Brett Winterford

Regional Chief Security Officer, APAC, Okta

Brett Winterford is the Regional CISO at Okta. He advises policymakers, business leaders and fellow security professionals on evolving threats and opportunities to improve their security posture. Prior to Okta, Brett held senior leadership roles in the security teams at Symantec and Commonwealth Bank. He’s best known for his work as a security journalist. In 2020, he was the founding editor of the Srsly Risky Biz newsletter, a companion to the Risky Business podcast, providing the cybersecurity, policy, defence and intelligence communities with a weekly brief of the news that shapes cyber policy.

Prior to working as a security practitioner, Brett was the editor-in-chief of ITnews Australia and has contributed extensively to ZDNet, the Australian Financial Review and the Sydney Morning Herald.

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Auth0, Okta deliver on Australian Government standards

An independent evaluation of the Auth0 and Okta Identity platforms has demonstrated that Okta continues to meet the high bar for security required by Australian Government agencies. In late 2024, Okta’s flagship platforms were evaluated by CyberCX, an IRAP-accredited assessor. The assessment reviewed controls as recommended in the Australian…

New report reveals trends in secure sign-in

There’s a popular business adage that we’ve found to be pretty credible: “You are what you measure.” No matter how well you may think you understand your customers or your industry, you won’t know for sure until you dig into the data. At Okta, we’ve seen our users opt for ever more robust sign-in solutions over the past 14 years. But what’s the…

As Firms Negotiate COVID-19, New Apps and Services Take Centre Stage

Since March of 2020, organisations worldwide have turned to technology to stay afloat during the interruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Companies rushed to support remote working, enabling new online experiences to stay connected to employees and to transact with customers. Cutting-edge tech solutions, once considered only by “early…

The ACSC Essential Eight: Delivering MFA for all Australians

Australian government agencies will soon be expected to apply multi-factor authentication (MFA) to the digital services they provide to the Australian public, as part of a substantive overhaul to the ACSC’s Essential Eight Maturity Model. The Essential Eight is a set of priority controls agencies are expected to implement to mitigate cyber…