Episode 47 – The entertaining Adam Spencer, MC of the ASEAN-Australia Codeathon, hosted by AUSTRAC

In this interview, Chris Cubbage chats with the always entertaining and intelligent Adam Spencer, MC at the ASEAN-Australia Codeathon in Sydney, hosted by AUSTRAC, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre.

AUSTRAC is an Australian government financial intelligence agency set up to monitor and regulate financial transactions to identify money laundering, organised crime, tax evasion, welfare fraud and terrorism, and as you’ll hear, the Codeathon was created to bring strangers from around the ASEAN region and encourage collaboration, and develop real-world solutions, all within a 32 hour non-stop window.

Chris and Adam discuss the importance of regional collaboration, with respect to cyber security, and also how blockchain technologies could help to increase integrity in our daily lives.

Recorded 14 March, 2018 in Sydney at the ASEAN-Australia Codeathon, held in the lead up to the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit 2018.

The Codeathon presented the following six challenges for participants to solve in 32 hours:

1. Using big data to combat terrorism financing
2. Disrupting money launderers, terrorists and cyber criminals across ASEAN-Australia
3. Exploiting financial data to gain insights into crime and terrorism risks
4. Applying artificial intelligence to improve Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (AML/CTF) compliance and suspicious matter reporting
5. Applying blockchain technologies to improve financial services, AML compliance or secure intelligence sharing
6. Collaboration and knowledge sharing to combat cybercrime, money laundering and terrorism

The overall winners of the ASEAN-Australia Codeathon were:

• Codeathon Challenge Winner: Project Iceberg
• Codeathon Challenge Runner-Up: CryptoCollect – A project by The Cyber Six

WINNERS:

Congratulations to our team winners of the six Codeathon challenges:

• ‘Using big data to combat terrorism financing’ – CyberEye
• ‘Disrupting money launderers, terrorists and cyber criminals across ASEAN’ – GoTrack
• ‘Exploiting financial data to gain insights into crime and terrorism risks’ – Project Iceberg
• ‘Applying artificial intelligence to improve AML/CTF compliance and suspicious matter reporting’ – Project Vision
• ‘Applying blockchain technologies to improve financial services, AML compliance or secure intelligence sharing’ – CryptoCollect – A project by The Cyber Six
• ‘Collaboration and knowledge sharing to combat cybercrime, money laundering and terrorism’ – The Longreach Platform

Congratulations to team prize winners:

• ‘Most Innovative Idea’ – FinCrime AI Alliance
• ‘Spirit of the Codeathon’ – GoTrack
• ‘Codeathon Collaboration’ – Jigsaw
• ‘Best ASEAN Codeathon Team’ – Project Vision

Judging panel:

• Tony Sheehan, the Commonwealth Counter-Terrorism Coordinator
• Dr Maria Milosavljevic, Chief Information Security Officer, NSW Government
• Dr Alex Johnston, Head of Technology, Thomson Reuters Australia
• Alex Scandurra, CEO, Stone and Chalk
• Paul Xuereb, Secretary, Blockchain Association of Australia
• Leanne Fry, Chief Innovation Officer, AUSTRAC
• Dr John Moss, National Manager Intelligence, AUSTRAC