GrainCorp on the hunt for new CISO

Agribusiness GrainCorp is on the lookout for a new CISO, following the departure of Richard Burke.

According to the company’s advertisement on LinkedIn, the head of information and cyber security [or] CISO will report to CIO Risto Dukovski.

The CISO will lead a team in charge of uplifting and maintaining the “confidentiality, integrity and availability of information systems and technology across GrainCorp”, the company said.

Responsibilities will include governance of the information security management system and NIST cybersecurity framework; and leading a team providing security responses, security operations, application security, awareness and governance.

GrainCorp's general manager for organisation development Gary Hegarty told iTnews that the  the company intended to "to evolve its security capabilities."

“Everyone is conscious of the regular and ongoing threat that everybody has across Australia,” he said.

“Staff moving around gives us a chance to reframe the role, and appeal to the market - to create a compelling case for people to join GrainCorp.”

The evolution of GrainCorp’s security needs is driven by digitisation, he said.

“Agribusiness has the reputation of being quite traditional,” he said, but as a commodity trader, GrainCorp has to have a good view of its supply chain, and as digitisation progresses, that needs to be protected from threats.

The company needs to “not only keep pace but be ahead of” the market’s expectations in security.

The security team currently comprises four of five people in GrainCorp’s in-house technology staff of just over 100.

“But the domain of the role is looking to recruit, as well”, Hegarty said.

The grain and seed handler and processor had revenues of nearly $5.5 billion in 2020-2021.

It has been sharpening its focus on technology, and in 2019, built a payments engine into its CropConnect online marketplace to avoid grain sellers being left out-of-pocket during trades.

After three years with GrainCorp, Burke left this month to take up the CISO role with poultry firm Inghams. 

Prior to GrainCorp, Burke held various IT and security roles with Ricoh Australia, Sony, Micros Systems and Macquarie University.