A Melbourne cybersecurity company has opened a Perth office it hopes will help alleviate the sector’s worker shortfall.
A newly launched cybersecurity firm is gearing up to attract more graduates and enthusiasts to the sector.
Perth-born Nick Morgan opened his Triskele Labs office on St Georges Terrace last month, adding to outlets in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra.
As part of opening the cybersecurity-focused firm, Mr Morgan said partnerships with Western Australian universities were in the works.
Mr Morgan told Business News that Triskele Labs would be replicating the model operated by its Melbourne business launched a decade ago.
“We’ve worked very closely with a number of the universities here [east coast] to bring in graduates, new people to the industry… into our ... secure operation centre,” he said.
“We’re looking to implement that same approach in Perth, working closely with Edith Cowan University and expanding into other educational institutions.”
Triskele Labs operated in Perth previously, but only recently had the business secured a physical presence, Mr Morgan said.
“Now, obviously, having the boots on the ground in Perth is changing things,” he said.
“We’ve got people … across all areas of the business and now looking to the universities to help us expand and bring people into the industry, particularly in that Perth facility.
“We’re very focused on providing opportunities for new joiners to the industry: graduates, associates, career changers into cybersecurity.
“It’s an industry that very much does need people and, more so, needs opportunities for new [people] to join the industry.
“There are many organisations and businesses now that are looking to provide cybersecurity, but they may not be focused on the industry as we are as a pure play.
“We need to provide those opportunities for those new joiners, associates and career changers, to work with professionals and those who are experienced in the industry to help them to grow.”
Other programs Triskele Labs plans to implement in Perth include signing up interns on a 12-week program and bringing graduates into its security operations centre to work with experienced team members.
The federal government identified the risk of a shortfall in cybersecurity workers in 2023, releasing a report on attracting a diverse workforce for the sector.
A report by government-backed body Stone & Chalk, then called AustCyber, estimated 85,000 dedicated roles were needed by 2030 to meet demand from the country’s cybersecurity sector.
“This is an estimated sixty per cent increase on the 2023 workforce of 51,309, requiring close to 4,813 new hires each year for seven years,” the report read.
“In Australia, there were more than 12,500 unfilled dedicated cyber security jobs in 2023.
“In fact, the labour shortage in the global sector keeps growing, with the gap now twice as strong as the workforce.”
Mr Morgan’s ties to ECU were forged more than 20 years ago as a student. In 2021, he was inducted into the ECU Cyber Security Hall of Fame.
“I’m originally from Bunbury. I moved over to Melbourne, [but] I learned a lot about consulting in Perth,” Mr Morgan said.
“When I came across to Melbourne, I identified that the culture is not quite the same over here.
“There’s a lot more providers here on the east [coast] that are not just purely focused on cybersecurity. It’s normally a bolt-on or a conditional service.
“We came to provide that ‘pure play’; all we do is cybersecurity. It’s baked into our DNA. We don’t try to do anything else. Now, it’s bringing that same approach back to Perth.”
Mr Morgan said Triskele Labs’ strategy was to expand worldwide.
“It’s not just a Perth facility looking after Perth clients,” he said.
“It’s one team across the country, and we’re looking to then replicate that into other states.
“We originally started as just me; we’re now a team of over 100 people.
“We have people in every state and territory except Northern Territory. We’ve got people in Australia, New Zealand, UK and Canada as part of our digital forensics team.
“We don’t have a head count number that we’re trying to chase. For us, it’s just about continuing to provide that service delivery quality to clients.”
