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 third parties.

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Current & past activities

2024 projects	Status	Notes
Third party risk and assurance	Ongoing	Sector third party system available through CAUDIT offering. HECVATs provided to all CAUDIT Members.
AHECS 2024 Summit	Completed	Event scheduled for 01-03 October at Hotel Realm, Canberra.
Benchmarking	Completed	All surveys currently open for Members to complete. This year, we have expanded internationally, to provide sector based analytics at a global level.
AHECS threat intel sharing	Ongoing	Ongoing threat sharing, communication between partners, and continual review of Member requirements
AHECS ISAC	Ongoing	Uplift maturity
Community building	Ongoing	Continue to build online community and assess engagement methods
Service assessment	Completed	Partner mapping and and gap analysis

2023 projects	Status	Notes
Third party risk and assurance	Ongoing	Sector third party system available through CAUDIT offering.
AHECS 2023 Summit	Completed	Event held 31 October - 03 November at Hotel Realm, Canberra.
Benchmarking	Completed	Reports sent to participating Members. Summary of Baseline sent to all Members.

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.

Executive Steering Committee: Our AHECS Executive Steering Committee meet monthly and set priorities and AHECS planning.

Executive Steering Committee

Karl Sellmann (Chair, AHECS Exec Committee)

Chief Information Security Officer and Associate Director Infrastructure, Flinders University

Nikki Peever (Director, AHECS)

Director Cybersecurity, CAUDIT

Greg Sawyer

Chief Executive Officer, CAUDIT

Jason Mangan

Chief Technology Officer, The University of Auckland

Anna Aquilina

Chief Information Security Officer, University of Technology Sydney

Heath Marks

Chief Executive Officer, AAF

Angus Griffin

Director Customer Relations, AARNet

Jonathan Churchill

Chief Information Officer - The Australian National University

Dr Ivano Bongiovanni

General Manager, AusCERT

Zoran Sugarevski

Chief Digital Officer

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.