Akela Group

Our BNCC member, Akela Group, is an Australian-based strategic advisory and managed services company, dedicated to empowering C-Suite executives in both the private and public sectors. Here’s how they help your organisation thrive 👇 ✔️ Strategy, planning, & delivery ✔️ Cybersecurity, system integration, & data fusion ✔️ Commercial services & procurement management ✔️ Capability development & innovation Akela’s tailored, data-centric solutions align with your strategic objectives to drive success. They don’t just work for you—they partner with you. 👉 Ready to elevate your business? Get in touch today!  https://akelagroup.com.au/ #BNCC #AkelaGroup #managedservices #advisory #businessowner #business #smallbusiness #supportsmallbusiness #supportlocalbusiness #businesssupport #networking #businessgrowth #businesssuccess #BrisbaneNorth #Chermside

Your phone rings – Your organisation is undergoing a complex cyber breach - sensitive information has been compromised. What do you and your team do?  In today's world cyber preparedness is a critical component of your overall cyber defence strategy and can only succeed with executive engagement and awareness. Having a coordinated response plan is critical to the success of any incident response and crisis management activity. Identified roles, responsibilities, technical and non-technical response capabilities, and internal and external stakeholder communication plans all play a role in your success. But without stress testing these plans and capabilities regularly you will likely get caught out in the chaos. Akela's Cyber Security Simulation Exercises Akela has significant experience in planning, designing, developing, and conducting technical, desktop, and business process orientated exercises. Technical capabilities are critical to test, however most incident response and crisis management activities are won or lost through their processes, plans, strategies, decision making, and leadership capabilities. The people aspect of any organisation is its greatest strength, and it can be its greatest weakness – hence the requirement to exercise this component on a regular basis. Akela’s cyber incident simulation exercises help your organisation examine and understand its current incident response and crisis management capabilities to better prepare for and manage a complex cyber-attack. With proven experience in incident response and crisis management, communications, operations, and planning, Akela’s cyber team will test and assess your staff, leadership, technical capabilities, processes, plans, strategies, communications, and ability to respond as a cohesive entity by creating custom scenarios that replicate the challenges of real cyber incidents. This type of testing is an effective tool for your organisation to assess its current and desired state of incident preparedness and forms an important part of establishing your cyber resilience. Some of our clients are from the aviation, health, finance, mining, government, utilities, energy, and transport sectors. To learn more about how Akela can help you, please feel free to email our team on enquiries@akelagroup.com.au, or call on +61 400 875 981 #Akela Group, #cyber security, #crisis management

Your phone rings – Your organisation is undergoing a complex cyber breach - sensitive information has been compromised. What do you and your team do?  In today's world cyber preparedness is a critical component of your overall cyber defence strategy and can only succeed with executive engagement and awareness. Having a coordinated response plan is critical to the success of any incident response and crisis management activity. Identified roles, responsibilities, technical and non-technical response capabilities, and internal and external stakeholder communication plans all play a role in your success. But without stress testing these plans and capabilities regularly you will likely get caught out in the chaos. Akela's Cyber Security Simulation Exercises Akela has significant experience in planning, designing, developing, and conducting technical, desktop, and business process orientated exercises. Technical capabilities are critical to test, however most incident response and crisis management activities are won or lost through their processes, plans, strategies, decision making, and leadership capabilities. The people aspect of any organisation is its greatest strength, and it can be its greatest weakness – hence the requirement to exercise this component on a regular basis. Akela’s cyber incident simulation exercises help your organisation examine and understand its current incident response and crisis management capabilities to better prepare for and manage a complex cyber-attack. With proven experience in incident response and crisis management, communications, operations, and planning, Akela’s cyber team will test and assess your staff, leadership, technical capabilities, processes, plans, strategies, communications, and ability to respond as a cohesive entity by creating custom scenarios that replicate the challenges of real cyber incidents. This type of testing is an effective tool for your organisation to assess its current and desired state of incident preparedness and forms an important part of establishing your cyber resilience. Some of our clients are from the aviation, health, finance, mining, government, utilities, energy, and transport sectors. To learn more about how Akela can help you, please feel free to email our team on enquiries@akelagroup.com.au, or call on +61 400 875 981 #Akela Group, #cyber security, #crisis management

Akela attends the Brisbane North Chamber of Commerce’s breakfast with Brisbane’s Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner It was great to hear the Lord Mayor articulate the future plans for Brisbane, including the 2032 Olympics. The Brisbane 2024 State of the City Report outlines the expected growth areas across Brisbane. Part of the report’s analysis shows that each international fight arriving in Brisbane brings approximately $600,000 spending into the City’s economy. For example, the planning for the Games’ infrastructure is looking at the next 20 - 30 years…not just for 2032. Some of Brisbane’s 18 long term planning activities underway include the significant increase in Brisbane’s transport, critical infrastructure, health, professional services, and tourism. Exciting times ahead!

Akela Group Supporting the Australian Women in Security Network Akela is proud to be supporting the Brisbane Chapter of the AWSN by conducting an exciting cyber initiated crisis management tabletop exercise on 21 September 2024, as well as hosting a networking event that will give you direct access to several leading cyber and security experts. The day will involve lots of fun, thought provoking discussions, an exchange of ideas, knowledge, and experience, and a chance to ask the facilitators a million questions. Participants will be allocated into groups and provided with a facilitator. The scenario will be centred around a large organisation that provides services to many Queenslanders through its critical infrastructure. The scenario will have serial injects that will involve: · Cyber, personnel, and physical security capabilities. · A threat to some of the organisations critical infrastructure. · An insider threat that is linked to an external organisation. · Whole of enterprise response that includes various technical and non-technical business units across the organisation. · Supply chain integrity and viability. We will also discuss aspects such as leadership, analysis, communications, team cohesion, legal, contract management, insurance, staff management, and other areas that are not normally considered. The location for the event is: Date: 21 September 24, Saturday Location: The Precinct, 315 Fortitude Valley, Brisbane Time: 9:30 AM - 5 PM Our expert facilitators will guide each group to ensure a hands-on, impactful learning experience. Don’t miss this chance to proactively boost your crisis management skills and build resilience for both yourself and your organisation! Register now and secure your spot via this link: https://lnkd.in/gT3S3Dbi Thank you to the Brisbane Chapter for organising this event! Hande A., Lynore Close, Pranali Mandewalkar, Selena Seyedghasemi

Akela Group Facilitates One of Australia's Largest Aviation Sector Cyber Crisis Management Exercises Akela is proud to have facilitated one of Australia’s largest and most complex aviation sector level cyber security crisis management exercises between 21 – 23 May 2024.   The 72-hour exercise was commissioned by the Australian Aviation Cyber Council (AACC) and designed to practice how the aviation sector would work together to respond and contain a major cyber incident that directly impacted multiple Australian aviation organisations.   The exercise was delivered over three days and engaged participant organisation at varying levels from both a technical and procedural perspective requiring independent and sector level responses.    Participants for the 72-hour exercise included: - Airservices Australia. - Qantas Group. - Virgin Australia. - Melbourne Airport. - Brisbane Airport. - Queensland Airports. - National Office of Cyber Security. - Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre. - Civil Aviation Safety Authority.   Incorporated into the 72-hour exercise were a series of activities and scenarios that required a coordinated sector level response. Some of the activities included: - A real time technical attack to simulate a sophisticated threat actor targeting aviation infrastructure. - Multiple aviation organisations targeted by a sophisticated business email compromise that incorporated credential harvesting to gain access to sensitive data. - Communications activities in response to social and mainstream media reporting and scrutiny. - A supply chain threat that was compromised allowing for the orchestration of some of the key threats.  - A critical system being targeted by a sophisticated threat actor.   The exercise is just one of a series of exercises that form part of the AACC’s overarching strategy to enable Australia’s aviation sector to successfully manage significant cyber security incidents across key aviation services and systems. The exercises are designed to evaluate technical and non-technical teams across the AACC organisations, as well as leadership, analysis, problem solving, and ability to perform under intense pressure.   It was a pleasure to work with the participants from across the Aviation sector and observe the professional and collaborative approach that the team used to solve complex issues and respond to emerging cyber challenges.

Lest We Forget Remembering those past and present that served our great nation, and thanking those that will chose to serve in the future. Today’s Dawn Service at the Redcliffe memorial - very moving.

It is with great pride to say that I have been asked to join the Leadership Committee for the Cyber Security Champions of Tomorrow (CSCoT). Gabriela Guiu-Sorsa has founded a fantastic initiative to fill a void across Australia, and as it turns out, globally. Providing guidance, experiences, and exposure to up-and-coming cyber professionals, as well as the more experienced people, is a key aspect of the CSCoT's community of practice - and one that is desperately needed. Gabriella has already put together a strong and experienced leadership team to help guide the direction of the CSCoT. To be asked to join such an eminent group consisting of Steve Toomey, Ivano Bongiovanni, Brad McGrath...and of course Gabriella Guiu-Sorsa, is certainly a privilege. I look forward to working with everyone as we help raise the profile of the CSCoT, and continue with its core mission to foster collaboration, sharing knowledge, best practices, and lessons learned in Cyber Security governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC). By promoting synergy among professionals, CSCoT aims to enhance Cyber Security GRC practices across the world. See you all at the next CSCoT event. https://lnkd.in/gGPhSAbG

Australian Women in Security Network Cyber Exercise - 18 April 2024 Last Thursday evening Akela Group had the honour of facilitating a cyber security tabletop exercise for the Brisbane chapter of the Australian Women in Security Network (AWSN). The AWSN participants were simply awesome. It didn't matter that members were from diverse cyber and non-cyber backgrounds - in fact it was a bonus. The diverse experiences, thinking, problems solving, and knowledge was simply a sight to behold. A special mention must go to the event organisers Hande Arici, Selena Seyedghasemi, Lynore C., and Pranali M., as well the event hosts Origin Energy (Adeline M.) - thank you all for your hard work in organising the event, and the kind invite for Akela to facilitate the activity. And of course, a special mention to the VIP facilitators on the night. Your mentorship and guidance to your respective tables were greatly appreciated by all participants. This also included each of you being happy to answer the million and one questions that came your way through the evening. Having access to such senior cyber leaders from different organisations was worth its weight in gold. The VIP facilitators that deserve special recognition include: Tony Kitzelmann - CISO Airservices Australia Sadeed T - Deputy CISO Airservices Australia Pete Nelson - CISO QLD Airports Janice Wong - GRC Lead Virgin Australia Reenal Chand - Verizon Australia Callum Baillie - Verizon Australia Samantha Lear - Verizon Australia Thank you everyone for your efforts on the night - and thanks to the efforts of the AWSN, it is clear that security continues to grow stronger across Australia.