Image (from left): Richard Williamson, Professor Stephen Rodda, Professor Sahlil Kanhere, Rizwan Mahmood, Alan Rankins OAM and Dr Margaret Law.

GuardWare Australia and UNSW Sydney under the Defence Trailblazer has signed a $7 million collaboration agreement to develop technologies to improve Australia’s defence supply chain resilience by encrypting and controlling unstructured data shared in defence supply chains.

Data such as engineering design files, sensor data, source code, office files, project management files, and videos are often unstructured. When working on a Defence project, this unstructured data can contain sensitive information which may be copied, edited, stored within businesses and then shared. Protection of sensitive data shared by businesses currently relies on best intent, blind trust, audit report KPIs and contract penalties.

GuardWare Australia is a Disruptive software company that has been protecting information across diverse sectors globally. This project aims to enhance GuardWare’s software capability providing an encryption software suite that can protect sensitive information across the entire defence supply chain.

Alan Rankins, the Chairman of GuardWare Australia said “The project involves building a globally unique solution designed to eliminate data theft—forever Unlike traditional security measures, this truly Australian sovereign innovative system ensures that sensitive data of all types remains protected and completely unusable, even if stolen, lost, or when in possession with third parties like suppliers. It’s designed to empower businesses of all sizes, to achieve top-tier data protection without breaking the bank. Collaborating with UNSW’s exceptional research team and the Defence Trailblazer Initiative has reinforced our confidence in delivering a technology we can all be proud of—on time and under budget.”

The project will be led by Professor Salil Kanhere at UNSW Sydney’s School of Computer Science & Engineering, who also co-leads Information Warfare and Advanced Cyber for the Defence Trailblazer. “Our research on applied cryptography will help to develop efficient end-to-end encryption solutions that apply to many practical use cases”, shared Professor Kanhere.

“The Defence Strategic Review and Defence Industry Development Strategy both recognise the importance of improving defence supply chain resilience. This project is an exemplar of Defence Trailblazer, industry and academia working together to accelerate the translation and commercialisation of software technologies to deliver sovereign capability for our defence industry.” said Dr Margaret Law, General Manager at Defence Trailblazer.

About the Defence Trailblazer: Defence Trailblazer is a collaborative partnership between the University of Adelaide and UNSW supported by the Department of Education and over 95 industry partners. Defence Trailblazer is dedicated to advancing Australia’s defence capabilities through innovative research and strategic partnerships. By collaborating with industry, academia, and government, we aim to develop and commercialise breakthrough technologies that address critical national security challenges.