Canberra cyber awards honour women & inclusion efforts
Fri, 4th Sep 2026 (Today)
The Canberra Cyber Hub has announced the winners of the 2026 International Women in Cyber Day - Canberra Awards, recognising women working in cyber security in the ACT and organisations supporting inclusion in the sector.
The programme honoured six recipients across categories covering leadership, advocacy, mentoring, early-career achievement and organisational inclusion. The winners were Rose MacDonald, Simone Chitsinde, Chloe Harpley, Flora McDonald, Kersti Eesmaa and Canberra-based cyber company Ionize.
The awards were presented at an event attended by leaders from defence, government and industry, including Chief of Army Lieutenant General Susan Coyle, Minister for Women, Seniors and Veterans Caitlin Tough and former Director-General of the Australian Signals Directorate Rachel Noble.
Individual winners
Rose MacDonald won the Cyber Leader of the Year Award, which recognises established cyber leaders who create opportunities for women and underrepresented groups. Her background includes two decades in law enforcement as a detective and digital forensic specialist, with investigative work spanning sexual offences, child abuse and homicide.
That work brought her into issues linked to technology-facilitated abuse in domestic and family violence. Award organisers said her experience placed her at the intersection of digital safety and support for victim-survivors.
Simone Chitsinde received the Rising Woman in Cyber Award. A cybersecurity Honours student at the University of Canberra, she is researching cascading failures in large, dynamic IT systems-of-systems.
In 2025, Chitsinde founded the University of Canberra Cybersecurity Society to build an inclusive technical community and increase women's participation through mentoring, workshops and industry links.
She also chairs the Australian Computer Society's Canberra Emerging Professionals Committee, where she works on pathways and representation for younger ICT professionals in the ACT.
Chloe Harpley was named Emerging Cyber Advocate of the Year. She leads member growth for the Health Cyber Sharing Network, which connects hospitals, aged care and disability providers, community health services and research institutes with threat intelligence.
Her professional background spans anthropology, law, policy and data. Organisers said she examines how risk moves across social, technological and environmental systems rather than treating each area separately.
Mentoring and change
Flora McDonald won the Change Maker of the Year Award, a category for mid-career cyber professionals in the ACT. She started on a support desk, later specialised in Exchange, and then moved into cyber security work focused on Microsoft 365.
She now leads Fujitsu Cyber's Microsoft 365 security assessment and uplift practice across Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. Organisers said she also built an all-female team of Microsoft 365 specialists.
Kersti Eesmaa won the Cyber Mentor of the Year Award for work focused on mentoring, programme development and advocacy for women in cyber security.
In 2024, Eesmaa founded and led the Australian chapter of Cyber Battle. Award background said the initiative engaged more than 1,000 students over three years with support from more than 30 industry mentors.
She is now Chief Operating Officer of VSG and previously served as Managing Director of WorkPath Australia. Her work has included training, mentoring, security clearance navigation and placement support for underrepresented groups entering the field.
Organisation award
Ionize received the Inclusion in Action Award, which recognises a group or company that has built an environment that encourages and values talent across Canberra's cyber sector. The business is Australian-owned, veteran-owned and based in the capital.
Its work spans strategy, risk and compliance, security architecture, offensive security testing, software assurance, privacy and managed defensive operations. It works with government, defence, critical infrastructure and commercial clients.
The awards sit within a broader effort in Canberra to widen the cyber talent pipeline as governments and companies continue to face skills shortages and rising security demands. Local initiatives have increasingly focused on improving retention, visibility and entry pathways for women and other underrepresented groups in the profession.
Recognition for students, early-career professionals and mentors reflects a focus on long-term workforce development as well as senior leadership. It also highlights how cyber roles are expanding beyond traditional technical pathways into fields such as health, public policy, research and victim protection.
International Women in Cyber Day has become a focal point for organisations seeking to address the gender imbalance in cyber security. In Canberra, where federal agencies, defence institutions, specialist contractors and universities play an outsized role in the sector, the issue carries particular weight.
The winner list also showed the breadth of backgrounds now feeding into the cyber workforce, from policing and digital forensics to student research, community building, disability advocacy and healthcare information sharing. Ionize was the only organisational recipient among the six winners.