In this episode of the Contested Ground podcast miniseries following the outbreak of the latest conflict in the Middle East, hosts Steve Kuper and Major General (Ret'd) Dr Marcus Thompson are joined by Air Vice-Marshal (Ret'd) John Blackburn AO to discuss the implications of the Iran conflict on Australia's energy system.

The trio begin by discussing the Australian government's rhetoric around the nation's liquid fuel supplies, its access to the global energy markets and the immediate ramifications of the ongoing throttling of oil flows out of the Middle East.

As part of this, they unpack the state of Australia's liquid fuel stockpiles, the challenges governments face in moving to "calm" the Australian public and prevent a run on the nation's limited crude oil reserves.

They also discuss the decline in the nation's refining capacity, our dependence on foreign refined fuel imports from south-east Asia and the implications for national security and resilience.

Finally, they unpack the policy and regulatory challenges and opportunities that face Australia's policymakers and the immediate steps we can take to build national resilience.

Enjoy the podcast,
The Contested Ground team

This week on Cyber Uncut, David Hollingworth and Daniel Croft unpack the week's cyber and AI news and entertain some very special guests in the studio to break down how insider threats work and how CISOs can defend against them.

The pair kick off the podcast discussion by breaking down Meta's move to buy agentic AI chat platform Moltbook and how its developers have now become senior Meta AI staff, before moving on to have a look at how Pornhub has responded to eSafety's new age verification measures.

Hollingworth then welcomes three fantastic guests to the podcast: Brenton Steenkamp, lead partner, heading up law firm Clayton Utz's cyber security practice; Andreas Ostenfeldt, director in Clayton Utz's risk advisory practice; and their guest, Lou Bladel, the global director of insider threat at Uber and a former FBI agent. Cyber Uncut's guests go into detail covering how insider threats work, what motivates insiders to go bad, and how CISOs can outline the challenge to their boards. Hollingworth also asks Bladel to outline his thoughts on cyber threats emerging from the fighting in Iran, before a quick chat about the risks that agentic AI can pose.

Hollingworth and Croft then quickly disclose some developments in the Hazeldenes hack, as DragonForce takes responsibility for the hack, and close out the podcast looking at the UK government voting down a move to introduce Australian-style social media age verification laws – for now.

Enjoy,
The Cyber Uncut team

In this episode of the Contested Ground Podcast, hosts Phil Tarrant, Major General (Ret'd) Dr Marcus Thompson, and Steve Kuper discuss the immediate aftermath of the US–Israeli strikes against Iran and the ramifications for Australia.

The trio lays the foundation for a mini-series of focused podcast conversations over the coming weeks to address the impact of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East on Australia and the Australian public.

These topics will include engaging conversations with a range of experts across the following:

• The impact on social cohesion and the rise of foreign interference in Australia's diaspora communities.
• Australia's declining industrial sovereignty and the impact of contested, frayed and interrupted supply chains.
• The economic impacts of the conflict in the Middle East and Australia's cost-of-living crisis and the fuel security challenges Australia faces.
• The impact on Australia's key economic pillars and the connective tissue of logistic supply chains.
• Cyber security, disinformation and proxy activity in Australia.
• Migration and the challenges facing Australia's diaspora communities.
• Questions relating to Australia's geographic isolation and the psychology behind our "Tyranny of Distance" and the impact on Australia's security posture.
  Questions relating to what kind of "Middle Power" Australia wants to be.

Enjoy the podcast,
The Contested Ground team