Defence & Security Podcast Network

This week, Cyber Uncut looks at the launch – and the blocking – of Anthropic's latest AI models, a raft of cyber attacks on Aussie organisations, and praises the Australian Federal Police for its work at home and abroad.

AI giant Anthropic had a tough week recently. It launched its most advanced AI model yet, only to have the US government force it to block access. Cyber Daily's David Hollingworth and Daniel Croft work through what happened and its implications for organisations in the Asia-Pacific region.
And it's been a tough week – a tough month, really, for cyber criminals targeting Australian entities, and even government bodies, both state and federal, were not immune. But it also seems some cyber criminals may have been exaggerating just a little bit. Find out what happened to the NSW government and the Australian Productivity Commission – and how it impacted Aussie journalists!
Finally, the AFP has been very busy, assisting in an international takedown operation targeting vital criminal infrastructure and working with Five Eyes law enforcement agencies to combat organised cyber crime groups targeting vulnerable youth.
Just another week in cyber security.
Enjoy,
The Cyber Uncut team

How is artificial intelligence changing the world of modern defence operations, cyber security and military decision making?
In this episode of the Defence Connect Spotlight podcast, host Steve Kuper is joined by Palo Alto Networks' Tom Scully, director and principal architect for government and critical industries Asia-Pacific and Japan, and US Army Major General (Ret'd) John Davis, vice president of public sector.
The discussion explores how AI is accelerating change across defence and cyber operations, from autonomous systems and edge computing through to intelligence, trust and decision making.
Scully and Davis also examine the growing role of commercial innovation in national security and the need to secure AI-enabled capabilities from the outset.
The podcast conversation includes the following topics:
The growing use of AI, autonomy and edge computing in defence operations.
How cyber threats are evolving through AI-enabled speed, scale and sophistication.
Why governments are increasingly adopting commercial technology and industry innovation.
The importance of identity, zero trust and secure AI-by-design frameworks.
Challenges around trust, governance and human oversight in AI-enabled decision making.
The role of public-private partnerships in strengthening cyber resilience.
Finally, the conversation examines how defence leaders can prepare for the next generation of conflict while ensuring AI remains secure, trusted and operationally effective.
Enjoy the podcast,
The Defence Connect Spotlight team

When Opposition Leader Angus Taylor announced a Coalition government would develop and implement a national security strategy, many shouted, "Finally!", but delivering a strategy that is fit for purpose is more political than most would think.
 
Since the release of the nation's first whole-of-nation national security strategy in 2013, successive Australian governments have sought to mask the nation's lack of preparedness with individual but isolated strategies from across government.
 
Championed tirelessly but ultimately unsuccessfully by the late Jim Molan, a national security strategy has often been viewed as solely the remit of a narrow clique of public policy professionals with access to security briefings and the levers of power.
 
But as host Steve Kuper and geostrategic analyst Marc Ablong unpack, a truly encompassing, whole-of-nation national security strategy presents immense opportunities not just for the nation but also for the political party that recognises the challenges we face need to be overcome.
 
This conversation comes at a time when political upheaval, atomisation and social cohesion continue to challenge established and insurgent political movements at home and across the broader Western world.
 
The pair discuss the immense opportunity for the political party that understands and develops a strategy incorporating a distinct and inescapable but seemingly forgotten factor: national security begins with the individual.
 
They discuss just what makes a "good" national security strategy in the modern context, the lessons Australia can learn from the Scandinavian nations, the United States and other like-minded countries that have recognised the challenges and opportunities presented by the return of multipolar, great power competition.
 
Finally, they discuss a question, only just starting to re-emerge in the public and political consciousness: "What sort of country do we want Australia to be?"
 
Enjoy the podcast, 
The Contested Ground team

ThreatLocker's APAC director of operations, Emile Barakat, joins Cyber Daily's David Hollingworth to discuss what makes the Essential Eight so essential, the federal government's budget spend on cyber security, and the Australian outlook on cyber crime and why it happens here.

This week on the Cyber Uncut podcast, Cyber Daily deputy editor David Hollingworth speaks with Emile Barakat, the head of cyber security firm ThreatLocker's operations in the Asia-Pacific region.
ThreatLocker – and its boss, Danny Jenkins – is a big fan of Australia's Essential Eight cyber security standard, but what really makes that tick, and why is it so important? The pair discuss just why it's one of the gold standards of cyber protection and why other countries should take note.
Then it's time to consider this year's budget and the role of government in securing businesses, economies, and consumers in a world of growing cyber threats.
Finally, Hollingworth and Barakat get to grips with the local threat landscape and the human challenges of cyber security.
"Typically, an organisation will run security awareness training every quarter. Some will do it less frequently, unfortunately," Barakat says.
"Even with that training, you'll see compromises and, at times, the same employees make the same mistakes."
Enjoy,
The Cyber Uncut team

Many critics often describe Australia's glaring lack of industrial and economic complexity as a major national security challenge, while others see it as a glass jaw impacting our ability to sustain ourselves in a fight or crisis. So, what is needed?

This glaring gap in our national resilience and survivability has increasingly figured in commentary and analysis as the Indo-Pacific emerges as the epicentre of the 21st century's great game between great powers.
Increasingly, this issue has also figured strongly in our broader conversations with allies, most notably the United States, which is demanding that allies lift their defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP. Of that total, 3.5 per cent should be spent on military capabilities and the remaining 1.5 per cent on "enabling capabilities", including industrial capacity and infrastructure.
With Australia's defence spending in the crosshairs in more ways than one, shadow minister for industry and sovereign capability Andrew Hastie has ramped up his advocacy for Australia to reindustrialise to better enhance its national resilience and long-term economic and industrial capability and competitiveness.
Following his recent Anzac oration address to the University of Melbourne's Robert Menzies Institute, Hastie spoke with host Steve Kuper. The pair unpack the unique and intimate relationship between the US and Australia from the perspective of a special forces operator and how that relates to what the United States is now asking of us.
As part of this conversation, they discuss the need for a more considered industrial policy, unpacking the key hurdles that are limiting our industrial and economic competitiveness on the global stage and the pressures being faced by the allied industrial base.
The pair also unpack the economic and political opportunities that come from being a nation that, as Hastie describes, "makes things again" and how successive Australian governments have failed to capitalise on these opportunities to boost productivity, competitiveness and industrial capacity.
Additionally, they examine models of success, what Australia can learn from friends and foes alike, and embracing serious, considered and agile economic reform, including building and rewarding a more risk-accepting culture as a means of propelling the nation forward and finally breaking the shackles of the cultural dominance of tall poppy syndrome.
Finally, they also discuss an important and often overlooked question, with Hastie asking: "What sort of country do we want to be?"
Enjoy the podcast,
The Defence Connect team