cybersecurity Archives - Fortitude Valley News

Brisbane Cybersecurity Startup Acquired for Over $100 Million

Brisbane-based cybersecurity startup Assetnote has been acquired by British firm Searchlight Cyber in a deal valued at more than $100 million, according to the Australian Financial Review.

**Michael Gianarakis, Chief Executive Officer of Assetnote**
Photo Credit: Assetnote

The company, founded in 2018 by Michael Gianarakis and Shubham Shah, specialises in Attack Surface Management (ASM), providing businesses with tools to identify vulnerabilities in their cybersecurity infrastructure. Since its founding, Assetnote has maintained profitability while serving major clients including Atlassian, Qantas, Canva, Linktree, and Afterpay.

**Shubham Shah, Chief Technology Officer of Assetnote**
Photo Credit: Assetnote

Gianarakis explained to AFR that Assetnote’s software emerged after companies expressed interest in a tool for uncovering code flaws. The founders chose to grow without external venture capital funding, with Gianarakis noting to AFR that they “never really met a VC that we trusted enough.”

The acquisition, announced on January 29, 2025, marks Searchlight Cyber’s first acquisition. The British company plans to integrate Assetnote’s ASM solution with its dark web intelligence and monitoring capabilities to create a comprehensive Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) platform.

As part of the agreement, both founders will remain with the company. The entire Assetnote team will join Searchlight, with Gianarakis and Shah leading the ASM division and managing engineering and research teams from Brisbane.

The transaction was supported by AGC Partners as exclusive financial advisor to Assetnote, while Mintz and Corrs Chambers Westgarth served as legal advisors to Searchlight.

The deal follows Searchlight’s strategic growth investment from Charlesbank Capital Partners announced in January 2024. Charlesbank Capital Partners currently manages approximately $19 billion in assets as of September 30, 2024.

Published 5-February-2025

Queensland University of Technology Reports Experiencing Royal Ransomware Cyber Attack

Photo credit: Sora Shimazaki / Pexels

A cybersecurity incident occurred at the Queensland University of Technology a few days before Christmas, reporting that no student or staff data have been compromised in what appears to be a Royal ransomware attack.

QUT recently announced the incident that happened in 22 December 2022, informing the school community that its IT systems have been taken offline as a precautionary measure whilst investigations are being completed.

“At this stage, our assessment is that no student or staff data has been compromised,” the announcement said.

“We will provide an all-staff update prior to the reopening of the campus on 3 January.

“Technical staff are currently investigating and QUT has notified the relevant agencies of the situation.”

“Royal Ransomware” emerged in early 2022 and is being distributed by ransomware threat actors from previous operations and uses a sophisticated technique to penetrate networks and encrypt them with malware with the intent of demanding ransom.

Their operation has been mostly targeting corporations, reportedly demanding ransom payments between $250,000 and over $2 million.

QUT said that technical staff are already working with external experts and will continue to work through the holiday period. Restoration of the system is expected to be completed progressively but the timeline will still be subject to further investigation.

“We will communicate with you before QUT reopens in the new year and will provide more information once we have completed our investigation,” the QUT announcement added.

Last October, Marist College Ashgrove confirmed that there has been a cybersecurity breach at the school that occurred sometime in September 2022.

The cyber-attack could have potentially exposed the driver’s license information of some 3,000 former staff which included their names, superannuation, account numbers, contact information and address.