CQR Achievements in 2013

The only constant in the Information Security industry is change, and that has been no different for us.  Looking back we can see that 2013 has been a really good year for CQR.  It’s impressive how far we have come and what we have learned.

This year we were Platinum sponsors at the Oceania CACS Conference in Adelaide, not only was there a great turn out, there were also a great number of informative presentations, workshops and opportunities to meet with other professionals within the industry.

Our Business Security team has doubled in size, and we now have a high level of skill and experience that we can offer to clients who understand that Information Security is more a business problem than a technology one.
 

This growth has allowed us to take the opportunity to refine some of our services to make them more appealing packages.  One way of doing this has been to develop an area of our ISMS (Information Security Management System) offerings, and so we have created the ISMS Jumpstart programme.  The core aim of the programme is to both define an appropriate scope and governance framework for organisations, and also to expose areas that need to be addressed to implement an ISMS.  It gives the implementation a ‘Jumpstart’ by developing an implementation plan and future roadmap.

We have also been working on improving the business value of our Onsite Security Specialists (OSS) service, which is designed to give organisations regular and recurring access to our pool of skilled information security specialists.  Whether it’s for one day per month or five days per week, our OSS service is helping organisations solve their information security challenges by having one of our specialists become one of their onsite team members.

Our most ambitious and exciting development this year is our portfolio of information security awareness videos covering a range of issues that confront organisations and their staff every day.  We are very proud of this service as we are the only company in Australia who can offer this type of training support.  The videos have been born from ideas developed within CQR and have been developed and produced with significant input from all areas the company.

Internally we have seen our personnel change, with new faces joining and some old faces moving on and even one of our alumni returning to us.  We are confident that our strong teams both in Australia and the UK, will continue to forge great relationships both inside the organisation and with our clients.

With our 10 year anniversary approaching and the updated certification of ISO27001 waiting for us in the New Year we are looking forward to the Christmas break and spending time with our families and friends and welcome the challenges of 2014.

You can find more information on everything we’ve achieved on our new website at www.cqr.com or by following us on Twitter @CQR.

Sarah Taylor
@cqr www.cqr.com

Oceania CACS Conference 2013

5 weeks ago CQR was the Platinum sponsor for the 2013 Oceania CACS conference which was held at the Adelaide Convention Centre from September 23^rd to 25^th. 

CQR’s General Manager and Chief Technology Officer, Phil Kernick was one of the keynote speakers and presented on the Anthropology of Information Security. (A copy of his presentation can be found on the ISACA Adelaide Chapter website). In typical Phil Kernick fashion he provided the conference delegates with some interesting parallels between the rise of civilisation and the evolution of information security. The presentation was thought provoking and this left the audience with a different interpretation of the field in which we work. At it’s core Information Security is not new, it’s just the technology that surrounds it has evolved.

Other CQR team members who presented included Evan Pearce who discoursed on mobile device security and David Simpson who facilitated a full day workshop on “Navigating your way effectively through the Information Security jungle.”

Non CQR presentations of note included those by Robert Stroud and Stuart Mort as well as Chris Brookes from the Australian Signals Directorate.  The presentation by Duncan Chessell, a three times conqueror of Mount Everest, was also very well received.

A highlight of the conference was the CIO/CSO forum moderated by Robert Stroud (CA Technologies) which included Phil Kernick, Andrew Mills (SA Government Office of the Chief Information Officer) and Stuart Mort (Oracle Global Information Security). Having some of the best Information Security professionals in the country on the same table to answer questions and discuss a number of interesting, challenging and topical Information Security subjects was a unique opportunity. Many of the topics and themes were later debated at tables during the conference dinner that evening.

Oceania CACS was attended by over 100 delegates from all over Australia and many from abroad. It provided an excellent networking opportunity for all delegates to speak with likeminded security and audit professionals. The event was also a significant milestone in the CQR calendar. With over 15 of it’s staff in attendance, CQR enjoyed many diverse conversations with delegates and industry peers alike. One lucky attendee also won an iPad mini donated by CQR in our business card draw.

Yvonne Sears (ISACA member and CQR employee) took a formal photography role providing us with photos of the sessions that took place over the 3 day event, a selection of them will be added following this blog update.

Sarah Taylor & Gary Kite Senior Security Specialist
@cqr www.cqr.com

http://www.oceaniacacs2013.org/

http://www.oceaniacacs2013.org/speakers.html#kernick
http://www.oceaniacacs2013.org/workshops.html
http://www.isaca.org/chapters4/adelaide/Pages/default.aspx