Beating the hackers – how three Aussie initiatives are tackling cyber risk at the source

From new tech solutions to global collaborations the organisations at Lot Fourteen are leading the way when it comes to tackling cybercrime.

Cybercrime is not just a cybersecurity issue; it’s a complex challenge that requires international collaboration, ethical considerations, and robust legal frameworks. Here we deep dive into three projects which are changing the landscape for the better.

Insider risk stops here

It was in 2013 when insider risk came to the fore, as information from an estimated 50,000 to 200,000 classified US National Security Council documents were leaked and published in the media by, then employee, Edward Snowden.

In 2024, 20 per cent of security breaches are caused by insider risks according to the Verizon 2022 Data Breach Investigations Report. Threats that come from inside organisations, are via individuals who use their authorised access—intentionally or unintentionally—to compromise networks, data or devices. These aren’t hackers, but will be current or former employees (whose access wasn’t revoked) and/or third-party contractors.

To help tackle insider risks, the Australian Cyber Collaboration Centre (Aus3C) have established AIR CoE – the Australian Insider Risk Centre of Excellence.

AIR CoE is dedicated to strengthening our nation’s cyber resilience through collaborative insider risk management. The Centre of Excellence will enable collaboration between government, industry and academia and will advance global security and resiliency through community building and knowledge transfer.

The new initiative has already brought together 700 practitioners from across Australia and the Five Eyes countries – Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

To tackle this complex and challenging issue, business functions – governance, risk, compliance, IT and HR – across industry, government and academia are working together to help learn from each other and share international best practice.

Using decoys to deceive cybercriminals

Beating cybercriminals at their own game, is the premise of this clever startup with a world-first early warning detection platform.

FIRCY, based in the Stone & Chalk Startup Hub at Lot Fourteen, uses realistic decoys and intelligence to deceive, lure and hunt cybercriminals. Its platform is built for early warning detection in cloud and non-cloud environments.

Creating decoy environments and traps the startup detects and traces cyber-attacks. This strategy of building hyper-realistic fake environments has a number of beneficial outcomes, but namely diverts and protects against hack attempts and data breaches.

By creating decoys, the platform redirects hackers to a secure location providing them with false information like usernames and passwords, which when harvested can be traced outside of the platform. It will also detect IP addresses and locations and provides a monitoring system which blocks cyber threats in real-time. Not only does it waste a cybercriminal’s time, by observing their actions it learns more about them and the outcomes they want and will collect forensic information for any prosecutions.

Founded by former AWS Principal Security Lead, Ben Potter, FIRCY is creating a unique proposition for their clients as they scale their platform.

SafeClick – new website helps protect the community

The development of a cybersecurity tool to help people combat the increase in online scams has been launched thanks to a new National Industry Innovation Network (NIIN) Cybersecurity Alliance, supported by Aus3C and Innovation Central Canberra, at the University of Canberra.

SafeClick, is an online platform that assists the public make more informed decisions about the riskiness of websites, while providing cybersecurity resources.

Developed by a group of final year IT students, SafeClick determines whether URLs can be trusted by giving a quick risk score, using an easy-to-understand traffic light system via simple dashboarding. The website is underpinned by the extensive access Cisco has to current threat intelligence tools such as TALOS and the students hope it will help people become more cyber-savvy and less susceptible to online fraud.

Cisco’s cyber security team is based at Lot Fourteen. The company works in partnership with universities including Flinders University via the NIIN, to boost the number of students pursuing technology careers through a researcher program and skill development initiatives.

Cisco Networking Academy is a global IT and cybersecurity education program that partners with learning institutions around the world to empower all people with career opportunities. It is Cisco’s largest and longest-running Cisco Corporate Social Responsibility program.

Read more stories like this on Issue_03 of Lot Fourteen’s Boundless Magazine.