About AHECS

The development of AHECS

The Australasian Higher Education Cybersecurity Service (AHECS) was formed in 2019 as an initiative from CAUDIT members. AHECS is delivered in collaboration with Australia’s Academic and Research Network (AARNet), AusCERT, Council of Australasian University Directors of Information Technology (CAUDIT), Research and Education Advanced Network New Zealand (REANNZ), and the Australian Access Federation (AAF).

AHECS is a higher education sector collective that leverages the capabilities and expertise of its partner entities to strengthen the overall cybersecurity posture of the sector. AHECS acts as the sectors peak cybersecurity body and represents the sector on cybersecurity issues.
AHECS’s purpose is aligned to the principles of being stronger together and ‘*all boats lift on a rising tide*’. It is a collective developed specifically for the sector, by the sector, to address capability gaps and help defend the sector from continuously evolving cybersecurity threats. This is achieved through coordination of members and partners to inform direction, advocate, share intelligence, reduce barriers to the implementation of good practice, identify and act on capability gaps, and holistically defend the sector from continuously evolving cyber security threats in conjunction with key vendors.

Current activities

2023 projects	Status	Notes
AHECS 2023 Summit	In progress	Scheduled for 31 October - 03 November at Hotel Realm, Canberra.
Benchmarking	In progress	Baseline closed, analytics in progress. Maturity and Systems open end June.
Third party risk and assurance	Ongoing	Sector third party system available through CAUDIT offering.

2022 projects	Status	Project manager/s	Notes
AHECS ISAC launch	Completed	Mike Holm	CTIS connected, communication to follow early August
AHECS 2022 Summit	Completed	Nikki Peever	Working group form, venue booked, program in progress
Government collaboration	Completed	All partners	Monthly update to Executive Steering Committee
Website launch	Completed	Nikki Peever	AHECS website launched
Baseline benchmarking (2022)	Completed	Nikki Peever	Report sent to all participating institutions, summary report sent to all CAUDIT members
Systems benchmarking (2022)	Completed	Nikki Peever	Report sent to all participating institutions
Maturity benchmarking (2022)	Completed	Nikki Peever	Results sent to participating institutions, overall improvement across sector

Governance Structure

We are grateful to the volunteers who form our governance.

Advisory Council: Our AHECS Advisory Council set the direction for AHECS and meet bi-annually to oversee strategy and activities.
Executive Steering Committee: Our AHECS Executive Steering Committee meet monthly and set priorities and AHECS planning

Advisory Council

Marnie Hughes-Warrington

Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of South Australia

Matt Warren

Director of Centre for Cyber Security Research and Innovation, RMIT University

Liz Eedle

University of Canberra

Mark Gregory

Vice-President (Corporate Services), Flinders University

Helge Janicke

CyberGRC

Executive Steering Committee

Karl Sellmann

Deputy Director and Chief Information Security Officer, University of South Australia

Nikki Peever

Director Cybersecurity, CAUDIT

Greg Sawyer

Chief Executive Officer, CAUDIT

Jason Mangan

Chief Technology Officer, The University of Auckland

Teresa Finlayson

Chief Information Officer, Monash University

Craig Warren

Deputy Chief Data Officer, Deakin University

Anna Aquilina

Chief Information Security Officer, University of Technology Sydney

Scott Sorley

Executive Director, University of Southern Queensland

David Stockdale

Chief Information Security Officer, University of Queensland

Mike Holm

Senior Manager, AusCERT

Heath Marks

Chief Executive Officer, AAF

David Wilde

Chief Technology Officer, AARNet

Angus Griffin

Director Customer Relations, AARNet

Neil Fenemor

Manager Technology and Architecture, ReanNZ

Connect with AHECS

Join our Cybersecurity community of practice to keep in touch with sector cybersecurity news, resources, and events.

or contact a member of our team

AHECS acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the lands where we live, learn and work. We pay our respects to Elders past and present and celebrate the stories, culture and traditions of all First Nations people.