Live webinar · Thursday 15 October, 12:00pm AEDT
Closing the gaps: hardening your business against AI-accelerated attacks
Attackers now use AI to find and chain weaknesses faster than defenders can keep up. This is a working session on how to close those gaps in your own environment, and prove they are closed, on real screens.
No slides after the first four minutes. The product is open for the rest, and half the session is your questions.
Not ready to give up a diary slot? Read the field guide to the ASD board questions instead. Free, no sign-up to read.
- Free to attend
- Thursday 15 October, 12:00pm AEDT
- About an hour, including Q&A
- No slides, the product is open
- Recording sent to everyone who registers
Why now
This is not a vendor telling you to worry
In 2026 the AI labs restricted access to their own most capable models after those models crossed cyber-offensive thresholds, releasing the unrestricted versions only to vetted defenders. The Australian Signals Directorate, with the Australian Institute of Company Directors, names the same shift, and hands your board a set of questions to put to management.
Faster to exploit
The time it takes to find and exploit a weakness has collapsed.
Small problems, chained
Separate low-level issues can now be chained into serious ones.
A lower bar to attack
Less-skilled attackers can do far more damage than before.
Kathryn Giudes
Founder and Managing Director, ORCA Opti
Two decades inside Microsoft and Amazon, most recently leading the Xbox Games Marketplace and Microsoft Store Online. Has sat on multiple ASX-listed boards, and built ORCA Opti to close the gap between what big enterprises can afford and what everyone else can reach. Paige Harkness hosts, and takes your questions.
Why sit through this one
On the record before the guidance landed
In July 2026 the Australian Financial Review asked what directors need to know, and do, about frontier AI risks. It quoted ORCA Opti's founder Kat Giudes, and described ORCA Opti as an “AI governance start-up”.
Weeks later, the Australian Signals Directorate and the Australian Institute of Company Directors published board guidance that substantiates the same argument, with the weight of both organisations behind it. Kat was talking about this before the official version existed. This is her showing you what the answers look like.
What happens on screen
Four gaps, and exactly how you close each one.
The weaknesses attackers look for first, found and closed on real screens, working on real data. No slides.
Where you actually stand
The Essential Eight view with monitored maturity next to assessed maturity, and the gap between them named out loud. Why a scan is not an attestation.
The control that lies
A control that reads Implemented and Ineffective on the same row, evidencing Essential Eight and ISO 27001 at once. The thing a board never sees and an auditor always finds.
What the AI can actually reach
A procedure compiled to automation: how much can be automated, what still needs a person, the least-privilege tool grant, and human approval by default.
The chain, end to end
One finding, to the control it tests, to the policy it implements, to the owner and review date, to an incident with regulatory impact. One platform, not four tools.
Then the floor is yours. Half the session is questions, with a real ORCA Opti customer on the call to answer what it is like from the other side.
Who it's for
The people responsible for locking this down.
Written for the technology and security leaders who have to harden the environment and prove it holds, in regulated Australian organisations without a Fortune 500 security team.
- Technology and security leaders
- Boards and directors
- Healthcare
- NDIS providers
- Financial services
- Government suppliers
- Defence industry
- Professional services
For everyone who comes
Thirty days of Opti Core, and a working session to get you started
Governance platforms do not fail because the software is wrong. They fail because nobody gets past the first configuration. So the offer is not just access, it is time with us to get your first framework configured and your first evidence collected.
Opti Core needs an organisation sign-up, so we send an admin-consent note with the offer. If consent is not quick to arrange, the free plan needs no approval at all, so the conversation does not have to stop.
Save your spot
Thursday 15 October, 12:00pm AEDT.
Noon AEDT is 11:00am in Brisbane and 9:00am in Perth. Pop your details in and we will send your joining link and a calendar invite straight to your inbox, along with the field guide to the ASD and AICD board questions.
- Free to attend
- Thursday 15 October, 12:00pm AEDT
- About an hour, including Q&A
- No slides, the product is open
- Recording sent to everyone who registers
A few questions
Quick answers
- Is it free?
- Yes. Free to attend, and we send the recording to everyone who registers, so signing up is worth it even if you cannot make the time.
- What if I cannot make that time?
- Register anyway. We send the recording to everyone who signs up, whether or not you make it live, so you lose nothing by putting your name down now.
- Do I need Microsoft 365 to join?
- No. The session runs on Microsoft Teams and you can join from any browser with the link we send you. ORCA Opti itself runs in Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, but the session is open to everyone.
- Will it be recorded?
- Yes. Register and we send you the recording afterwards, along with a written answer to any question we run out of time for on the day.
- Can my team join too?
- Please do. Share the link or register your colleagues. The field guide to the ASD board questions is free to read without registering at all, so send that on as well.
- What is the offer at the end?
- Thirty days of Opti Core, plus a working session with us to get your first framework configured and your first evidence collected. No pressure, and there is a free plan that needs no approval if a paid trial is not right for you yet.
Close the gaps before attackers' AI finds them.
Thursday 15 October, 12:00pm AEDT. Free to attend, and the recording comes to everyone who registers.