development has occurred is truly staggering when we pause to consider it. On quantum computing, Hyppönen warned that intelligence gathering will be on ‘a scale we’ve never seen’ and as with all technology every downside has an upside, but once the genie is out of the bottle it can be harder to manage.

With one day left I strolled through the city for some air – my mind full of new ideas and concepts, and in the boxing ring? Well, I can’t quite remember going back to my corner because that adrenaline dump was real. I do remember hearing the bell for the third round though, and knowing that the clock was ticking, it was time to bring it all home.