Cyber Uncut

AI is pushing financial institutions to modernise, but the answer is not to replace everything. Banks should focus on the technology, data, and processes that directly support business outcomes.

AI is putting modernisation back on the executive agenda as legacy systems increasingly limit banks' ability to adopt AI, access data in real time, and respond to regulatory and resilience demands. Atos executives Dee Lawler and Matthew Hughes argue modernisation is now a business issue, not simply a technology refresh.
"The objective to modernise isn't to modernise the technology or the most technology," Hughes says. "It's to modernise the technology that matters most."
But banks should resist the temptation to make AI the answer to everything. Leaders should first identify the business outcome they want, then determine what is holding them back – whether that is technology, data, processes, skills, or risk. Incremental modernisation can reduce operational risk while allowing organisations to measure returns, with resilience and business continuity built into the design.
The takeaway for financial services leaders is simple: modernise where technology is constraining growth, efficiency, customer experience, or resilience – not simply because AI has created a sense of urgency.
Enjoy,
The Cyber Uncut team

Daniel Croft and David Hollingworth break down the essential AI and security news of the week, from sovereign capability to cyber crime, and fighting property scams.

Hollingworth and Croft open the podcast with a breakdown of why Australian banks are standing up a new partnership program to promote the growth and adoption of local AI innovators – and explain why it's an important step in Australia's AI journey.
At the same time, NSW has said it is taking steps to combat the rise of AI in classrooms by tackling the technology and its impact on the HSC. It's a good move.
It's sadly been another bad week for Australian data finding its way onto the dark web via ransomware actors, with patient data once again compromised. But despite the hackers' claims that they hit NSW Health, the department has denied any such intrusion; the threat actor is definitely boasting, but the data is nonetheless real – Cyber Daily just doesn't know where it came from.
And, finally, we sit down with PEXA's chief information security officer, Graham Fairley, to talk property scams: how they work, what a recent survey reveals, and how property buyers can protect themselves.
Enjoy,
The Cyber Uncut team

A dramatic political shift in Western Australia has put the major parties on notice and raised a much bigger question: what happens to Australia's national resilience when voters stop trusting the institutions that govern them?
Hosts Phillip Tarrant and Major General (Ret'd) Dr Marcus Thompson examine the rise of populism in Australia and why growing political polarisation, cost-of-living pressures and economic frustration should be viewed through a national security lens.

They unpack the erosion of trust in government and institutions, the weakening of Australia's traditional political centre and the risk that social division creates opportunities for foreign interference, information warfare and malign influence.

Finally, the pair look north to the Pacific Islands Forum, currently underway, and Australia's increasingly contested strategic environment. With China seeking greater influence across the region, Taiwan remaining a flashpoint and several Pacific leaders absent from the forum, they discuss why Australia can no longer take its relationships in the Pacific for granted.
Enjoy the podcast,
The Contested Ground team

Join David Hollingworth and Daniel Croft for this week's round-up of cyber security and artificial intelligence news!

The pair kick things off with the startling revelation that young Australians are turning to AI for their financial advice, as cost-of-living pressures bite. Can AI help get your finances in line? The jury is very definitely out.
Then it's on to the impact of cyber crime on Australian businesses, with a relative newcomer ransomware groups targeting Aussie car and automotive dealers. Is it happenstance, or have the hackers found a vulnerable third party, in common with all the victims, to exploit?
Finally, Hollingworth and Croft take a look at massive changes coming to Facebook and Instagram as Meta settles a US court case alleging the company's actions to create addictive content to capture the teen market. A definite good thing, but Meta wants the industry to go further.
Enjoy,
The Cyber Uncut team

Microsoft 365 is the backbone of many Australian businesses – but are organisations doing enough to secure the platform itself? Tune in to David Hollingworth and CoreView's vice president of APAC sales, Andrew McAllister, as they tackle the risks and what businesses can do to build genuine resilience.
Microsoft 365 may be ubiquitous, but that doesn't mean it is secure by default. Hollingworth and McAllister explore the often-overlooked risks lurking in tenant configurations, administrative privileges and guest accounts, and explain why organisations need to take greater responsibility for how their Microsoft environments are configured and governed.
The conversation also examines how attackers are exploiting compromised admin accounts to manipulate settings, bypass security controls, and gain deeper access to sensitive data. McAllister explains why the traditional Microsoft 365 admin model can create an unnecessarily large blast radius, and how organisations can apply least privilege, role-based access and tighter identity controls to reduce their exposure.
Finally, Hollingworth and McAllister examine what a mature Microsoft 365 resilience strategy should look like – from establishing a secure configuration baseline and detecting configuration drift to automated remediation and recovering the tenant itself after a serious compromise.
Listen to the full episode to find out why backing up your data isn't enough – and what organisations need to do to protect the "glass" holding it.
Enjoy,
The Cyber Uncut team