Queensland’s Privacy Commissioner Philip Green and USC’s top cybersecurity experts will outline how Sunshine Coast residents can safeguard their personal and business information across two events at USC’s Innovation Centre auditorium on Monday 13 May.

A free morning forum will officially launch Privacy Awareness Week (13-18 May) in Queensland and feature a panel discussion on the week’s theme of ‘Build privacy into your everyday’. It will begin with morning tea at 10.30am and run from 11am to 12.15pm.

Registrations are essential for this event via www.usc.edu.au/privacy-awareness

USC’s panellists will include Professor of Cybersecurity David Lacey, who is the managing director of IDCARE, Lecturer in Cybersecurity and Privacy Law Leah Mooney, and Innovation Centre Sunshine Coast CEO Mark Paddenburg.

Manager of cybersecurity operations at USC’s Institute for Cyber Investigations and Forensics, Connie McIntosh, will be master of ceremonies.

An afternoon event from 12.30pm will cost $25 and include a light lunch and a Cybersecurity and Privacy Essentials for Small Business workshop.

Attendees will work with members of the cybersecurity experts panel to conduct cyber health checks of their business operations to determine their resilience to cyber attack and compliance with current privacy laws.

For more details and to register for this workshop go to www.usc.edu.au/cybersecurity-and-privacy

Professor Lacey encouraged local business owners, public servants and private individuals to attend these two events to gain crucial tips on how to secure their own privacy and to protect business information about their clients.

“USC is proud to be hosting this year's launch of Privacy Awareness Week in Queensland,” he said. “This is the first time that the event will be held outside of Brisbane, and USC is keen to share this great opportunity with our community.”

Commissioner Green said Privacy Awareness Week aimed to encourage members of the community and public servants to value personal information through a better understanding of their privacy rights and responsibilities.

“When we embed positive privacy practices into our organisational culture and everyday processes, we are not only mitigating risk, but we are also strengthening the community's trust in both public and private enterprise,” he said.