Two Australian universities will soon be sharing a security chief as they seek to capitalise on cross-institutional collaboration on cyber initiatives.
The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and University of Newcastle (UON) are currently searching for a joint chief information security officer to work across both institutions advising on cyber issues and promoting security standards.
The role was described as a unique opportunity to spend time working between two universities, each with over 35,000 students and several thousand members of staff.
A UTS spokesperson said the decision to combine security chiefs builds on the universities’ membership of the Council of Australian University Directors of Information Technology (CAUDIT), which directs a number of sector-wide initiatives.
“Given the increasingly complex business risk challenges of cyber-security, UTS has decided to take this collaboration a step further and with the University of Newcastle UTS is taking a unique approach by appointing a joint Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) who will be able to work with the existing resources of both universities to build on already strong foundations at both institutions,” the spokesperson told iTnews.
For UTS, this will be a new senior leadership and advisory role “with a strong strategic cyber risk-management focus, working closely with the universities’ senior executives and providing advice to their governing bodies”.
UON chief information officer Anthony Molinia told iTnews that the CISO will also have extensive engagement with the broader security industry and education sector to increase cyber awareness.
“The CISO is more a strategic and advisory role engaging with third parties to make sure people understand cyber security and the rapidly changing landscape.”
Molinia added that, as CIO, he will ultimately be responsible for cyber security at UON.
The CISO is expected to put in roughly equal facetime at both universities, however, the job ad acknowledges that due to the uniqueness of the role there will be some flexibility on how the issue of physical presence is approached.
Applications for the position are open until 14 April.
