ASIAL Security Insider

Is Australia's obsession with low-cost security contracts putting people, critical infrastructure and national security at risk?

A major new report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) raises serious questions about how Australia purchases, regulates, and delivers protective security services.

The report, Australian Protective Security Procurement Practices, suggests that an excessive focus on price, inconsistent licensing requirements, inadequate contract oversight and workforce pressures may be undermining the very protection these services are supposed to provide.

In this episode of Security Insider, we speak with one of the authors of the report, Dr John Coyne — Director, ASPI National Security Program

Together, we explore some of the most pressing challenges facing Australia's security industry, including:
Why the cheapest security contract isn't necessarily the best value.
Whether government procurement practices are encouraging a race to the bottom.
The growing gap between licensed security personnel and genuinely deployable security capability.
The implications of security workforce shortages for AUKUS, Defence facilities and critical infrastructure.
Whether Australia will have the security workforce needed for the Brisbane 2032 Olympics.
Why longstanding problems with licensing, training and industry regulation remain unresolved.
What governments, procurement managers and security providers can do to deliver better security outcomes.

With private security officers increasingly operating on the frontline of Australia's protective security arrangements, the stakes extend well beyond commercial contracts.

Are we investing in genuine protection, or simply paying for a security presence?

And will Australia address these problems before a major security incident forces change?

Join us for an important discussion about the future of Australia's protective security industry and what it will take to build a more capable, accountable and resilient security workforce.

Report: Australian Protective Security Procurement Practices, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, is available for download at either www.aspi.org.au or www.asial.com.au

A new and disturbing form of violent extremism is spreading across online communities, and unlike traditional extremist movements, it isn't necessarily driven by politics, religion or ideology. Instead, it's fuelled by manipulation, psychological exploitation, cruelty and the pursuit of notoriety.

In this episode of Security Insider, we speak with Dr Anne Speckhard, Director of the International Centre for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE), about her latest research with Caroline Ewing into Digital Malevolence and the rise of Nihilistic Violent Extremism (NVE).

We examine how online networks exploit vulnerable young people through grooming, sextortion and coercive control, and how psychological traits associated with narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism and sadism can help explain these behaviours.

Most importantly, we explore what this emerging threat means for law enforcement, cybersecurity professionals, technology platforms, educators and parents — and how recognising dangerous behavioural patterns could help prevent online exploitation from escalating into real-world violence.

For more podcasts like this, visit www.asial.com.au

Cybersecurity professionals spend enormous amounts of time and money building sophisticated systems designed to keep attackers out. But attackers do not always need to defeat the technology. Sometimes, they simply need to convince a person to open the door.

In this episode of the Security Insider Podcast, we speak with professional mentalist and illusionist Andy Nunn about what decades of deliberately deceiving intelligent, attentive audiences can teach us about social engineering, cognitive bias and human vulnerability.
Andy is not a psychologist or a self-proclaimed psychic. His perspective comes from the practical mechanics of illusion: directing attention, exploiting assumptions, creating convincing narratives and watching how quickly people can become certain that their interpretation of events must be correct.

We explore why high intelligence does not necessarily lead to good judgement, why expertise can sometimes create dangerous overconfidence, and how our tendency to look for evidence that confirms what we already believe can make even experienced security professionals vulnerable to manipulation. The conversation also examines the rapidly changing threat landscape created by artificial intelligence.

When attackers can clone voices, generate convincing video, imitate writing styles and manufacture highly credible identities, traditional trust signals such as “I recognised the voice” or “I saw them on video” may no longer be sufficient.

So how do we protect ourselves when seeing is no longer believing?
Andy introduces a simple but powerful question:

“What evidence could prove me wrong?”

It is a question designed to challenge certainty, expose flawed assumptions and force us to distinguish between genuine verification and simply finding evidence that supports what we already want to believe.

We discuss:
Why intelligence and expertise do not make us immune to deception
How confidence can become a security vulnerability
The similarities between stage misdirection and social engineering
How attackers exploit authority, urgency, familiarity and expectation
Why confirmation bias can prevent us from recognising warning signs
How AI-generated voices, video and identities are changing the nature of trust
Why independent verification is becoming increasingly important
How asking “What evidence could prove me wrong?” can interrupt manipulation
Why humility may become a competitive advantage in cybersecurity

The central question of the episode is simple:
What if the greatest vulnerability in social engineering isn’t ignorance — but certainty?

In Part One, we explored the key findings from ASIAL’s landmark Security 2030 report, discussing regulatory reform, procurement challenges, industry visibility and the structural issues that must be addressed if the sector is to meet the demands of the future.

Today, we shift our focus from the challenges to the solutions. Joining me once again are Dr Nicola Lockhart, Deputy Lead of Edith Cowan University’s Security & Intelligence Research Group, and Dr Warren Doudle, Lead of the Research Group and Senior Lecturer in Security Science. Together, they led the research behind the ASIAL-commissioned Security 2030: A Five-Year Future Report on the Australian Private Security Industry—a study examining the trends, risks and opportunities that will shape the industry over the remainder of the decade. 

In this episode, we examine what it will take to professionalise the industry, improve public confidence, build the workforce needed for tomorrow’s challenges, assess the industry’s current level of maturity, and discuss why the next five years could be the most important in the sector’s history.

If you work in security—or rely on security to protect your people, assets or operations—this is a conversation you won’t want to miss.

For more information, visit www.asial.com.au

Australia’s private security industry is entering a period of significant change. New technologies, evolving threats, workforce challenges, regulatory reform and increasing expectations around professionalisation are reshaping what security will look like over the next five years.

In this episode of the Security Insider podcast, we speak with Dr Nicola Lockhart and Dr Warren Doudle from Edith Cowan University’s Security & Intelligence Research Group about the forthcoming Security 2030 report commissioned by ASIAL.

Dr Nicola Lockhart is a Lecturer in Security Science at Edith Cowan University and Deputy Lead of ECU’s Security & Intelligence Research Group. She completed her PhD in Security Risk in 2025, examining how corporate security functions influence organisational decision-making, priorities and outcomes. Her teaching and research span areas including security risk, counterterrorism, surveillance and threat detection. ECU

Dr Warren Doudle is a Senior Lecturer in Security Science at Edith Cowan University and leads ECU’s Security & Intelligence Research Group. He brings extensive experience across defence, government, critical infrastructure, resources and corporate security, with a background encompassing security, investigations, business continuity, information security, governance and risk management. ECU
Together, Nicola and Warren are leading the research behind ASIAL’s Security 2030 project, which is intended to provide practical insights and recommendations capable of informing future policy, standards and industry investment.

We explore the major forces likely to shape the industry through to 2030, what the research is telling us about the challenges and opportunities ahead, and what security professionals, organisations and policymakers should be thinking about today.

The Security 2030 study is designed to establish an evidence base for the future direction of Australia’s private security sector and provide recommendations to help create a more resilient, professional and future-ready industry.

For more information, visit www.asial.com.au