Strategic Alliance To Strengthen Cybersecurity In Australia

La Trobe University and a financial institution in Australia have recently announced a new Strategic Alliance to deliver research, teaching and workforce development in the critical area of cybersecurity.

As reported, the Strategic Alliance is the first step in a new partnership to tackle cybersecurity and build ongoing opportunities for both institutions and their client networks.

The Strategic Alliance agreement

The new agreement will include:

1. Research and development

The bank will work with researchers from the University to develop technical solutions, leading to commercialisation opportunities in the following areas:

1. Cyber intelligence
2. Protection
3. Digital forensics
4. Reverse engineering
5. Malware detection and response

2. Learning, teaching and graduate recruitment

The bank will contribute to the University’s sector-leading cybersecurity curriculum as a new member of the Optus La Trobe Cybersecurity Hub Advisory Committee.

They will also contribute by specialist staff teaching into the Master of Cybersecurity as guest or sessional lecturers.

Moreover, they will propose operational, technical, legal and business research questions, to be undertaken by the University’s Masters by coursework students, as capstone projects within their degree programs.

Scholarships and internships will also be given to high-achieving, employment-eligible students with the aim of adding to the future workforce pipeline.

3. Workforce development

The partners will collaborate on developing new cyber training short courses for the bank and other staff, based on the problems of the bank and its clients.

The University will provide the staff with professional short courses as well as opportunities for Research Higher Degree and Masters by Coursework programs, which includes the University’s prestigious Master of Cybersecurity program.

This program takes a multidisciplinary approach to ever-evolving cyber threats and enables students to become skilled cybersecurity professionals.

The new strategic alliance also includes the potential for both to co-invest in innovative and shared facilities, including a Security Operations Centre (SOC) and/or Cyber Laboratory in the future.

As part of the Alliance agreement, the bank’s General Manager Cyber Security and Chief Information Security Officer will join the La Trobe Cybersecurity Executive Advisory Board.

Significance of the alliance

The University’s Vice-Chancellor welcomed the new collaboration as it was critical, now more than ever, that universities and industry work together to meet the pressing challenges of cybersecurity threats.

He shared that the University is already at the forefront of research, teaching and policy development through the establishment of the Optus La Trobe Cybersecurity Research Hub.

Partnering with one of Australia’s leading banks will create new knowledge, find solutions for industry problems, and train the cyber workforce of the future.

It will provide the university with an added level of invaluable expertise.

Currently, the latest malware detection and sensing techniques are already being researched.

The partnership will grant the opportunity to expand this research to areas such as data detection and forensics analysis, which will benefit all Australians.

The bank’s Chief Enterprise Security Officer explained that the partnership marks an important step towards furthering the cybersecurity capabilities within academia and industry alike.

The bank has a mature security practice, at the heart of which is to protect customers.

Joining forces with the University will allow them to gain deeper insights, identify threats more effectively and help shape the future curriculum for the next generation.―OpenGov Asia