?? Announcing Telecommunications Sector Lead at CI-ISAC Australia!

We are thrilled to announce the appointment of Dr. Huon Curtis as the Telecommunications Sector Lead for CI-ISAC Australia .

Huon brings a wealth of expertise in critical infrastructure resilience. He is among Australia’s most knowledgeable and highly respected analysts and consultants in the Telco sector with extensive experience in Australia strategic policy across leading think tanks ( Australian Strategic Policy Institute ) & the university sector, ( The Australian National University (ANU) )and globally with the UN Industrial Development Organisation, ( UNIDO ) and the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development ( OECD - OCDE ). It is an exciting time to announce Huon's leadership role at CI-ISAC Australia given the Communications Alliance also recently appointed a new dynamic and high energy CEO in Luke Coleman .

Australia's telecommunications sector is fundamental to the nation's economy and daily life. Serving as the backbone for most other sectors of critical infrastructure, this sector enables most communication, business operations, and public services. Daily, it powers the digital economy, connecting millions of people, businesses, and government agencies across the country, and supports essential services such as healthcare, finance, emergency response, and national security. As the nation becomes more reliant on digital connectivity, the telecommunications sector’s stability and security are vital to maintaining societal functions, economic growth, and global competitiveness.

Defending Australia’s telecommunications sector from cyber threats is paramount to ensuring national security and economic resilience, especially now that critical infrastructure is on the frontline of modern warfare (as evidenced by coordinated Russian cyber attacks against Ukrainian communications assets before and during military operations). Increasing cyber threats means that greater collaboration between competing telecommunications companies is essential for aggregating, sharing, and analyzing cyber threat and vulnerability information.

By working together as a sector, and cross-sectorally in collaboration with CI-ISAC Australia's cross-sector industry membership, Telco companies in Australia can share cyber information in a completely anonymous, secure, a non-government, and industry-only way to develop a more holistic sectoral and cross-sectoral understanding of emerging threats and attack patterns. This enables faster response and more robust defenses within the sector and with interdependent sectors. Cooperation not only strengthens individual Telco company defenses but also creates a collective whole-of-nation shield, where the insight gained from any one company’s threat observations not only benefits the Telco sector, but all other sectors and vice-versa. CI-ISAC's cross-sector integrated cross-sector approach helps ensure no weak links exist between the nation’s telecommunications infrastructure and all other sectors of critical infrastructure.

From 2023 to 2024, Huon led the national-first project that developed Australia's Telecommunications Resilience Profile at the Australian National University's Tech Policy Design Centre. This groundbreaking work being officially launched this Wednesday, created a principles-based cyber-governance framework and maturity model that will significantly shape resilience capabilities across the telecommunications sector.

Huon is a published thought leader in skills development, cybersecurity governance, artificial intelligence, and industry policy, with his work on AI being cited in Standards Australia's AI Standards Roadmap. He has also lectured on US economic policy at the United States Studies Centre and Political Economy at the University of Sydney.

With a PhD in International Political Economy and a First-Class Honours Degree in Economics and Social Science from the University of Sydney, Dr. Curtis is set to bring unparalleled insight and leadership to enhance resilience in Australia's telecommunications sector.

CI-ISAC Australia and its growing industry membership warmly welcomes Huon. We look forward to his contribution leading CI-ISAC Australia's collaboration effort with the telecommunications sector. Cross-sector collaboration of this kind between the Telco sector and CI-ISAC Australia provides the most cost effective & analytically effective mechanism to share, aggregate, and analyse cyber threat & vulnerability information to proactively safeguard our national critical infrastructure.

#Strongertogether #Leavenoonebehind

Australian Department of Home Affairs

Cyber and Infrastructure Security Centre

National Cyber Security Coordinator

Australian Cyber Network

InnovationAus.com