The iTnews Podcast

UQ Director of Cyber Security | AUSCERT Director | David Stockdale

This episode is brought to you by the 2026 iTnews State of Security report and CoreView, the leading SaaS platform for Microsoft 365 Tenant Resilience.Stay tuned until the end to hear from Andrew McAllister, Vice President of APAC Sales at CoreView, as he discusses the security implications of Microsoft 365 becoming the operational heartbeat of today’s enterprises, including the shared responsibility model and best practices for privilege management.]Our guest this fortnight is David Stockdale, the director of cyber security at the University of Queensland and also director of AUSCERTDavid talks about building resilience in a university environment, including the contribution of the cyber domain to that effort and the lessons learned from cyber that could be applied in a broader university-wide context. He also examines the trend towards platformization of capabilities - a key theme of the state of security report - and touches on the rise of Anthropic's Mythos and what it means for security teams.

ICYMI | Vocus CIO Rob Ison

Australia Post | EGM Enterprise Services | Michael McNamara

This episode is brought to you by the iTnews State of Security 2026 report. Featuring insights from CISOs and senior security leaders across Australia, the report explores the key trends and challenges shaping cyber security this year - from AI governance and identity security to Zero Trust, XDR and cyber resilience. Download your copy today to benchmark your organisation’s security strategy against the rest of the industry. Thanks to our 2026 State of Security partners - Sumo Logic, Saviynt, Virtual IT Group, CoreView, Brennan and Rubrik - for supporting this year’s report. Visit iTnews.com.au and search “State of Security 2026” to download the report now.Hello and welcome to the iTnews Podcast.Our guest this fortnight is Australia Post’s Executive General Manager of Enterprise Services Michael McNamara.Join us as we unpack Australia Post’s target state architecture and the progress of technology initiatives within the broader Post 26 strategy.We also explore the structure of Enterprise Services - how teams are organised and what it looks for in the organisations it partners with.

Telstra | Group Executive Product & Technology | Kim Krogh Andersen

This episode is brought to you by the iTnews Cloud Covered Breakfast Summit powered by Microsoft and Dicker Data. Hosted at the Ivy Sunroom in Sydney on June 4th we are bringing together technology business decision makers to discuss building AI-ready data in the cloud. With panels on stage and audience discussion sessions, the summit will cover Australia's rapid shift to public cloud as a foundation for scalable AI. Register your interest in joining us now, on iTnews.com.auOur guest this fortnight is Telstra’s Group Executive of Product & Technology Kim Krogh Andersen.Telstra has reached a significant milestone in its multi-year IT estate transformation and simplification. The telco is exiting its 20-year-old Siebel CRM, alongside technology by Teradata, Veritas and Pivotal Cloud Foundry.Join us as we unpack the retirement of systems and discuss the composable architecture that now underpins Telstra’s IT estate, which, among other things, is de-risking the telco from vendor lock-in and associated price hikes.

carsales | EGM of Technology & Data | Michelle Low

This week’s episode is brought to you by Optus.Modern work happens everywhere, and businesses need to deliver seamless digital experiences without compromising security. Smart organisations are building security into the device and the connection. Giving employees frictionless access, wherever they’re working, while the business gains visibility, control, and resilience. Talk to Optus today about our Managed Mobility Solutions.Our guest this fortnight is the executive general manager of technology and data at carsales, Michelle Low.carsales has long been data driven. Increasingly they are seeking to connect with prospective car buyers from inside of AI chat apps and ecosystems, which are proving influential in the car buying experience.They’re also putting more data into the hands of car dealers and manufacturers to help them understand what is selling and why.

Insignia Financial | CISO | James Ng

This week’s episode is brought to you by Optus. Modern work happens everywhere, and businesses need to deliver seamless digital experiences without compromising security. Smart organisations are building security into the device and the connection. Giving employees frictionless access, wherever they’re working, while the business gains visibility, control, and resilience. Talk to Optus today about our Managed Mobility Solutions.Hello and welcome to the iTnews PodcastOur guest on the podcast this fortnight is James Ng, the Chief Information Security Officer for Insignia Financial.Insignia Financial is perhaps better known by its component parts, which include the old IOOF, as well as the ANZ Wealth and MLC Wealth divisions that it acquired from ANZ and NAB respectively.It’s spent the past three years consolidating its security estate and removing duplicated effort and inefficiency from security operations processes. James starts by taking us through the current security strategy, as well as the next one under development.

Waratah-Wynyard Council and Circular Head Council | Sallie Moore-Wood

This episode is brought to you by the iTnews Cloud Covered Breakfast Summit, powered by Microsoft and Dicker Data. Join senior technology leaders from across Western Australia on 31 March at QT Perth for a practical discussion on modernising workflows into public cloud, reducing architectural risk, and understanding where edge fits into long-term cloud strategy, with insights grounded in real-world experience.Hello and welcome to the iTnews Podcast. Our guest this week is Sallie Moore-Wood, the director of governance and information systems at Waratah-Wynyard Council and Circular Head Council in Tasmania’s north-west.The two councils share personnel and a digital transformation strategy and roadmap, which covers information systems, cybersecurity and other bodies of work.We asked Sallie to drill into particularly the cybersecurity aspects of the transformation,  into some of the challenges faced so far and how these have been addressed and overcome.

Aussie Broadband | Head of Cloud and SRE | Ben O’Shea

Hello and welcome to a new season of the iTnews Podcast. We begin this year by speaking to Aussie Broadband’s Head of Cloud and SRE Ben O’Shea.Eagle-eyed iTnews readers and listeners might remember Ben’s appearance at Cisco Live in 2024, when he revealed work that was underway to build a new cloud platform for Aussie Broadband’s own internal use, and to retire older virtualisation and containerisation platforms.In this episode, we hear where that cloud platform is at a year on, we discuss Ben’s role expansion to cover SRE, and we also hear about a recent change to the company’s backup tooling.

[SPONSORED] Identity at the Centre: Why AI Is Accelerating a New Security Imperative

In this episode, iTnews host Jennifer O’Brien is joined by Stephanie Barnett, Vice President of Presales and Interim GM for Asia Pacific & Japan at Okta. Together they unpack why identity has moved from an authentication project to a board-level business layer, and why “attackers don’t break in – they log in”.You will hear how organisations across Australia, New Zealand and the wider APJ region are responding to Essential Eight-driven identity requirements, the rise of non-human identities and AI agents, and the growing challenge of fragmented identity estates. Stephanie also shares what CISOs should be telling their boards in 2026, including practical steps to reduce risk while enabling productivity and secure automation.

[SPONSORED] Private 5G powers data-driven mining

Discover how private 5G is reshaping data-driven mining. Ian Ross, Head of Enterprise, Australia and New Zealand at Ericsson explains why fast, stable onsite connectivity is now essential for safer, more productive operations, from teleremote dozers to real-time digital-twins powered by smart sensors. Learn how 5G overcomes the limits of Wi-Fi and 4G and unlocks the next wave of mining innovation.