Cythera has appointed cybersecurity industry veteran Jason Whyte (pictured) as Managing Director for Australia, signalling a major step in the company’s national expansion and operational integration strategy.
Based in Melbourne, Whyte will oversee Cythera’s Australian operations and lead the strategic integration of Seamless Intelligence and Phronesis Security under the Cythera brand, which now serves as the flagship identity for the Bastion Group’s cybersecurity portfolio in Australia.
Whyte brings more than 25 years of experience across the global cybersecurity sector, having held senior leadership roles at Trustwave, Verizon and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. His appointment comes as Australian organisations face increasing cyber risk, regulatory pressure and growing concern around sovereignty and offshore service delivery models.
According to Whyte, many organisations have invested heavily in security technologies but struggle to extract meaningful insight or translate cyber risk into informed business decisions. He said boards and executives remain deeply concerned about breaches that could damage brand equity or disrupt critical operations, particularly as IT and operational technology environments continue to converge.
Over the next 18 months, Whyte aims to shift Cythera’s focus beyond tool-based protection toward operational resilience, helping organisations reduce executive burden by treating cyber risk as a manageable business variable rather than a constant existential threat.
A key focus of Cythera’s strategy under Whyte’s leadership will be sovereign, human-led security. The company will continue supporting both public and private sector organisations, with an emphasis on onshore expertise, data sovereignty and regulatory compliance. Whyte said local capability and “boots on the ground” are becoming essential as legislation expands and geopolitical risk increasingly shapes cyber threat environments.
He noted that many Australian organisations are uneasy about offshore security providers, particularly following foreign acquisitions of local firms. By combining the strengths of Cythera, Seamless Intelligence and Phronesis Security, the group aims to offer a distinctly Australian alternative, grounded in local knowledge of regulatory, economic and geopolitical risk.
Bastion Group CEO Eugene Gibney welcomed the appointment, saying Whyte’s commercial depth and global perspective made him well suited to unite the group’s cybersecurity brands under a single identity. He added that Whyte’s focus on positioning security as a business enabler, rather than a cost centre, strongly aligns with Bastion Group’s long-term strategy.
The appointment marks a new phase for Cythera as it positions itself as a sovereign cybersecurity partner for Australian organisations operating in an increasingly complex threat landscape.
