Meet Joshua Finley, Data Centre Services Engineer at the Port of Melbourne. Having had personal experience with AUSCERT through website security and later with AUSCERT’s partnership with the Port of Melbourne, Joshua explains why he finds the membership to be well worth his time and money. Read on to find out more about Joshua’s AUSCERT connection.

How did you first become involved with AUSCERT?

For a long time, I hosted a large variety of websites, and back then, there wasn’t a great deal of cybersecurity resources. I became an AUSCERT member because I was looking for some help. Luckily when I started at the Port of Melbourne, as critical national infrastructure, they were already members and I got to pick up and run with our membership.

What are the key benefits you’ve experienced as an AUSCERT member?

Meeting the community in Melbourne has been super helpful; being able to network, and additionally receive timely alerts and notifications about the latest threats is very important. Lastly, having a point of contact to reach out to if we ever get into any trouble is reassuring.

What advice would you give to someone who isn’t already an AUSCERT member?

Simply, become a member and don’t think about it. We use the notification and alarms extensively and I also find the threat feed very useful. Also it’s very helpful having a point of contact to reach out to if we ever find ourselves in trouble.

Looking ahead, what do you think the future holds for AUSCERT?

There’s a huge space that AUSCERT could play in by extending services to a variety of non-government organisations as these organisations don’t have the footprint to do it themselves.

What do you believe sets AUSCERT apart from other organisations in the cybersecurity space?

Being non-for-profit, the motivations behind AUSCERT are true and pure – you don’t get this with a commercial organisation. Having a non-commercial partner