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Microsoft Announces A$5 Billion Investment In Computing Capacity And Capability To Help Australia Seize The AI Era

Microsoft Announces A$5 Billion Investment In Computing Capacity And Capability To Help Australia Seize The AI Era

WASHINGTON, D.C. – 23 October 2023 – Today Microsoft announced major digital infrastructure, skilling and cybersecurity investments in Australia to help the nation seize the artificial intelligence (AI) era to strengthen its economic competitiveness, create high-value jobs and protect the nation from the increasing threat of cyberattacks. Microsoft will invest A$5 billion in expanding its hyperscale cloud computing and AI infrastructure in Australia over the next two years – the single largest investment in its forty- year history in the ...
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Podcasts

Episode 301 Deep Dive: Ginny Badanes | Threats, AI and Influence Operations Around Elections
byKBI.Media

In this episode, we sit down with Ginny Badanes, General Manager of Democracy Forward at Microsoft, as she discusses the multifaceted threats posed by nation-state actors around elections, particularly the use of AI in influence operations. Ginny highlights the critical need for society to adopt a healthy skepticism toward information, scrutinizing the trustworthiness of sources and the potential for AI manipulation. We delve into the activities of significant nation-state actors like China, Russia, and Iran in recent elections, and the emergence of AI-driven fake news sites used for propaganda. Additionally, Ginny provides insights into the deceptive use of AI beyond political contexts, including its impact on women and financial fraud schemes.

Ginny Badanes is the General Manager of Microsoft’s Democracy Forward program, an initiative within Microsoft’s Technology for Fundamental Rights organisation. At Microsoft, protecting fundamental rights means promoting responsible business practices, expanding accessibility and connectivity, and advancing fair and inclusive societies. Ginny’s team is focused on addressing challenges to global democratic stability, with efforts aimed at safeguarding open and secure elections, promoting a healthy information ecosystem, and advocating for corporate civic responsibility. In 2024, a key focus of her team’s work was raising awareness about the deceptive uses of AI in elections and combating these cyber and AI enabled threats.

Ginny has spent her career at the intersection of politics and technology, advising presidential and senate campaigns on leveraging data and technology. She was named among Washingtonian’s 2021 & 2022 “Most Influential People” list for national security and defense.

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Business News ↓

How Organisations Can Achieve Secure-By-Design By 2030

Governments worldwide, from the UK to Australia, have set ambitious goals to enhance software security by 2030, particularly within critical infrastructure. However, achieving a secure-by-design (SBD) approach is not merely a matter of deploying advanced security tools or implementing stringent policies. Rather, it necessitates a fundamental shift in organisational culture, prioritising security at every level of...

The New Secure Communications Realities for Governments

The Eroding Trust in Consumer Messaging Apps Consumer-grade messaging apps like Signal, WhatsApp and Telegram offer basic end-to-end encryption, effectively securing the content of messages. However, encryption alone is just one piece of a much larger secure communication puzzle. These platforms fall critically short in providing four essential guarantees for government and critical infrastructure entities:...

RedCurl’s Ransomware Debut

Introduction This research, conducted by Bitdefender Labs, presents the first documented analysis of a ransomware campaign attributed to the RedCurl group (also known as Earth Kapre or Red Wolf). RedCurl has historically maintained a low profile, relying heavily on Living-off-the-Land (LOTL) techniques for corporate cyberespionage and data exfiltration. This shift to ransomware marks a significant evolution in its...

Securing AI Innovation: Why the Fundamentals of Cybersecurity Still Matter

The increasing use of AI in both defensive and offensive cyber strategies is prompting enterprises to explore new security solutions. However, as the French writer Alphonse Karr once said, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” The core question for businesses is not whether AI requires a radical rethinking of cybersecurity—but rather, what value is at risk from AI misuse, and how much of that risk...

Overcoming the Social Media Fraud Challenge with Graph Databases

Introduction Australia’s parliamentary elections are coming under increasing pressure due to the increasing amount of misinformation and disinformation being shared on social media platforms. People share content that is intentionally misleading or not based in fact. Others share this content without checking sources or its validity. The challenge is becoming more acute with the rise of AI-generated audio and video...
Microsoft’s Platforms and Services Prioritise Security from Inception, Rather than as an Afterthought cover

Microsoft’s Platforms and Services Prioritise Security from Inception, Rather than as an Afterthought

Overview Microsoft’s long-standing Executive, Bret Arsenault, Corporate Vice President and Chief Cybersecurity advisor at Microsoft, detailed Microsoft’s Secure Future Initiative (SFI) - their strategic approach to addressing emerging cyber threats and managing secure software development. With decades of experience at Microsoft, what Arsenault described as “...five different careers at the same company.”,...

Securing Society: Cyber-Physical Safety in Australia’s Critical Infrastructure

Why Cyber-Physical Security Must Be a Leadership Priority   Australia’s critical infrastructure faces escalating cyber-physical threats, with adversaries targeting industrial control systems, operational technology (OT) and critical medical services. Security failures in these environments don’t just disrupt operations; they pose real risks to public safety, national security and our economic stability. This...
Are Defenders Prepped for the Next Cyber Chapter? cover

Are Defenders Prepped for the Next Cyber Chapter?

Securing AI isn’t just about defending against cyber threats - it’s about establishing governance frameworks that ensure AI is used responsibly. With AI adoption accelerating, organisations are needing to align leadership, compliance teams, and IT security to manage risks without stifling innovation. Janice Le, General Manager of Microsoft Security, explored the on-going challenges of governing AI and the strategic...

Zero Trust – The Secret Sauce Behind Breach Readiness

Introduction For years, organizations have invested heavily in firewalls, perimeter sensors, and intrusion detection to keep attackers at bay. But as we continue to see each day, adversaries always manage to slip past these defenses. And the problem doesn’t lie in the technology, but the way in which we operate them. Enter Zero Trust – The Only Way to Operate Cyber Defense Traditionally, once a user crossed the...

Generative AI: Striking a Balance between Innovation and Overreliance

Introduction As generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) continues to evolve at lightning speed, usage by businesses will become increasingly widespread. Its uses will include automating customer service through chatbots, generating marketing content, and analysing large datasets to produce valuable insights that drive business decisions. However, these applications, while great at streamlining processes and...

Bridging AI Readiness in Australia

Introduction With AI reshaping industries at unprecedented rates, findings from the 2024 CISCO Live Report suggest Australian companies are trailing, with only four percent ready to leverage the technology, a decline from the previous year. Across APAC use cases for AI and cloud adoption are countless including enhancing cybersecurity through to transforming network resiliency, but there’s much more to be leveraged...

How To Foster An Inclusive and Empowering Workplace This International Women’s Day 2025

On the occasion of International Women’s Day 2025, Ruma Balasubramanian, President Asia Pacific and Japan, Check Point Software Technologies, discusses her thoughts on workplace diversity and its impact on making an enterprise the best place it can be. Your journey from leadership roles at Google Cloud and Cisco to your current role at Check Point reflects a wealth of experience. Could you describe how these...

Compliance In Healthcare is Not a Security Strategy

Introduction Australia’s healthcare sector is failing at cybersecurity. The latest MediSecure breach, compromising the data of 12.9 million Australians, isn’t an isolated incident—it’s a symptom of a much larger, systemic problem. The industry’s outdated, compliance-driven approach to security is not working. Without a fundamental shift towards data-centric protection, healthcare providers will continue to be...

A Supercharged Security Culture is Needed to Navigate Australia’s Cybersecurity Rules

Introduction A success marker in cybersecurity has traditionally been for an organisation to have an uneventful year - but this has become much harder to pull off. Even if an organisation manages to navigate the threat landscape without incident, it must still meet an ever-growing list of requirements just to maintain its license to operate. Australian CISOs have never had to deal with a greater number of...

CISOs and the C-Suite: The Start of a Beautiful Relationship?

Introduction Cyber incidents are no longer distant threats, and the scale of challenge is clear - 94% of organisations globally have experienced a disruptive cyberattack, with more than half facing multiple incidents. In the past year alone, data breaches at major corporations and government agencies in Australia have dominated headlines, forcing leaders to rethink their approach to security. Meanwhile,...

Exploiting Medical Devices: Attack Vectors, Cyber Threats, and Advanced Defense Mechanisms

Imagine a scenario where a ransomware attack cripples a hospital’s ventilators, infusion pumps are manipulated to deliver incorrect dosages, or a CT scanner is hijacked to serve as a launchpad for a larger network breach. These are not hypothetical situations; they are real threats that healthcare organizations face today. As medical devices become increasingly interconnected, they also become prime targets for...
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Technology News ↓

AI is No Longer an Option - It’s Essential According to the AFP cover

AI is No Longer an Option – It’s Essential According to the AFP

Introduction The Australian Federal Police (AFP) shared at the Microsoft AI Tour 2024, how artificial intelligence (AI) is remoulding crime prevention, particularly in handling large amounts of data and countering cyber threats. Ben Lamont, Chief Data Officer at AFP, and Helen Schneider, leader of the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE), discussed the ethical and operational challenges of...

RedCurl’s Ransomware Debut

Introduction This research, conducted by Bitdefender Labs, presents the first documented analysis of a ransomware campaign attributed to the RedCurl group (also known as Earth Kapre or Red Wolf). RedCurl has historically maintained a low profile, relying heavily on Living-off-the-Land (LOTL) techniques for corporate cyberespionage and data exfiltration. This shift to ransomware marks a significant evolution in its...

Countering Pockets of Resistance to Cybersecurity Action

Introduction Cybersecurity is commonly considered to involve users or people as a key part of the problem, and more than that, it’s an ‘everyone’ problem. Everyone has both a stake and role to play in securing an organisation, having mindset and awareness, and reflecting those in their actions and behaviours. But CISOs and other security practitioners know that applying organisation-wide cyber protections means...

Securing AI Innovation: Why the Fundamentals of Cybersecurity Still Matter

The increasing use of AI in both defensive and offensive cyber strategies is prompting enterprises to explore new security solutions. However, as the French writer Alphonse Karr once said, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” The core question for businesses is not whether AI requires a radical rethinking of cybersecurity—but rather, what value is at risk from AI misuse, and how much of that risk...
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