10 minutes with … Nathan Morelli

So how did you get into the cyber industry?

I started as an accountant in a business during my first year of commerce. I discovered during that role that I found IT more interesting!

This came about initially as I had to deal with an ICT outage that supported a critical process. I found that I enjoyed solving the problems and enabling the organisation I was working in to perform better.

Following this discovery, I then changed directions within my study. Whilst at University, I found that I enjoyed educating people in cyber through class tutoring.

This may have contributed to me considering a career in consulting, which I went into on graduating. I found I enjoyed understanding critical business processes and how to improve them.

The consulting work I was doing at that time was more than just security. I think looking back, that the education roles I had throughout university helped with my consulting skills.

To be honest, cyber security, and leading that within an organisation, is much like consulting anyway. I have always leveraged the skills I learnt in consulting and advisory – as you’re needing to understand problems in the business and reduce their risks.

How do you find working in the utilities area?

Cyber in the utilities sector is “real”, there have been significant attacks overseas where we have seen significant impacts across entire cities and countries. I find that you don’t have to justify the spend on cyber, because our industry from the top down is focussed on protecting our critical infrastructure. We are also well supported in our efforts to increase resilience by the Federal Government’s focus on Critical Infrastructure Cyber Security.

What types of threats exist in this area?

Whilst there are different types of threats, the approaches for dealing with them are similar.

Nation states are more prevalent, but they’re generally still after the same outcomes. The management of the risks are the same. Similar tools and techniques are used by all threats, so we are best prepared to detect and respond when we focus on these.

Utilities is a mature industry.

It is up there with the banking sector, as utilities have a similar collaborative mentality to the financial sectors and pushing to learn and get stronger together.

This is due to being a regulated industry – having significant advantages in cyber isn’t…