“People always make the best exploits. I’ve never found it hard to hack most people. If you listen to them, watch them, their vulnerabilities are like a neon sign screwed into their heads.”
– Elliot Alderson, Mr. Robot
“If you think technology can solve your security problems, then you don’t understand the problems and you don’t understand the technology.”
“Begin with the end in mind”
About Us
Visor Consulting was established in 2003 as a specialised consultancy focusing on providing pragmatic, achievable, information security, risk management, and compliance expertise to our stakeholders.
We have over twenty years experience working with Government security policies and regulations and have been involved in securing some of Australia’s flagship IT initiatives.
Our Principal Consultant and founder has many years working in the highest security environments assisting the intelligence and law enforcement communities. His efforts in the intelligence community were recognised by the US National Security Agency (NSA).
We have contributed to Australian State and Federal Government policies and security related frameworks and have contributed to the development of international security standards through OASIS.
We enjoy the challenge of new and emerging technologies and have been early adopters (and assessors) of new paradigms and IT development and delivery methods. Our research strengths are in the cryptography, identity management, authentication and biometrics fields, specifically examining the security and privacy impacts and protections of these technologies.
We take a pragmatic and collaborative approach to our work and have built a reputation for achieving the desired outcome through a negotiated approach and delivering quality results.
We are achieving our goal of helping Safeguard Your Information and helping you improve your information security goals.
Advisory & Consultancy Services
We are information security specialists – helping clients safeguard their information. Our experience is wide ranging covering all aspects of the capability development life cycle. A short list of our service offerings is provided below.
We also undertake research into new technologies and are members of governance advisory boards.
- Strategy & Policy
- Governance
- Security Design
- Security Operations
- Security Assessments
- Education & Training
We start with the big picture – the vision and strategic plans. From there we can help develop more detailed and more technical security architectures, capability designs, and implementation plans.
We contributed to the development of the Australian Government’s Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) by helping design the Gatekeeper Framework. We also contributed to the Australian Government’s Authentication Working Group as security advisors. Later, we worked with the Queensland Government on their Information Security Governance framework (IS 18), their PKI framework, and the Queensland Government’s Authentication Framework QGAF, which was later adopted and extended by the Federal Government to become the National eAuthentication Framework (NeAF) and eventually the Australian Government eAuthentication Framework (AGAF) as it is known today.
We offer
- C Level Advice and Guidance on Developing Information Security Strategies, frameworks, Enterprise Security Architectures, and Policies
- Information Security Reviews of Your Organisation
- Security Advice and Assistance to Chief Information Officers (CIOs), Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs), IT Security Advisors and Managers
Research
For the past few years we have been focusing on the emerging digital health sector with a particular emphasis on the protection of personal and private, sensitive medical information.
We are working closely with the Federal Government on securing the My Health Record capability, including providing input to two reviews conducted in 2018 – Overall and technical.
From 2008 through to 2016 we worked with the National eHealth Transition Authority (NeHTA), in the planning activities related to the shift to digital health. The activities included helping to develop common policies, terminologies, and interoperability across the states and territories as well as conducting security assessments of several capabilities.
In 2016 NeHTA was replaced by the Australian Digital Health Agency, which focuses more on operating and expanding the digital health ecosystem.
In 2019, we are planning to focus on the security of connected medical devices and implants – a foray into the Internet of Things (IoT) security. We are reviewing information security of devices such as fitbits, Apple watches, etc. and looking at the security and privacy of the data these devices collect.
Similarly, we will be looking at security of implants such as wireless enabled pacemakers, new medicine delivery implants, and other implantables.
We hope to work with the ADHA and the Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre in developing better practices for security of medical devices in the Australian environment.
We will continue to work with our existing clients in the health sector, providing security assessments of key Government funded capabilities such as the National Cancer Screening Registry and others.
On a more esoteric level we will be investigating the emerging area of human augmentation and integration with smart technologies such as machine learning and even Artificial Intelligence.
Stay tuned, more to come ….
Testimonials
eHealth
I can only sing accolades for the Visor security team. In a previous security role, under Glen’s leadership, I engaged Visor, on many different occasions, to lead many security and risk related projects for me.
Visor were able to take a lot of my ‘pain’ away, and I was consistently impressed me with their on time delivery capability.
An ‘A’ team consultancy.
Healthdirect
Healthdirect Australia has engaged the services of the Visor Group extensively in achieving ISM Accreditation. Glen and his team have consistently provided pragmatic professional guidance based on best practice and conformity to ISM.
Always being happy to accommodate discussion and explore various avenues in order to meet requirements. Glen and his team have been an invaluable source of guidance and ongoing support in achieving ISM Accreditation. Their experience and industry knowledge has been invaluable in achieving our goals.
Working together we have fostered a collaborative working relationship where we feel Glen and his team are part of the company.
We highly recommend Glen and the entire Visor team.
Thoughts
Here are a few thought pieces and news items related to information security. More detailed information – including FAQs, an interactive knowledge base, and document templates and tools are available in our private area.
You need to be registered to get access.
