In this series our Indo-Pacific experts navigate the complexities of safeguarding our present and fortifying our future in these uncertain times.
Our focus is on delivering expert analyses and insights under the national security umbrella, to help you: "Be Ready for Today. Prepared for Tomorrow." This series is crafted for a discerning audience, including defence professionals, policymakers, academics, technology experts , logistics and supply chain managers, public health officials, and food and agribusiness purveyors.
It's designed for those who seek to stay ahead of the curve in understanding and implementing the cutting-edge strategies and technologies that define global security today and shape its evolution tomorrow.
The “Vaxa Bureau - Intelligence; Optimised Podcast” is a part of the Vaxa Grow Series and brought to you by the Vaxa Bureau team.
All content for Intelligence; Optimised Podcast is the property of Todd Crowley and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
In this series our Indo-Pacific experts navigate the complexities of safeguarding our present and fortifying our future in these uncertain times.
Our focus is on delivering expert analyses and insights under the national security umbrella, to help you: "Be Ready for Today. Prepared for Tomorrow." This series is crafted for a discerning audience, including defence professionals, policymakers, academics, technology experts , logistics and supply chain managers, public health officials, and food and agribusiness purveyors.
It's designed for those who seek to stay ahead of the curve in understanding and implementing the cutting-edge strategies and technologies that define global security today and shape its evolution tomorrow.
The “Vaxa Bureau - Intelligence; Optimised Podcast” is a part of the Vaxa Grow Series and brought to you by the Vaxa Bureau team.
#44 Security Culture in Practice: Defence-Ready from the Inside Out | Aaron Pollard
Intelligence; Optimised Podcast
26 minutes
3 months ago
#44 Security Culture in Practice: Defence-Ready from the Inside Out | Aaron Pollard
Hit Essential Eight, guard IP, and keep your Defence contracts - practical tactics for Aussie defence SMEs.
Small and mid-sized firms sit at the sharp end of Australia’s defence supply chain. They build smart kit, hold sensitive data and keep prime contractors moving - yet many still treat security as a box-ticking chore. In this episode of Intelligence Optimised, host Todd Crowley sits down with veteran security strategist Aaron Pollard to spell out what “good” now looks like.
Key talking points ✔️Why cyber security outranks physical guards and gates in 2025. ✔️The jump from Top 4 to Essential Eight maturity level 2 and what it costs. ✔️Using Defence Industry Development Strategy grants to fund your uplift. ✔️Mapping and marking intellectual property so it doesn’t walk out the door. ✔️Leveraging ASIO outreach and insider-threat training to turn staff into sensors. ✔️Scoping controls only to defence-facing networks to save cash. ✔️How workforce shortages and ASD’s Red Spice program are pushing salaries north.
📍Why it matters Defence expects the same security baseline from a five-person CNC shop as it does from the primes - fail to meet it and your purchase orders disappear. Aaron breaks down the hidden levers SMEs can pull: narrow the system boundary, pick the right managed service provider, and use grant money only after a Defence-issued Maturity Action Plan. The result: compliance you can actually afford, and information assurance your customers will bank on.
Whether you manage a niche software team in Adelaide or a composites plant in Brisbane, this conversation hands you the playbook to cut risk, lift resilience and keep delivering capability across the Indo-Pacific.
Find deeper briefs and step-by-step guides inside Vaxa Bureau.
Intelligence; Optimised Podcast
In this series our Indo-Pacific experts navigate the complexities of safeguarding our present and fortifying our future in these uncertain times.
Our focus is on delivering expert analyses and insights under the national security umbrella, to help you: "Be Ready for Today. Prepared for Tomorrow." This series is crafted for a discerning audience, including defence professionals, policymakers, academics, technology experts , logistics and supply chain managers, public health officials, and food and agribusiness purveyors.
It's designed for those who seek to stay ahead of the curve in understanding and implementing the cutting-edge strategies and technologies that define global security today and shape its evolution tomorrow.
The “Vaxa Bureau - Intelligence; Optimised Podcast” is a part of the Vaxa Grow Series and brought to you by the Vaxa Bureau team.
