Girls Talk Cyber

Have you heard of the ACSC? It's Australia's national cyber agency dedicated to defending and disrupting against cyber crime and helping to build resilience against cyber threats. In this episode we’re lucky enough to sit down with Stephanie Crowe, the Deputy Director General and Head of the ACSC who is running this show, and ask her about the capabilities built by the organisation to help protect Australia and its communities. We also ask Steph to unpack her latest joint statement with Five Eyes countries on AI, hear about her journey to where she is today and get some personal cyber tips from Steph herself.

We hope you enjoy this episode! Links mentioned below:

ASD website: https://www.cyber.gov.au/

ASD Cyber Security Partnership Program: https://www.cyber.gov.au/asds-cyber-security-partnership-program

ASD Career pathways: https://www.asd.gov.au/careers

Five Eyes statement: https://www.cyber.gov.au/about-us/view-all-content/news/five-eyes-cyber-security-agencies-statement

Protect yourself: https://www.cyber.gov.au/protect-yourself

Australia Cyber Security Hotline (ACSH): 1300CYBER1

GTC Socials:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/girlstalkcyber/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/girlstalkcyber

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/828589538834261/

ASD Socials:

ASD X: https://x.com/ASDGovAu

ASD Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cybergovau/

ASD Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asd.gov.au/?hl=en

ASD LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/australian-signals-directorate

Fraud files is back in a big way! Our own co-host Jules almost got done by a scam call. But theres no shame in the scam game - and we know that sharing these stories is the only way we can learn and avoid them from happening to ourselves and broader community. So tune in and find out how these sophisticated phone calls are becoming harder and harder to detect, and what you can do to redefine how you respond - and how they might even end up ghosting you too. 

For more information about how you can act secure online, visit https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about-us/our-portfolios/cyber-security/strategy/act-now-stay-secure

Helpful resources:

https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/report-a-scam

https://www.afp.gov.au/news-centre/media-release/australian-victims-warned-over-rising-cryptocurrency-exchange

https://www.cyber.gov.au/scams

https://www.binance.com/en/blog/tag/33

Socials:

Follow the Girls Talk Cyber Instagram account for all your cyber tips and tricks: https://www.instagram.com/girlstalkcyber/?hl=en 

Join the Girls Talk Cyber Facebook community to share your cyber security stories and let us know how you’re feeling about the content covered in this episode: https://www.facebook.com/groups/828589538834261/

Can you name six different careers in cyber security?

If not - that's totally ok - it's a mysterious world with unusual roles but let us walk you through a couple with our Cyber In Real Life (IRL) chat.

We presented this talk at the Australian Federal Police re_BOOTCMP event, hosted at Fortress Melbourne earlier this year. It was a day filled with activities and talks to show kids what the world of cyber looks like outside of committing cyber crimes! While our audio may not be the best, we still thought it's too good not to share.

We also have a very special guest, Nick Scheckenbach, an Executive Director from CyberCX who has built his career through building connections and saying yes to opportunities (and that does include saying yes to being a get away driver in a physical pen test). The result? He now manages a 150 million pipeline, travels the world and works with a team to secure organisations against cyber threats.

We hope you like this episode as much as we do!

Socials:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/girlstalkcyber/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/girlstalkcyber

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/828589538834261/

For more information about how you can act secure online, visit https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about-us/our-portfolios/cyber-security/strategy/act-now-stay-secure

Socials:

Follow the Girls Talk Cyber Instagram account for all your cyber tips and tricks: https://www.instagram.com/girlstalkcyber/?hl=en 

Join the Girls Talk Cyber Facebook community to share your cyber security stories and let us know how you’re feeling about the content covered in this episode: https://www.facebook.com/groups/828589538834261/

After the Women In Cyber Security Summit, we had collected a couple of incredible interviews with high school students. We just couldn’t keep these conversation to ourselves so we’ve collated and shared them here in this bonus ep for you!

For more information about how you can act secure online, visit https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about-us/our-portfolios/cyber-security/strategy/act-now-stay-secure

Socials:

Follow the Girls Talk Cyber Instagram account for all your cyber tips and tricks: https://www.instagram.com/girlstalkcyber/?hl=en 

Join the Girls Talk Cyber Facebook community to share your cyber security stories and let us know how you’re feeling about the content covered in this episode: https://www.facebook.com/groups/828589538834261/

Tune in to a live recording from the Women in Cyber Security Summit 2026 at Parliament House in Canberra.

This event was hosted by AISA, Hemisphere East and Infoblox. The event looks to bring together some of the most insightful voices from industry and government to discuss practical initiatives that can expand the workforce and create clearer pathways for women entering the field.

The day was jam packed with panels and awesome guests and this recording is from the last one of the day and wraps up some of the takeaways from the summit - hope you enjoy!

For more information about how you can act secure online, visit https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about-us/our-portfolios/cyber-security/strategy/act-now-stay-secure

Socials:

Follow the Girls Talk Cyber Instagram account for all your cyber tips and tricks: https://www.instagram.com/girlstalkcyber/?hl=en 

Join the Girls Talk Cyber Facebook community to share your cyber security stories and let us know how you’re feeling about the content covered in this episode: https://www.facebook.com/groups/828589538834261/

You know what a sim card is - but have you heard of a SIM Box? Or a SIM Farm? If not thats totally ok. In this episode we’re going to help you understand what this technology is, and how cyber criminals are using it. But it’s not all doom and gloom, law enforcement agencies around the world are cracking down on these SIM Boxes and we want to take you through some of the top

For more information about you can act secure online, visit https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about-us/our-portfolios/cyber-security/strategy/act-now-stay-secure

Resources 

SIMCARTEL Arrest https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/cybercrime-service-takedown-7-arrested

Australian Arrest

https://ia.acs.org.au/article/2024/six-australians-arrested-in-sim-box-crackdown.html

New York Arrest 

https://www.secretservice.gov/newsroom/releases/2025/09/us-secret-service-dismantles-imminent-telecommunications-threat-new-york

SIMBOX Info

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_box#:~:text=The%20SIM%20box%20operator%20can,phone%20manufacturers%20to%20evade%20detection.

Socials

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/girlstalkcyber/

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/girlstalkcyber

We’ve seen the latest AFR headlines: “Spy chief warns hackers could cut power, poison water, crash banks.” But who do you call when those headlines become real life? 

In this episode, we’re joined by Lesley Carhart, Technical Director of Industrial Incident Response at Dragos. Lesley is one of a few people in the world who has the skillset to walk in and help provide digital forensic analysis when critical infrastructure (think power, water, and industrial systems) gets hacked. In this episode we unpack what “operational technology” really means and walk through some real-world impacts of what happens when it’s attacked. We also talk about what actually helps prevent these incidents, and what everyday people can do (yes, even outside of cyber) to reduce the risk.

It’s a big, fascinating, slightly terrifying episode, and we’re incredibly grateful to have Lesley join us to pull back the curtain on the incidents you never want to experience, but should understand. 

For more information about you can act secure online, visit https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about-us/our-portfolios/cyber-security/strategy/act-now-stay-secure

Resources mentioned: 

Lesley on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lcarhart/?originalSubdomain=au

Lesleys blog and cyber security conference: https://tisiphone.net/author/hacks4pancakes/

GTC on Socials:

Follow the Girls Talk Cyber Instagram account for all your cyber tips and tricks: https://www.instagram.com/girlstalkcyber/?hl=en 

Join the Girls Talk Cyber Facebook community to share your cyber security stories and let us know how you’re feeling about the content covered in this episode: https://www.facebook.com/groups/828589538834261/

Crime as we know it is changing and the kids are keeping up, faster than we are. 

In this episode, GTC is on stage at the SXSW conference, discussing how the average age of cyber criminals is becoming younger and younger. Joined by our panelists AFP Federal Agent, Amy Phelps and Cyber Intelligence Expert Leah Pinto, we unpack how the dark web is fuelling cyber crime - including hiring violence “as a service” and ransomware toolkits.

But it’s not all doom and gloom, the AFP is hacking back, taking down dark web marketplaces and implementing prevention programs in schools. So tune in, and learn more about the dark web and the cyber crime it’s facilitating. 

For more information about you can act secure online, visit https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about-us/our-portfolios/cyber-security/strategy/act-now-stay-secure

Links mentioned: 

AFP Reboot program:

https://www.afp.gov.au/news-centre/media-release/reb00tcmp-inspires-next-generation-cyber-champions

Where to find us

Follow the Girls Talk Cyber Instagram account for all your cyber tips and tricks: https://www.instagram.com/girlstalkcyber/?hl=en

Join the Girls Talk Cyber Facebook community to share your cyber security stories and let us know how you’re feeling about the content covered in this episode: https://www.facebook.com/groups/828589538834261/

We get it, cyber security is tough and some questions can feel too basic to ask. But don’t worry you’re not alone. In this episode we’ve teamed up with Kim from Cyber Wardens to bring you a few things: an overview of the Cyber Wardens program, a list of ‘you can’t ask that’ questions we’ve heard over the years, including their answers, and a story where a Shark Tank business owner almost lost her business to a scammer. 

For more information about you can act secure online, visit https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about-us/our-portfolios/cyber-security/strategy/act-now-stay-secure

Resources:

Cyber wardens: https://cyberwardens.com.au/

Embarrassing questions continued: https://cyberwardens.com.au/asking-for-a-friend-our-most-embarrassing-cyber-questions-answered/

Cyber security pulse check report: https://cyberwardens.com.au/research-report/small-business-cyber-security-pulse-check-report/

Password managers:https://www.passwordmanager.com/best-password-managers/

Where to find us

Follow the Girls Talk Cyber Instagram account for all your cyber tips and tricks: https://www.instagram.com/girlstalkcyber/?hl=en

Join the Girls Talk Cyber Facebook community to share your cyber security stories and let us know how you’re feeling about the content covered in this episode: https://www.facebook.com/groups/828589538834261/