The board of directors have announced the winding up of the Australian Cyber Network. The ACN was established to serve as a national industry body focused on advocacy, capability and education for Australia’s cyber security industry.
“After months of careful consideration and every effort to secure adequate funding for the 2025-26 program of works, the Board has made the difficult but responsible decision to close the organisation,” reads a statement on the ACN’s LinkedIn page.
“It was our mission to amplify the voices of start-ups and emerging cyber businesses, provide practical support through our business membership model and build a trusted evidence base of data and information.”
As with all start-ups, the journey had commercialisation challenges and, like many member-based organisations, faced a challenging financial environment.
The organisation was launched in October 2024 as a successor to AustCyber.
“Although our time was brief, we were pleased to be able to deliver a for industry by industry membership model to help cyber security start-ups grow their products, services and business capability – services they were either unable to access elsewhere or that would otherwise have been beyond their financial reach,” continues the statement.
“We were also pleased to deliver the State of the Industry 2024 report – a comprehensive and accurate snapshot of the cyber security industry’s size, value and workforce composition. This publication was established as an evidence base for policy makers, investors and industry alike by providing a central source of information and economic data. It also highlighted the progress of Australia’s Cyber Security Strategy 2023–2030, helping to fill a much-needed gap in independent assessment and visibility.”
“We created space for difficult but necessary conversations to take place publicly on the challenges facing sovereign cyber security start-ups and scale-ups.”
“These achievements were only possible through the commitment of our members, supporters and partners, particularly the start-ups and scale-ups who saw ACN as a platform of support, a need that will require to be addressed.”
The Australian Cyber Network says as it begins the winding up process, it remains committed to engaging transparently with members and ensuring a respectful and fair transition.
