CySEA Summary: Final Newsletter for 2025

A Year of Progress

As 2025 draws to a close, we want to thank everyone who has contributed to another remarkable year of collaboration, learning and innovation in cyber security education.  We’re gaining momentum, and this reflects the passion and generosity of our growing community of educators, industry partners, students, and supporters across Australia.  

Here’s a look back at some recent highlights and a sneak peek into what’s ahead in 2026.   

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Commonwealth Bank Guest Lectures

We were thrilled to welcome industry experts from the Commonwealth Bank to some on-campus lectures earlier this semester. Their insights into real-world cyber operations, defence strategies, and incident response gave students an invaluable look into the fast-paced world of frontline digital defence and help to bridge the gap between theory and practice.  Students gain direct exposure to the challenges and decision-making processes that define modern cyber security. 

We’re also working with CySEA member universities and their local CommBank experts to pair experts with courses for potential future in-class interactions.

Cyber Lab Workshops

Our inter-university cyber lab workshops earlier this year were a highlight!  We brought together cyber security educators and systems officers from several Australian universities to share their successes (and pain points) around running student labs for cyber security teaching.

Participants were invited to: 

·    exchange ideas and experiences, 

·    give a brief “show and tell” of a successful cyber security teaching environment that others might adopt, and 

·    discuss challenges they had encountered, while hearing how others had overcome similar issues. 

These sessions sparked valuable exchanges about how best to support genuine hands-on security teaching. It’s always tricky finding ways to do practical activities that explore genuine security issues without breaching the universal security constraints of large organisations, and the workshops offered a collaborative space to compare approaches. 

Thank you to Damian Jurd - Macquarie, Hammond Pearce - UNSW, Jin Hong - UWA and Mohammed Goudarzi - Monash, for presenting.

We hope these meetings will seed an ongoing community of practice dedicated to managing cyber security labs, that continues to meet and share insights.  

Educators on the Frontline – Conference Presentations 

This year saw our educators speaking at conferences across Australia and internationally. Their research and experience continue to shape the future of cyber security education and contribute to shaping best practice globally. 

For the first time, CySEA hosted a special session where innovative educators from around Australia gathered to present some of their latest novel techniques, seeding discussions among academics to improve student engagement and genuine learning.