Cyber Uncut

Dr Ross Babbage warns that without urgent economic reform and industrial recalibration, Australia risks becoming a client state of Beijing.
Returning to the Defence Connect Podcast, strategic analyst Dr Ross Babbage delivers an unsparing diagnosis: Australia is drifting towards a future of strategic weakness, economic vulnerability and de facto dependence on Beijing – unless the nation urgently reverses course on industrial policy, governance efficiency and the information asymmetry crippling public debate.
In a wide-ranging conversation with host Steve Kuper, Babbage articulates an emerging geopolitical fracture: the world is crystallising into distinct economic camps. The first, led by the United States and including Western democracies, is erecting selective tariffs and deepened trade ties. Camp two is China and its authoritarian satellites. A third comprises developing nations watching carefully before committing.
Australia's position, Babbage argues, remains fatefully ambiguous. While virtually every Western ally has taken protective measures against Chinese manufacturing dumping and industrial subsidy – a regime he quantifies at eight to 18 times the support other nations provide – Australia has remained conspicuously reticent. China's leverage remains decisive: our iron ore and coal exports are non-negotiable parts of Beijing's strategic calculus.
The deeper problem, he stresses, runs through economic governance itself. Australia has deindustrialised deliberately over three decades, shed critical capabilities in steel and advanced manufacturing, surrendered energy cost advantage and starved investment in domestic capability. Without deliberate recalibration – smaller government, redirection of trade partnerships, strategic investment incentives – Australia defaults towards clientelism.
Equally critical is the communication void. Defence industry leaders, board chairs of major firms and even policymakers routinely tell Babbage they were unaware of the scale of Chinese subversion, intellectual property theft and coordinated disintegration operations aimed at fracturing Western cohesion.
The path forward, he argues, demands frank public briefings, ruthless priority setting and abandonment of exhausted economic orthodoxies. Without it, Australia becomes the strategic backwater Beijing expects.
Enjoy the podcast, 
The Contested Ground team

In this week's podcast, Cyber Daily's Daniel Croft and David Hollingworth argue for sovereign Australian AI, catch up with the Origin Energy data breach, uncover a Court Services Victoria hack, and ponder the efficacy of taking a foreign chat platform to court over terror content.

Should Aussie banks have access to Australian Taxation Office data to stop fraud? That's how the podcast kicks off, alongside the revelation that fraudsters are using AI to fake documents to secure massive bank loans. For Hollingworth and Croft, the answer is a resounding yes, which is also the case when it comes to sovereign AI capability, as Australian company Maincode brings its own coding agent online.
This week, Origin Energy revealed the extent of its recent data breach, while Court Services Victoria disclosed it had fallen victim to prolific hacker 2019. It's been a torrid time for data security in Australia, with even an insider threat rearing its head in a data breach at NSW Health.
Finally, the pair discuss whether or not eSafety can effectively sue chat platform Telegram over pro-terror content, while the Australian Communications and Media Authority said it is suing Optus over its Triple Zero failures last year.
Just another week in cyber security.
Enjoy,
The Cyber Uncut team.

In this week's podcast, Cyber Daily's Daniel Croft and David Hollingworth cover what happens when AI goes wild, one of Australia's biggest energy providers discloses a data breach, and Premier Jacinta Allan goes after big tech.

The podcast kicks off with a massive data breach impacting AI music-generating platform Suno, and the implications of OpenAI admitting it was one of its AI agents responsible for "malicious activity" targeting Hugging Face. AI breaking its own guardrails is a thing that is happening now, and it is something everyone in the field should be paying attention to.
Then it's on to the week in data breaches, and Hollingworth gets into the details of the Origin Energy hack, while Croft outlines the impact of an attack on a Coca-Cola subsidiary. Each one involves real impact, from personal data to company operations. And that's just the tip of the iceberg this week!
Finally, the pair find some solace in the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) revealing it found nothing wrong with Qantas in the wake of its own data breach in 2025, proving that you can do everything right when it comes to securing data, but still come to grief. And then there's good news out of Victoria, with the state government outlining its plans to tackle online harms without banning kids from social media, and limiting the spread of workplace surveillance.
Just another week in cyber security.
Enjoy,
The Cyber Uncut team

As global security deteriorates, a major new UNSW Canberra survey reveals a startling paradox in the Australian psyche: unwavering trust in the Australian Defence Force, coupled with a deep misunderstanding of its operations, widespread apathy towards increased funding, and a shocking drop in support for traditional alliances.
Australia's relationship with the ADF is reaching a strange inflection point. Joining Steve Kuper on Contested Ground, UNSW Canberra's Dr Richard Dunley and Dr Nicole Townsend reveal how the latest public sentiment data exposes a dangerous disconnect between Canberra's strategic reality and the public's expectations.
At first glance, the report offers a comforting narrative for Defence leadership. Public trust in the ADF remains impressively high, holding steady from 2025. Nearly 70 per cent of Australians trust the ADF as an institution, and over 65 per cent trust it to act ethically.
However, as Dunley and Townsend reveal, this trust is built on a foundation of profound public ignorance.
Despite escalating global tensions, most respondents admitted they are uninformed about current ADF operations. This highlights a persistent and widening gap between the ADF's complex, widespread operational commitments and the Australian public's understanding of what their military actually does.
This lack of understanding is having tangible impacts on public policy appetite. The survey found that despite Australians reporting a deteriorating perception of global security, support for additional Defence funding has flatlined, remaining steady at roughly one-third of the population. More concerningly, the researchers noted a small but significant growth in the number of respondents actively favouring cuts to the Defence budget.
"Australians are feeling less secure, yet they aren't willing to pay more for security," Kuper says, driving to the heart of the paradox.
The public seems most comfortable viewing the ADF through the lens of a highly capable emergency management agency. There is overwhelming support – over 82 per cent – for the ADF's involvement in domestic disaster relief, and strong backing (68.4 per cent) for regional humanitarian assistance.
Yet, when it comes to hard power and traditional strategic posture, the survey reveals a dramatic shift. In a major departure from the 2025 data, support for the ADF operating closely with traditional allies – particularly the United States – has plummeted by nearly 20 per cent. While a slim majority (54.4 per cent) still support these alliances, outright opposition has spiked dramatically.
Conversely, the public shows a naive optimism towards regional security treaties. Australians broadly believe the recent mutual defence treaty with Papua New Guinea will enhance security, even though only 37 per cent of respondents actually knew the treaty existed.
A similar trend of "sentiment over substance" emerged regarding veterans. While the public strongly supports government initiatives for veterans, there is a distinct lack of awareness regarding actual veteran issues or policies.
Join Kuper, Dunley, and Townsend on Contested Ground as they dissect these findings and ask the critical question: Can the ADF rely on public trust if that trust is blind?
Enjoy the podcast,
The Contested Ground team

Join Cyber Daily's David Hollingworth and Securonix's senior vice president for Asia-Pacific and Japan, Ajay Biyani, to break down why the challenge for organisations isn't replacing analysts – it's giving them the tools they need.
Security operations centres are under unprecedented pressure as cyber attacks become faster, more sophisticated and increasingly powered by AI. At the same time, security teams are expected to do more without additional staff or budget. Rather than replacing people, Biyani contends, AI is proving most valuable by filtering out false positives, correlating data across disconnected security tools, and allowing analysts to concentrate on genuine threats, threat hunting and incident response.
As AI agents become more common across enterprises, security teams will also need visibility into machine identities and automated systems, creating an entirely new attack surface that demands modern security operations and AI-assisted defence.
The message for business leaders is clear: modernise security operations now or risk falling behind attackers already using AI to their advantage. Investing in AI-powered security isn't about reducing headcount – it's about empowering analysts, improving resilience, and ensuring the organisation is prepared for the inevitable cyber incident before it happens.
Enjoy,
The Cyber Uncut Team