Matt O’Kane leads Information Security Leadership for Government Course at UNSW Canberra

Ten senior government leaders have completed the Information Security Leadership for Government course, developed by Matt O’Kane from Notion Digital Forensics and delivered at UNSW Canberra.

The program, which was in development for over a year, focused on practical cyber defence through public breach case studies and real-world response strategies.

Half of the participating leaders work directly in government-related cyber roles.

During the course, participants were asked to work through public breach cases and explore how to prevent and respond to cyber threats.

The course aimed to build leadership capabilities around cyber resilience, culture, and risk response across the public sector.

Guest speakers included:

• Jim Boughton, who spoke on cyber frameworks and strategies

• Dr Catherine Mulligan from Imperial College London who discussed future strategic cyber trends

• Ross Sardi – founder of First Focus, who presented on sustainably leading high-performance tech teams in large organisations

• Marcus Alexander from Syconic Cyber

The course was supported by the UNSW Canberra executive education team, including Fleur, Nadean Mamic, and Jessica, with participants attending from across Australia.