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The Canberra Business Podcast
A podcast about all things Canberra Business.
The Canberra Business Podcast
From Connectivity To Cyber Resilience: Practical Tech For Small Business
If your business runs on a card reader, a laptop, and a phone, you already rely on more connectivity and data than you think. We sit down with Telstra’s Nathan Gumley - Telstra Executive for Strategy, Transformation and Planning to unpack a practical playbook for growth and resilience: networks that do more than connect, AI that actually helps teams work faster, and security habits that stop expensive mistakes before they happen.
We start with a clear look at Telstra’s strategy shift back to connectivity as a core value—and what “evolving connectivity” means for real-world problems. Nathan shares how network signals can help banks flag risky transactions within minutes of a scam call, why privacy and consent are non‑negotiable, and how transparency matters when deploying chatbots and customer-facing automation. For small businesses, the focus is pragmatic: Microsoft Copilot or Google Gemini to speed up documents and presentations, plus embedded AI inside accounting and workflow tools to reclaim hours without adding risk.
Security threads through everything. Nathan breaks down the Essential Eight in plain language: strong passwords, MFA, limited admin rights, updates and patches, application hardening, backups you’ve tested, asset visibility, and user controls. We cover the rhythm that works—tag sensitive documents, manage permissions, remove access when staff leave, and run a lightweight audit every six months. On the network side, we dig into Telstra’s Cleaner Pipes approach to blocking scams, caller verification to build trust, and why resilience now means mobile plus fixed plus satellite. From food trucks at events to farms beyond coverage, partnerships with Starlink and satellite texting keep work moving when it matters most.
We wrap with a look at startup energy across agri tech and applied AI, and why Canberra’s collaborative ecosystem gives local founders and operators an edge. If you want AI that amplifies your team, connectivity you can trust, and security you can actually maintain, this conversation has the steps to start today.
Enjoyed the conversation? Follow, rate, and share the show with a business owner who needs a simple, effective plan for AI, security, and reliable connectivity.
Hello and welcome to the Canberra Business Podcast. I'm Greg Harford from the Canberra Business Chamber, and today we're going to explore how technology, innovation, and connectivity come together to empower businesses around Canberra and the region. I'm joined today by Nathan Gumley, the group owner of strategy and transformation for Telstra's product and technology division, which includes software engineering, asset management, and data and artificial intelligence. Nathan, great to have you here. Welcome to the podcast.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, stoked to be here.
SPEAKER_01:Now today we're going to talk about the future of business. We're going to talk about how Telstra's enabling technology as you see it, from AI to cybersecurity and everything in between. But I guess let's just sort of start at the beginning. How long have you been at Telstra and what is your role encompass?
SPEAKER_00:I think I've been at Telstra for 12 years now, so it's been a while. My role encompasses strategy, transformation, planning, commercial. A lot of that centered around our, yeah, like you said, software engineering, uh, dot AI, as well as our um product groups. So the products that we take to market for customers. Yeah. And you're based right here in Canberra, right? Based here in Canberra, yep. Uh Canberra native was born and bred, spent a bit of time overseas and up in Sydney, but uh moved back a few years ago and loving it. Yeah, it's a great place. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Well, look, I mean, let's let's talk a little bit about Telstra. Now I think many people probably think of Telstra only as a telecoms company selling retail mobile plans. Um perhaps some people still think about Telstra as being the old the old post office, even. But um Nathan, you you lead strategy and transformation. What does that mean for you in your everyday role and and what have you been transforming strategically?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so I I mean strategy is pretty straightforward, and and I think um you're probably not too far off the mark when it comes to actually how people think about um Telstra, but actually really what we want to be known for. I think uh a lot of telcos globally had gone through a bit of an identity crisis, for lack of a better term, around wanting to be something more than a telco. Um and I don't think Telstra actually was that dissimilar to that extent. Um we launched a new strategy back in June of this year, and a really big focus for us is actually getting back to um connectivity, but really looking at how we evolve connectivity for customers to solve uh new problems as well as you know, obviously our role in kind of supporting that um digital adoption of tools. So my role uh yeah, certainly is kind of developing part of that strategy, but when you look at the transformation, actually, big part of the transformation work I lead is actually changing how we do work at Telstra, um, and obviously that that showing through in the products that we take to customers. Um, and when it comes to things like data AI, cybersecurity, even the way that we um develop software at Telstra, uh, there's a really big transformation element to changing how we do it, uh, which is uh yeah, a core part of my job and um super rewarding.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So um you talk about connectivity. Uh connectivity of what?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, um connectivity of um a variety of different things. I think uh connectivity uh historically, like to your point, has been um uh wow, it it was fixed infrastructure, right? It was your office, it was your house, um, and then obviously evolved into mobile. Um but since then we've seen uh a huge proliferation of of things that are connected. Um, you know, that started with things like traffic lights and a lot of the infrastructure that we um support for uh different councils and cities across the country. Um but more frequently you're seeing um other things connected, uh cars is obviously probably the thing that's most relevant for a lot of people. I think I was I was in San Francisco last week and I've been there a lot as part of my job, which is very you know very fortunate. I think there's probably more Teslas on the road here in Canberra than there would be in San Francisco. It kind of feels like that just the the um percentage of cars on the road, it it's it's pretty impressive. And if you look at something like a Tesla, those cars have been connected. Our SIM cards actually sit inside those cars. That um helps provide features for people that are driving the cars. But for uh a lot of companies, it actually helps them have diagnostics on the cars that helps them understand how they can better service the cars, um, be more proactive in the way that they manage the cars on behalf of customers. So um, you know, logistics is a similar thing. When you're looking at trucks, you know, you get a parcel delivered to your door, you can kind of see where that is, depending on who the particular delivery company is. And um, that's a lot of connectivity that's supporting that. So when you think about the role of connectivity over time, and it's it's actually fundamentally changing um where that connectivity is. And I think a big part of our strategy moving forward is um the role that connectivity plays and some of what our network can do in helping customers with other problems. Um good examples of that are we um have uh some you know an incredible wealth of data in terms of what's happening on our networks. Um we've worked quite closely with CBA around fraud recently. And you know, one of the key things that they really struggle to in terms of just visibility of data sets is um fraud as a result of um someone porting a mobile phone or activity of a scam caller calling a particular customer. Now that's a very useful data point for a bank. Absolutely. And if we can expose that, which which we do in partnership with the CBA, um the CBA can get a sense of how risky is a particular transaction, right? They have their view, but if they can see that a scam caller has contacted a customer in the last 30 minutes and in subsequently they see a transaction on a uh CBA bank account, that that's a really high-risk transaction, right? And so they can they can prevent that. So for us over time, I think we see that the role of the network helping solve other problems for customers, but doing it from the place of connectivity as opposed to say, I think in the past where some telcos have even tried to be a bank. So um we're really excited about the potential of that and the potential of the network to kind of evolve and help solve new problems.
SPEAKER_01:And and that that's a great example of of something really concrete that could be really helpful. But are there privacy issues there that you need to be conscious of?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, uh there absolutely is, and and we we spent a lot of time on that. And um I would say a lot of those data sets can be kind of anonymous, right? In terms of uh the way that we we share data. So that's really front and centre for us is making sure that um we're there, that the consent from a customer perspective is there. That's always really important when we think about things like data. Um, but certainly in terms of the capability and the network helping solve those new types of problems. I think I think um yeah, that there's huge, huge kind of opportunity there for sure. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And is AI part of the mix as you're kind of looking at those sorts of services?
SPEAKER_00:Uh yeah, I I think there is, um I mean, not for us in that we necessarily take services to market. I think uh everybody, and and you know, I'm sure you've seen it, everybody starts to have an AI story about how their products and services are AI enabled. That that's probably the key thing for us is how do we um leverage and harness the value of AI in terms of improving our products. Um, but but I also think a core part of that for us is um back to that transformation element. How is AI helping us be better at just what we do in terms of delivering connectivity for Australians? Um and so, yeah, but you know, in a similar vein, and I think we'll talk to a bit of a bit of it today, that data, the way that you manage data in your company is someone so important because um, particularly as we move into this notion of agentic AI, where AI is kind of autonomous and you're able to allow it to do a particular task. If you're not managing, flagging, structuring your data properly, that can go pretty pear-shaped very quickly.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. Now, Telstra is obviously a big company, a very big company. Um, how do you see AI as being relevant and relatable for um business across the board, particularly I guess at the smaller end of town?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I I think it's um it's it's it's a massive opportunity. Uh we have been on this journey for probably the better part of the last three or four years. But there's a lot of things that I say and what we do in Telstra that are applicable to small business. I'm super fortunate. Um both mum, dad, and my brother run small businesses, um, which is great. So, and a lot of friends here in Canberra do as well. Um, but that there are elements of uh capability we use at Telstra, um simple examples like Microsoft Copilot that are part of or earn an add-on subscription to what most I think small businesses here in Canberra would be using in Microsoft 365, or alternatively the Google equivalent in G Suite with uh Gemini. And that um gives you uh a pretty safe way to kind of enter into how you start to leverage AI. Um, some of that I think you know we were speaking last time we met. Um, some of that's just around, you know, kind of simple document generation and writing a document. But I think what's been super impressive, and I actually spent a bit of time with Jared, who's the uh chief marketing officer for AI at work at Microsoft yesterday, and he was showing me some of the new capability that's coming down the line. You know, the ability to describe what you want in a PowerPoint presentation and have uh AI generate pretty much end-to-end that entire PowerPoint presentation is pretty impressive. So there are elements I think of how we'll see basic work tools kind of support things that we use every day, kind of help improve the productivity, the output of a lot of employees. Over time, I think what we'll also start to say or seeing already is where you have specific work tools, things like MYOB, accounting software, you'll start to see AI features embedded in there as well. And so, yet again, that that won't mean that, hey, I don't need to run my books anymore, but I do think it'll mean that um you're able to run that a lot more efficiently and you'll just be able to leverage your time better. And for us in in areas like software um engineering, that hasn't been a conversation around, you know, hey, we we want less software engineers to be very clear. Really, for us, that's just improving the amount of output we can do. Really, it's how do we get more out for our customers? How do we better serve our customers by giving our software engineers more capability to do their job? And and we're we're seeing some pretty remarkable results there. In some circumstances, um, we can have a senior engineer, and with the AI tooling that we have today, it's like the equivalent of having four junior engineers supporting them at the same time.
SPEAKER_01:Um that's a fantastic productivity benefit.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, fantastic productivity benefit. And and I think how you choose to harness that uh for your business is entirely up to you. But the key thing for us was really um it's a it's it's a really interesting cultural story, right, around adoption. Um, and I think there are really coming back to my original point around things like um Google Suite and Microsoft 365, there are a really safe ways to kind of enter into that void for your staff and give them an opportunity to play around and give them an opportunity to kind of learn and and start to take advantage of it safely, which is important.
SPEAKER_01:Uh so let's talk about safety because that's obviously a a real risk. Um, you know, there's uh there's some great tools out there that can be used to drive productivity. Uh, we're in an increasingly digital world, everything's connected, uh, you've got these new AI tools coming in, but but what are the risks if businesses get it wrong, do you think?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I uh I mean we've we've seen a lot of that, right? I think um in some circumstances uh it can be things like data breaches. Um and uh you know there's been big big companies recently kind of exposed by that. Equally that that's down to smaller companies as well, right? Um and I think on average, uh like a cyber or data breach for a small business costs about$50,000. Um, that ransomware activity, right? Like, hey, I've got your data not deployed unless you give me a chunk of cash, that that's that's a real thing. So um, you know, it's it's really, really important to be able to make sure that um your data stays with you, your your customer data, what's important to your business stays with you. Equally, I think back to my point, as we start to see the role of um agentic AI, where you have um AI performing a particular task autonomously with you know some form of human oversight, um, the risk there is that it kind of does the wrong thing. Um and uh that could be customer-facing in in some circumstances. Uh I've even had experiences of that recently where you, you know, because there is just so much capability behind the AI itself, you can get into some really interesting conversations. Um, probably conversations that are fun if you're mucking around with at 11 o'clock at night, but maybe not a conversation that you would want an AI that's representing your business having with a customer. And so it's just uh over time, I think that and and what's been really key to us is the responsible AI element of making sure that we've got the observability on any AI in our company, that we've got the right data structures in place, that it's accessing the right data, that it's not accessing the wrong data. That type of thing is really, really important because I think over time, particularly if you leave these types of things unintended, like unattended without the oversight, they can kind of run amok and do their own thing, right? So um I think that that for small businesses as much as it's big businesses like Telstra will become something that we've got to be really conscious of and make sure that we've got the right oversight in place because if you don't, it can go pretty perfect. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And and you talk about customer-facing a gentic AI, and certainly there's some amazing technology being developed. Are we seeing it at Telstra yet? If you're a Telstra customer, are you ringing a call center and talking to it talking to a robot?
SPEAKER_00:No, not yet. Um, not in that sense. Uh over time, I think there'll there'll be opportunities to do that, but um yet again that the cultural aspect of this is actually going to be really important. Um, and we have had uh uh I guess simpler forms of AI in our messaging services. I think everybody's probably engaged with some form of chatbot on a particular website where you've got um some pretty basic answers, right? Where you get a bit frustrated and say, I just want to speak to a person. I think um a lot of the capability we're deploying is making that a lot less frustrating because they're a lot better at managing customer inquiries in different contexts. Um, but what's really important for us is actually being very clear with customers. Hey, you are speaking to an AI chatboard, right? You are speaking to someone that is not a human. So that's very clear. Um, having spent a bit of time last week at uh Salesforce conference in San Francisco, I I would say not all companies take that notion. And in fact, they're kind of at the point where they feel like, hey, we just want this to be an experience where you don't really know and you don't really care. Um so it's that that advanced in the States? Um I wouldn't know, I wouldn't say it's necessarily that the technology is that advanced, it's it's actually how you choose to put in front of your customers, right? It's the culture of it. Um I think you know, in Australian culture, it's it for me at least, it feels like it's a pretty important thing to say, hey, you're speaking to someone that's not a human. And if you'd like to speak to a human, we can we can help you with that as well. Um certainly what I what I saw last week is that is a little bit to your point though, that is definitely heading into that realm of um you will be calling organizations in the next few years and you'll be speaking to someone that's like a Siri or a um you know a Google equivalent in um their assistant as well. So that that will be a thing that kind of comes down the line. Um so yeah, it'll be interesting. Yeah, we'll see see how it goes.
SPEAKER_01:Um so for small businesses, um you know what what guardrails do you think they should be putting in place to protect data and and business operations and what do they need to be doing to upskill their teams?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think um it's really interesting, right? Back to my point previously, a lot of the way of um how you manage navigating AI in future and the data component isn't that dissimilar to um a lot of what we've been working with uh the Small Business Chamber of Commerce, I think, and and some of the advocacy work in Australia um around cybersecurity and essential aid. It's really important to understand what assets you have. Um is similar to physical assets for a small business. Digital assets are really important. Where is your data? Where is it stored? Um what we've also found and what you have access to with a lot of the capabilities like Google Suite and Microsoft 365 is you can tag different documents as well. The tagging of information in terms of, and I think for a lot of camparians you probably get used to it because uh you know you get an email from someone in the public service that gives you a classification of the email. That tagging's really important down to a data level. Um, if you've got a Word document that is generally available and you've got AI tooling, it it will index and search what's in that document and it will serve results, right? So um the the key structure we put in place is being really clear on where our data is, really clear on um the tagging and the availability where you're choosing to expose that data. And then I think yet again back to some of the cyber security essentials, like making sure that your systems are up to date, like basic hygiene stuff. It's it seems simple, but um it's so important. It's just so important.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so let's jump on to cybersecurity in a moment. But before we do, let me just ask you about the um the the what you know what is involved in making sure your data is being tagged and filed appropriately and all the rest of it for a small business. Um, you know, if you're a sole trader or perhaps you just got a couple of people in your team, how big a commitment is that? It's obviously important, but but but how manageable is that?
SPEAKER_00:It's pretty it's actually pretty manageable. And and yet again that that comes back to just some of the features that are embedded into these tools. So um, yeah, if you if you're using Microsoft 365 and you've got the right level of subscription, immediately you can start tagging those files, right? So if you've got a sensitive document, tag it under confidential. If you've got a set something that you don't want shared or you've got permission restrictions on, it actually pretty simply allows you to set that type of restriction up. Um so I think that feature set in terms of a lot of the tools is um a lot easier. I think the other one that's really important in that is just making sure that you're managing your permissions. So if you've got someone that worked with you and has left for whatever reason, making sure that you're actually removing them from whatever tools you have is really, really important. Um and that permission restriction, making sure that the right people only have access to the right data in your company is also very important. Um, that's important in the context of also in a scenario where an account coming back to a little bit to cybersecurity is jeopardized, you know that there's only a certain amount of people that have access to data, and so you're kind of restricting the vulnerability by way of just really tightly controlling that. But but I do think that is pretty simple in terms of where those features are and how people like Microsoft and Google are actually embedding it into their tools. Um, and then that basic hygiene of just making sure the right people in your company have access to the right things, pretty straightforward as well.
SPEAKER_01:All right, well, let's let's talk about cybersecurity. We're recording this in October 2025. It's Cybersecurity Month and indeed Small Business Month in New South Wales. But you know, cyber threats are evolving rapidly. Um, what are the biggest risks facing businesses and small businesses today?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I I think um a little bit back to kind of what we were talking about before, that that threat landscape is evolving pretty quickly, doesn't stay very static. Um when we look at cybersecurity, I think uh really what our key concerns are kind of just scams, malicious calls, emails, websites. Um the approaches different bad actors are taking in that space are fundamentally changing, right? So obviously, I think a lot of us would be pretty familiar with phishing emails and different aspects of how we have exploits there, but um we are finding that the threat landscape is changing pretty materially. And so what's been really important for us is um working quite closely with uh small business councils, um, people like the the Australian government as well, around things like Essential 8, because the principles to my point earlier, around the kind of the discipline and hygiene of what you need to do actually it still hold true and are quite effective against even the new threats that we're seeing in that space. And so there's a lot of work that we've been doing on that framework. But for us, um yet again, it's it's kind of looking at how we can help that. And I think a really core part of the way that um small business is approaching it and linked to that essential aid program is the notion of cyber wardens, a little bit like you know, a first aid warden or a safety warden. For small business, that's so important is there's someone in your organization that can stay really close to what's happening in the cybersecurity space that can be really kind of front of mind and making sure that you're holding that discipline. I think that's a really effective way in small business to be able to manage that as opposed to you know um needing to put a lot of overhead in place to try and um manage those threats. So um that cyber warden approach I think um seems to resonate quite well with small business and isn't a massive overhead when you think about um the impact or the um yeah, just the amount of time that might take out of your day.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, absolutely. Um now you talk about the essential eight, there'll be uh some people who are fully across that, but um, do you want to just give us a bit of an overview of of what that is? Um essentially eight eight things you've really got to be focused on are around cybersecurity, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, eight things. Um and so yeah, yet again, this is like it sounds like um something that's quite complex, but um it is a little bit like making sure you're taking your vitamins and eating your vegetables and that and that applying to security, right? So when you look at um what that means, you're effectively focused on do I have the right permissions for my organization? A little bit to my point before around the availability of data. Um am I managing passwords effectively? So do I have a really strong kind of password um process for my organization? Am I forcing and making sure that people are um changing their passwords, that the complexity of the passwords is enough that you can um manage those more effectively? When it comes to um your software, making sure your software is up to date. Um that uh might sound like a simple thing, but actually you'd be surprised, especially as we've gone away. In places like Telstra as well, and we go and do audits, um, that can be a pretty tricky thing. Um and so I think it's probably a little bit easier for small business because the scope of your digital assets probably isn't as big. But um that's that's really, really important. Um that equally applies to um not just uh like an application you might have, also your operating system. So making sure that you know you're on Windows 11 with the latest batches or you're on the equivalent on the Mac side of things or the Chromebook side of things. Um making sure that you've got uh administrative privileges limited, so yet again, you don't have everybody with administrative privileges able to kind of manage and um or or mismanage elements of what you're doing. And and and that isn't necessarily to say that um everybody's a threat inside your organization, you're absolutely not, but um, you're minimizing your exposure if only the right people have admin privileges, because on the scenario that one of them is compromised, it's a lot better if um you don't have 20 people in your organization who all have admin privileges, that's two, your exposure is a lot smaller. Um in terms of kind of uh user application hardening, so just making sure that um on some of your applications that they're not exposed, they don't have vulnerabilities. Yet again, for small businesses, that's probably just making sure you're kind of a little bit more up-to-date on your software side. Um for uh some of the I think in here you've probably got a digital agency down the other end of the hallway where they're building custom applications, it's their responsibility to do that. And so if you are sourcing custom applications, it is a good thing to make sure that um who you're partnering with, where you're sourcing that from is effectively hardened, that there's not vulnerabilities through there because those applications run in your environments, and if they're in your networks, it's a little bit like leaving a window open or a door open to your home. Um and then the the last one, which I think is pretty straightforward for or the last couple is um maintaining regular backups. So backups of your data make sure that you've got that in a safe place and that you're doing that frequently. And then the last one, which is kind of building on that password policy side of things, is making sure you've got multi-factor authentication um enabled. And um that's that's really important, right? I think we're probably fortunate in Australia that COVID drove a lot of multi-factor authentication awareness and engagement um across the country as we kind of drove to more of a digital adoption, navigating the difficulties of COVID. But um, equally it's really important for your organization to make sure that, hey, if I'm logging in, um I've got some form of multi-factor authentication tool out the other side. Um, yet again, it's something that uh Microsoft and Google do natively. And so if you're on those types of workplace application suites, um that that should be there as a feature that you can turn on. And then for some of your other applications, you can make that decision based off um the sensitivity of the data that's in there. But I think you would find typically a lot of like similar to you know like uh Zero, NYOB, they're starting to implement those capabilities as well. Um and and it might seem like a bit of a pain, right? That you have to go and find your phone and press a button to say yes, it's me. Um but it's very important. Very important.
SPEAKER_01:Um you talk about the importance of regular backups as well. Now, um there'll be plenty of businesses who who think that they have this covered because they've they've got all their content in the cloud. Is that enough? Or do you do you recommend kind of taking actual backups as well?
SPEAKER_00:Um no, I think I think cloud-based backups are effective. Um obviously, if you want to double down on that, local backups are good as well. Um think that um it's probably an interesting thing to audit that if you're in a small business and go of the data I have, do I have full coverage on my backups? Because you might have it on your phone, you might have it on your laptop, but do you have it for the particular application? And if you look at some of the applications we're using today, a lot of them have moved to cloud-based applications. Um and so as part of your description, do you have those backups? Do they have them in the right places? I think um an audit like that, like you would, you know, just checking your inventory each year, um, is is not a bad thing to do. I I think just a bit of hygiene, spend a day checking, making sure, all right, do I have a backup of this to a backup of that? I I'd I that's the thing I'd recommend is just going and doing a bit of an audit every six months, yeah. It's probably a good thing to do.
SPEAKER_01:Some good advice there. Now, um I I keep seeing ads talking about scams and the work that Telstra's doing to stop scams. Um uh obviously scam scams are on the rise. Um, it's an issue um digitally with email, it's an issue with text messages, it's an issue with with calls. Um what's what's going on at Telstra to help customers?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we we have an issue called Cleaner Pipes. Um, and so you uh you would have seen a bit of this. I think there's a lot of um marketing actually. I drove past the airport and there was a big scam with an orange line through it, um, and an ad with Steve Buscemi, um, who's some form of alien overlord trying to um scam Australia? Uh but uh yeah, so we we do a lot in this space, um, and a little bit to your point around uh how we're we're leveraging AI, there's a lot we're doing in algorithms to make sure that we're we're actually looking at the patterns, where the patterns of how people are calling, where the patterns of how messages are coming through, and picking up where there are scammers. That's that's been pretty front of mind for us. We do a lot of work in that space. Um, and uh equally we we have like we have big pond email. I think you probably have a few of your commerce that have big pond email. We do a fair bit in that space as well. As you can imagine, it's a bit like whack-a-mole. Um, every time you kind of get good at it, someone else figures out a way around it and constantly kind of navigating through it. But there's a lot that we do in that space for customers and uh has proven to be pretty effective. Um no doubt over time we're gonna have to continue to evolve that. And there are other elements of how we're looking at helping build trust in the way that you you call. So coming back to like what capabilities can we expose from the network, is there a way for us to be able to represent um branding in partnership with Apple? So if Commonwealth Bank calls you, it's got a Commonwealth Bank little sign on it, you know that it's actually your bank calling. Um, and so we'll continue to build more of that capability out because I think that trust, as much as filtering and getting rid of this the spam callers, also making sure that if someone is calling you present pretending to be an organization that you have a relationship with, they are exactly who they say they are, is so important. So that'll be a really core part of what we do moving forward and has been a core tenet of what we've kind of approached over the last um, yeah. I think cleaner pipes has been an initiative we had in the play for the last four or five years.
SPEAKER_01:Who are the bad guys? Are they are they all offshore or are there local um bad actors as well?
SPEAKER_00:Oh look, uh I would say um there's definitely local bad actors, but if you look at the threat landscape, I think a lot of them are offshore um uh from a variety of different places. So um yeah, yeah, it's uh it's it's not centered in a particular country. You'll hear a lot of noise about particular countries, and no doubt there are bad actors within them. But um I I would say that those threats landscapes, those bad guys, come from um all over the place.
SPEAKER_01:So uh beyond what we've already talked about, are there are there any kind of key tips you would share with small businesses to improve their cyber resilience? What are what are the kind of three things they should be focusing on?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I would say um find a cyber warden, as um silly as that may sound, but but find someone in your organization that maybe has a bit of a passion for this and can stay close to what needs to be up to date, um, staying close to essential eight um is is really important and I'd kind of put that person on point to do that. And secondly, I think um to my point earlier, just spend a day every six months doing a bit of an audit. Do we have our backups in place? Are we up to date on um on things like uh software updates? Uh do we have the right permissions in place? I I know that sounds really simple, but um it's it's really important hygiene, and it's really easy to drop that discipline. Um coming back to my point around um you know, a couple of people leaving the company um and just forgetting to remove their access, like the basic stuff like that. Um that doesn't necessarily mean they will do bad by you, but um if they're exposed in any way, if they're vulnerable, if someone compromises their account, uh they're walking through the front door if you're small. Business.
SPEAKER_01:So and potentially in a lot of small businesses too, there could be sort of shared passwords to social media accounts and it's not a good idea.
SPEAKER_00:Totally, just password hygiene, that type of thing, right? Like it's just, it's it's really, really important. Um and it's simple, but if you if you maintain that discipline, if you're doing audits every kind of six months, I think you'll be in a really good spot. And if you've got someone in your organization that is keeping that front of mind, um it's a it's a pretty straightforward thing to keep up with. Um equally, I think a lot of your sourcing decisions, like you're not alone in that, right? Like you yet again, your laptops are gonna update and have the latter software. Everybody's got an incentive in keeping each other secure. And so as long as you're updating your software, updating your operating systems, um, you'll be in a pretty good place. And and yet again, it's just discipline and hygiene that's really easy to drop. And so if you're kind of keeping that front of mind, you know, it's a pretty easy thing to maintain.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. Um, so I guess more generally, I mean, what are some of the shifts you're seeing in how we all use technology and what is that impact, or what is the impact of that on the kind of connectivity we're going to need into the future?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think uh we're definitely seeing an increasingly um strong reliance on connectivity. So if you think about uh, and it's actually a pretty common one, if you think about just the transition that a lot of small businesses would have gone through for things like point of sale and um just uh you know, like F Plus payments, F F Plus terminals, a lot of that stuff is connected now, right? And so I think um the reliance on connectivity to be able to perform your trade on a daily basis is a lot higher. Um, and when it goes wrong, um, it can be pretty detrimental, right? That's really front of mind for us as an organization, making sure that we get it right for customers, but also um acknowledging that some not, you know, as much as we'd like it to be, not every network is foolproof at times they go down. So, how do we make sure that when we offer solutions to customers, we can offer resiliency and backup to make sure that they're not impacted? Um, great examples of that, I think, are you know, for me, it's been like food traders, uh, you know, food vans. Um, if that connectivity goes down, their days go on. Like how many people carry cash? It's not there anymore, right? So for us, um what's really been front of mind is obviously putting the resiliency and the investment into our network to be able to support that, both on mobile and fixed, but also looking at how we bring um new network partnerships in that add an additional level of resiliency. So a good example of that is we've had a partnership with Starlink for the last year and a half, I think it's been now. That's been amazing because we've offered better connectivity into regional Australia, which I'm super passionate about. But um if you think about it in the context of um cell traders, people that um need that resilience in key moments, like a food truck at a um sporting event, um, being able to offer that on demand is something we're looking at. Like, can we do that as a backup, right? You sure it might cost you a little bit extra for the day, but that peace of mind and on the resilience is important. So there's a bit that we're doing around that that's been really important. We're also bit embedding more of that capability into phones. So um in that partnership, um, earlier this year we uh announced, I think it was in July, a partnership with SpaceX, so same crew, but um embedding uh text messaging uh through the same satellite coverage. So if you're out of um coverage from a Telstra perspective, we we we do a lot. I think we, you know, not too much of a sales pitch. I think we cover a million more square kilometers than our competitors. But when you think about that from a um not population coverage, but just land coverage, it's it's still about 40% of the country, right? We we live in a very big country. And so um what's important in in that sense is that you've got that peace of mind that when you're out of that coverage area, you're able to still send a text message. Um, and if you speak to farmers, people that are out in the regions that live in areas where you have those black plots, in some circumstances that's the difference of life and death to make it really extreme. So for us, it's about um yes, that connectivity is is increasingly important almost by the minute. And um there's a lot of investment we put into our own networks, but there's a lot of work we're doing in bringing other networks together to really make that as robust as possible for customers and robust as possible for small businesses so they're not losing valuable time and productivity of their people needing to do what they need to do for their for their customers.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Now, Nathan, you're on the board of Muru D, Telstra's startup incubator. So, what what innovations are you seeing emerging from startups? Is there anything um interesting you'd like to share with our audience?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I actually one of the things I've been super passionate about and and some of the investment we have as part of Muru D is the agri tech sector. And so really looking at how technology can help on the agriculture side. A lot of that has to do with um sensors, elements of what's happening in different land parcels or or close to crops and different aspects there. And so I think technology has an incredible opportunity to be able to continue to solve that, and that that that's kind of booming. So that's been super impressive. Um, yeah, I I think we'll continue to see some pretty innovative um AI-based startups. Obviously, there's a lot of what we hear on these like really, really big companies like OpenAI that are building out these large language models. But um, for me, it's more interesting in terms of how they're applying AI. Um, and so I'm excited about the potential of what that means and the startups that kind of come off the back of that. Um, and and similarly, that that'll be applied in all areas like agri tech.
SPEAKER_01:So um for me that comes back to your point about connectivity, right? Because ultimately you you can't roll out technology in a in a field in the the back of darker South Australia if you if you don't have that connectivity.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, spot on, spot on. So um I think there's a really strong, we're really excited about the potential in that future. But coming back to a little bit of our strategy, um, we're really excited about the opportunity to partner with organizations like that to unlock the power of our network for um for our customers, but doing it in partnership with with small startups. So part of that is our Meridian um startup incubation program. Um, part of that is actually just the partner ecosystem we're trying to develop and looking at how we work with those startups to be able to build cool new things on top of our network, which is super exciting.
SPEAKER_01:Excellent. Well, we'll watch the space and see see what comes out of that. Um now now it's great having you here in Canberra. Um how do you think Canberra's business community can keep up and best prepare to stay competitive and secure in in a fast-changing digital world?
SPEAKER_00:It's a great question. I think um I've been surprised, and that's that's not um that's no slight in Canberra, but since moving back to Canberra, um I've been surprised at the amount of kind of digital infrastructure, smaller startups we have here. Um and and that was probably a little bit of um moving away from Canberra back in 2010 and and not saying a lot of it at the time, but um there is a huge amount of uh digital agencies. Like I said, I mean you've got one on the floor, but um I've got mates of two or three digital agencies here, and they're not just doing things like um basic digital marketing, they're building applications, they're selling those into government as much as they're selling it across Australia. So I think um there is this like growing industry of business here that is really orientated around technology in Canberra, not associated with government and defence, which is super rewarding. Um I also like the fact that um we have, you know, things like the Chamber of Commerce, right? And that what I love about Canberra, and you see this in pockets of irrespective of the type of organizations, they tend to band together. They don't really see themselves as necessarily competing against each other for the most part. It almost feels like there's a bit of a Canberra versus the world sentiment. Um, and I I love that, right? I think there's so much in how you can share insights. Um, you know, even for us as as telcos, um, the best part of being able to go to different um conferences around technology isn't just understanding about the technology. I'd say it's probably the best part is getting to hang out with peers and share some insights. And so for me, when I think about the opportunity for Canberra business, um, it is you know, how do how do we band together? How do we build a strong uh you know pipeline of kind of different businesses focused on different industry? And how do we um build that culture of kind of sharing insights and working together? Um, that that's so important, right? Particularly in the technology space. So you know, the work that you and the commerce do, the champion of commerce do is incredible to kind of help cultivate that. Um I just think more of that for me. Um, and it creates a really nice little ecosystem, a really nice little environment for people to be in. And um, yeah, that sharing of insights is just so important.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, absolutely. And you're going to come and join us for an event in March next year, that's March 2026, not too far away, to talk about some of these issues with members, right? So that's absolutely part of that um uh caring and sharing community that we're trying to build here.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, look, I can't wait. And um, yet again, uh a proud Canberra boy, um, but love seeing Canberra on the world stage. So um, in any way, if I can contribute to help small businesses kind of navigate things like data AI, um navigate things like cybersecurity, or just insights on what we do and how it could help their business. Um, that's just uh yeah, something that I'm really, really passionate about.
SPEAKER_01:Excellent. Well, Nathan Gumley, thank you so much for joining us today on the Canberra Business Podcast. It's been a really insightful conversation, some really valuable commentary, I think, there for the business community. Um, I'll look forward to seeing you in March uh for our panel conversation. Um uh, but until then, um have a have a great rest of the year. Thanks, Matt. Thanks for joining us. Um, I'm Greg Harford, this is the Canber Business Podcast, and I've been talking to Nathan Gumley, the group owner, strategy and transformation uh for Telstra. Don't forget to follow us on your favourite podcast platform for future episodes of the Canber Business Podcast. I'll catch you next time.