Sydney AI security startup Dam Secure has raised $6.1 million (US$4m) in a Seed round led by Washington, DC-based cybersecurity and AI investor, Paladin Capital Group. Dam Secure, founded by Patrick Collins and Simon Harloff, is developing an AI-native platform for organisations to manage the security risks created by the rapid adoption of AI coding… Read more »
A British cybersecurity expert has landed a coveted tech visa for exceptional talent after he hacked an Australian government department and exposed a “critical vulnerability”. Jacob Riggs, a British national with more than a decade of experience in the cyber sector, was granted an 858 National Innovation visa in December, less than a year after… Read more »
Sydney cybersecurity SaaS platform MyCISO was named Startup of the Year at the 2025 Australian Information Security Association Awards. MyCISO tackles one of cybersecurity’s biggest frustrations: the reliance on manual spreadsheets and fragmented tools to manage increasingly complex security programs. The platform’s Security Operating System (SecurityOS) integrates assessments, risk, compliance, maturity, effectiveness, supplier security, culture,… Read more »
Data-scraping bot blocker Kasada has raised US$20 million (A$30m) in a round that values the business at $300 million. The round was backed by Swedish private equity giant EQT, with support from existing investors, including Malcolm Turnbull’s Turnbull & Partners, Westpac’s VC fund Reinventure, CSIRO-backed Main Sequence and OIF Ventures, and in the US, New… Read more »
Chief artificial intelligence officers will be appointed to every federal agency in 2026 as generative AI causes a “fundamental shift” in government operations, according to an AI Plan for the Australian Public Service (APS) released by the federal government on Wednesday. The plan will see every government worker given access to generative AI tools, as… Read more »
Last week, OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT Atlas, a web browser that promises to revolutionise how we interact with the internet. The company’s CEO, Sam Altman, described it as a “once-a-decade opportunity” to rethink how we browse the web. The promise is compelling: imagine an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant that follows you across every website, remembers your… Read more »
RecordPoint, an Australian AI and data governance scaleup trusted by regulated enterprises globally, has launched RexCommand, a free tool designed to help businesses tackle one of the fastest-growing risks in tech: shadow AI. With AI adoption soaring, new data from Anagram shows 78% of employees are already using AI tools at work—often without approval. RecordPoint CEO and… Read more »
Cybersecurity workers in Australia are losing more hours of productivity to stress and burnout than they were just a year ago, with artificial intelligence both helping and hindering the situation according to a survey commissioned by cybersecurity firm Sophos. Industry professionals have lost 4.8 hours per week to stress and burnout in 2025 — a… Read more »
Melbourne scaleup CyberCX is potentially a unicorn following plans by professional services giant Accenture to acquire the six-year-old cybersecurity platform in a $1 billion-plus deal. CyberCX was founded in 2019 by former Optus Business boss John Paitaridis and Alastair MacGibbon, the former Australian government cyber security tsar. It was created from the merger of a dozen smaller… Read more »
Closing digital skills gaps could create a $25 billion economic boost for Australia according to the 11th Australia’s Digital Pulse report, released this week by the Australian Computer Society (ACS) — the professional association of the nation’s technology professionals. A survey commissioned for the report and carried out by consultancy firm Deloitte found 77% of… Read more »
A former Western Sydney University student has been arrested and charged with allegedly hacking the institution over several years after initially seeking to exploit systems to get discounted parking. The 27-year-old woman was arrested at a property in the Western Sydney suburb of Kingswood on Wednesday, where she was charged with 20 offences including accessing… Read more »
Serial cybersecurity entrepreneur Michael Watts is back with new startup, kicking off a proactive cloud security platform, Circumvent, with US$6 million (A$9.2m) Seed round from Paladin Capital Group. Watts was previously founder and CEO of Cloud Conformity, which Paladin backed in 2018 with a US$3.1 million Series A. The following year the startup was acquired… Read more »
An Australian-American cybersecurity startup has raised US$3 million (A$4.75m) in Seed funding to develop its artificial intelligence-driven defensive systems. The round for Harmony Intelligence was led by Airtree Ventures, alongside 30 strategic investors, including First Row Partners, Maxwell Capital, and execs from Canva, Adept AI, and Plaid as well as The Lean Startup author Eric… Read more »
DeepSeek, the hedge fund-backed Chinese version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, has been prohibited on Australian government-issued systems and devices following a risk assessment by the Department of Home Affairs. Department secretary Stephanie Foster issued a Protective Security Policy Framework direction on Tuesday saying “the use of DeepSeek products, applications and web services poses an unacceptable level… Read more »
The Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company DeepSeek has rattled the tech industry with the release of free, cheaply made AI models that compete with the best US products such as ChatGPT. Users are rushing to check out the new chatbot, sending DeepSeek’s AI Assistant to the top of the iPhone and Android app charts in… Read more »
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