What will kill you? | Ransomware: the new threat | Anne Aly on radicalisationIs

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WE COULD BE HEROESMeet the people that make ECU happen.

EARLY INTERVENTION:The key to tackling obesity, depression and low literacy?

25th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL:We go back to where it all began.

Get ready.

Postgrad study at ECU can help you change or further your career.As a postgrad student, you can choose from a range of study options including part-time, online or evening classes to fit study into your life. You can also choose from a range of courses that develop the skills employers are seeking. So when the time comes to take the next step, you’ll be ready.

To find out more visit ecugetready.com.au/postgraduate

ECU. That’s how university should be.

Someday you’ll decide to change careers.

Contents

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WelcomeUniversities are complex organisations. They are a mix of youth and experience, curiosity and wisdom, enthusiasm and studiousness.

Within their halls they educate the next generation and find cures for deadly diseases. But for this to happen, they rely on an unsung group of people. In this edition, we go behind the scenes and meet the technical officers and lab managers whose specialist skills keep ECU running like clockwork and who enable our students and researchers to succeed in their fields.

As ECU celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, we also go back in time and explore the social, economic and political environment in which ECU was established. Two and a half decades may seem relatively short, but as we see, 1991 was a very different time in Western Australia.

Professor Steve Chapman Vice-Chancellor

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In Brief

You Study What? Unravelling a dangerous thread

The Big Question: What is going to kill you?

Community: iPREP

5 minutes with… Dr Noel Nannup

Big Data: ECU Now and Then

Lightbox: China through the lens

Events

Alumni: Martin Van Horenbeek

The Last Word: What is ransomware?

Contact134 328 Web: www.ecu.edu.au Facebook: Edith Cowan University (ECU) Twitter: @EdithCowanUni

EdithEditor: Rhys Stacker Writers: Zubair Baig, Ruth Callaghan, David Gear, Nikolai Hampton, Ben Jones, Rob Payne, Tori Pree.

Design: 303MullenLowe

Editorial enquiries: Tel: (08) 6304 2131 Email: pr@ecu.edu.au

Edith is published by Edith Cowan University through the Marketing and Communications Service Centre:

Building 1, Joondalup Campus, ECU, 270 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup, WA, 6027.

Views expressed in Edith are not necessarily endorsed or approved by the University. Neither the University nor the Editor accepts responsibility for the content or accuracy of information published. Articles or portions of articles may be reproduced with permission of the Editor or as otherwise provided for in the Copyright Act 1968.

Edith is distributed biannually. It is also available via www.ecu.edu.au/edith and at ECU campuses.

12 Behind the scenesWithout these people, there would be few research breakthroughs or graduates heading to new careers.

20 The making of a university

17 A better beginning

In Brief

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Shining bright for 25th anniversaryECU campuses are lighting up throughout 2016 to celebrate the University’s 25th anniversary as well as indicating the six Nyoongar seasons. It will be the job of ECU Cultural Awareness Officer Jason Barrow to pay careful attention to the natural environment and decide when it’s time to change the colour of the lights. “If you drive past our campuses and notice the buildings have changed colour you’ll know a new season has begun,” Mr Barrow said.

To learn about the seasons and their colours, see www.ecu25.com.au

Criminals blame booze for incarcerationMore than half the detainees in South Hedland Police lockup said alcohol had contributed to their imprisonment “a lot,” when interviewed by ECU researchers. It was more than double the rate in metropolitan Perth, where just 21 per cent of detainees blamed alcohol for incarceration. School of Humanities and Arts lead researcher Dr Natalie Gately said there needs to be a focus on reducing demand for alcohol through better treatment services and interventions, limiting supply and increasing education programs.

Seagrass ‘libraries’ reveal devastationA study by ECU’s Centre for Marine Ecosystems Research found huge increases in phosphorous from the 1960s onwards were responsible for killing off seagrass meadows in Oyster Harbour, Albany. Researchers used two metre core samples from the seafloor to analyse changes to the ecosystem over the past 600 years. The information is expected to help scientists and governments better manage estuarine ecosystems in the future.

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New appointmentsProfessors Anne Aly, an expert in radicalisation, David Broadhurst (systems biology), Geoffrey Lancaster (composing) and Pere Masqué (oceanography and radiochemistry) have joined ECU as Professorial Research Fellows. They are the first of more than 20 new professors the University will attract from around the world to rapidly boost its research activity and impact.

Jamie’s kitchen on wheelsThe Joondalup Campus is the first WA location for Jamie’s Ministry of Food Mobile Kitchen. The community-based cooking program is teaching Jamie’s hints, tips and basic home cooking skills to students, families and community groups. It offers a seven-week cooking course, comprising one 90-minute cooking class per week with up to 12 participants in each class. “I’m so excited for my Ministry of Food Mobile Kitchen to be able to reach all you lovely people in Western Australia,” Jamie Oliver said.

On board with West Coast EaglesECU already offers a course in Australian football. But thanks to a new agreement with the West Coast Eagles, students and researchers from a wide range of other disciplines are set to benefit. ECU is the premier Eagles coaches’ partner, supporting Adam Simpson and his elite coaching team. The partnership will offer work placement and research opportunities for students.

International outlook recognisedECU has been named in the Times Higher Education (THE) top 200 list of the Most International Universities in the world. The rankings assess universities on the proportion of international staff, students and international collaborators on published research. “We have more than 65 international partnerships across 27 countries and we will be increasing these opportunities in the future,” said ECU Vice-Chancellor Professor Steve Chapman.

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Is hi-lo milk really better?The health benefits of low-fat dairy products compared to regular fat dairy have been called into question by an ECU study of 860 WA teenagers. “When we examined the cholesterol profile of these teenagers we found that those who ate more low-fat dairy were no better off,” said Dr Therese O’Sullivan from ECU’s School of Medical and Health Science. “In fact, we were able to show that for teenage boys, full-fat dairy consumption was associated with a slightly better cholesterol profile than low-fat dairy.”

Mo money for cancer researchA $9 million research project between ECU and the University of California, San Francisco, will seek to improve the lives of men with prostate cancer. The trial, funded by the Movember Foundation, will test whether tailored exercise prescriptions can increase the survival rate of men with the disease. The project will recruit around 900 men worldwide with advanced prostate cancer that no longer responds to hormonal therapy.

ECU says G’day to Japanese studentsA group of 122 students from Tokyo City University (TCU) are calling ECU home for five months this semester as part of a unique exchange program between the two universities. They’ve been paired with 65 ECU student mentors who will also gain valuable experience in Japanese and the opportunity to study at TCU in the future.

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For Professor Anne Azza Aly — the mother of two young Muslim men in the target demographic for extremist groups — stopping the spread of violent extremism is personal.

It’s also one of the most important and complex issues facing our society.

According to Aly, that complexity leads to many incorrect conclusions being drawn about extremist behaviour in the media and political sphere.

“They’re based on a lot of assumptions and outdated hypotheses that have little relevance to the current younger, fresher and angrier crop of violent extremists,” she says.

Aly joined ECU’s School of Arts and Humanities in November 2015 as one of the University’s new Professorial Research Fellows.

Factors such as anger at injustice, moral superiority, a sense of identity and purpose, the promise of adventure, and becoming a hero have all been implicated in case studies of radicalisation

So how do you work on combatting the messaging of violent extremist groups like ISIL?

Aly is tackling the problem by working on a number of projects that seek to shift the goalposts on messaging around countering violent extremism.

The first of those is backed by a prestigious Australian Research Council Discovery Grant aimed at properly understanding online propaganda of ISIL, with the eventual aim of creating counter narratives.

The second step in that fight is the creation of a toolkit for early identification of radicalisation online, involving the training of law enforcement professionals in Australia, the United Kingdom and Singapore.

“To use a sporting analogy, we don’t play their game on their field with their ball,” she says.

“Instead, we need to make our own playing field and set our own terms. To do this we need to be as innovative, if not more, than they are.”

Since 2001, she has built profiles on more than 100 violent jihadists from western countries.

These profiles find that the vast majority actively seek out contact with like-minded individuals online or through social media. They aren’t passive individuals soaking up ISIL’s slick messaging and being radicalised online but taking part in the process as willing participants, she says.

This flies in the face of the notion that “paedophile-like” characters are grooming Muslim youth.

“It’s just as likely that actual research would show that the two groups have more differences than similarities,” she says of that theory, which has taken hold in some sections of the media.

“The most respected and renowned scholars in the field have rejected claims that individuals who are radicalised can be likened to victims of paedophiles as too simplistic.

“Radicalisation to violent extremism is not just a complex process but a dynamic one. Any attempts to develop so-called profiles of violent extremists in the present may not be relevant tomorrow.”

More importantly, Aly warns that taking action based on a flawed understanding of radicalisation is bound to fail.

How can we stop young Australians leaving our shores to fight with violent extremist groups? Ben Jones asks an expert — one of ECU’s newest professors who specialises in the fight against radicalisation.

You Study What?

Unravelling a dangerous thread

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What is going to kill you?

Don’t rely on finding out about what’s going to kill you in the news. The media suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder when it comes to covering long-term life threatening illnesses, unless there’s a major breakthrough.

Coronary heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke and lung cancer are among the top five leading causes of death in Australia. Pick up the newspaper or click on a news website and you’re not likely to read about them.

Conversely, the Zika virus has dominated health headlines this year, despite few cases being reported in Australia. Meanwhile, HIV — a disease affecting more than 27,000 Australians and on the rise — remains completely off the news radar.

Associate Professor Trevor Cullen School of Arts and Humanities

The leading cause of death in Australia is coronary heart disease (and stroke is not far behind).

Arteries in our heart, brain and around our bodies are continually stressed, and therefore damaged, during normal living. Recent evidence shows exercise is the best way to regenerate our arteries because the blood flow caused by exercise or any physical activity triggers the process of renewal of the cells that line them. This exercise-stimulated self-renewal then lowers our risk of coronary heart disease.

So, sitting down all day and not getting enough exercise is a sure-fire way to increase your risk of heart disease and risk of early death.

Professor Tony Blazevich Centre for Exercise and Sports Science Research

Many professions expose workers to harmful chemicals and particles that can cause chronic diseases. You see workers all the time cutting paving wearing hearing protection but nothing over their mouths. We know breathing in that dust greatly increases your chances of developing lung disease.

Ironically increasing life expectancy is also increasing the prevalence of these long-term chronic occupational diseases, because they take a long time to develop.

Professor Jacques Oosthuizen School of Medical and Health Sciences

The Big Question

The unhealthy state of the news

Sitting down all dayYour job

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Program perfect fit for business and innovators

Businesses thrive when they are willing to innovate and try new ideas. Researchers by their nature are driven to try to design new solutions to old problems.

This makes iPREP WA — a unique program developed by ECU that links PhD candidates with industry partners to work on real world problems — a perfect fit for both research students and business.

ECU collaborated with four other WA universities to establish iPREP WA last year and it has already involved 60 PhD students and 16 businesses and organisations across 20 projects.

When Bombora Wave Power was looking to build on their vision of producing power from the sea, they knew they needed some outside expertise, so they signed up for the first round of iPREP WA.

Former ECU PhD candidate Dr Gary Allwood worked with Bombora to develop a way to

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Businesses are tapping into the potential of WA’s brightest new researchers through the iPREP program.

monitor the performance of the underwater-pumps used to generate electricity.

“I put fibre optic sensors into the membranes of the diaphragm-based pumps used in Bombora’s wave energy technology,” he said.

“This allowed them to generate real-time information about how the membranes are performing.

“Fibre optic sensors are ideally suited to wave power because they require no electrical power to run, or metal components which could rust.”

Bombora executive Director Shawn Ryan said iPREP WA was a fantastic way for business to tap into the expertise available at universities.

“Because our technology is world-first, there isn’t the data out there on fail times and overall performance that we need,” he said.

“We need to look at new ways to measure and gain a greater understanding of the performance of the materials we are using in real-world conditions.

“We are about taking research and turning it into a business and then hopefully into a whole industry, and iPREP WA is helping us do just that.”

Dean of the ECU Graduate Research School Professor Joe Luca said collaboration between universities and business was vital to foster and support innovation.

“Given that less than 50 per cent of PhD graduates end up working in academic careers, it is important graduates develop skills relevant to business and community requirements,” he said.

For further information see www.iprep.edu.au

Community

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Q. How did you come to take the role of ECU's Elder in Residence?

A. When I was asked to become the Elder in Residence I said I would have to take some time to make a decision. So I went out into country, near to where Edith Cowan was born around Geraldton to think. I sat under some beautiful sheoak trees, and as I was sitting there I heard the voice of Edith in the rustling of the wind. She said to me that she wanted me to take the position and that I had something to offer. So here I am.

Q. How has your own life experience informed how you fulfil the role of Elder of Residence?

A. The person I loved most in my life growing up was my mother. And I actually had my mother, which most Aboriginal people of my ilk did not, and that’s one of the problems we have now. I have no doubt that it was my mother, along with my father’s teachings, that have made me who I am. They gave me a

When Dr Noel Nannup was offered the role of ECU’s Elder in Residence, he wasn’t sure if he should take the job. He told David Gear how he got some encouragement from an unexpected source.

peace of mind that meant I didn’t have to concern myself with all the frustration and anger that was going on outside.

Q. What makes a good Welcome to Country?

A. It was my mother who introduced me to public speaking at quite a young age. She was a wonderful speaker, and she taught me that words are precious. We shouldn’t waste them. There’s a power in words. You can’t weigh words, or touch them, but you can feel them. It’s also important to give space and pauses to give people the chance to think about and reflect on what you have been saying.

Q. What's your relationship to the land ECU's three campuses are built on?

A. I see the three campuses as one. There is a story called The Carers of Everything. In that story a spirit woman walked across the land and as she walked she collected spirit

children that had been placed in the landscape. And as she wandered across the land, she walked right past where the South-West (Bunbury) Campus is located. She also wandered right through here (Mount Lawley) on her way north to Joondalup, which is named after her. Her hair was called Joondal-Joomba, and Joondalup is named after the place for the spirit woman’s hair. So all the campuses are one. They are all on the same Dreaming Trail.

Q. What do you enjoy doing outside of your role as Elder in Residence at ECU?

A. What I get the biggest buzz out of, apart from family, is taking people out to country. I love seeing how the place changes them and changes how they think. It makes them start asking different questions, which is important, because if we’re not asking the right questions we will never get the answers we need.

5 minutes with...

Figures correct at time of print.

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ECU Then and NowBig Data

1991 Now32 100+

1991: 0

Now: 12487

4% 16%

1991

Now

International students Student countries of origin

1991 Now

13368 17800

Churchlands

Main campus

Joondalup

1991

Now

Now1991

Sleeping pods

Courses offered

144

Number of schools

5

Number of campuses

Female students

63.5%

1664

8531991

NowStaff

(equivalent full time)

(equivalent full timestudent load)

300+

61.2%

8

5 3

7

Now1991

672

StudentPopulation

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Research citations per year

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They are the unsung heroes of a university.

Behind the scenes

Without them, there would be few research breakthroughs or graduates heading to new careers. Ruth Callaghan talks to five of the hundreds of people working quietly behind the scenes.

Paul Godfrey School of Arts and Humanities

On the day EDITH dropped into Paul Godfrey’s tiny office on the Mount Lawley Campus, it became clear why it is known as the photography department’s Aladdin’s Cave.

Cameras and accessories filled desks and shelves, a child’s space ray gun protruded from a box by the door, documents were piled high and the walls featured a dozen photographs, including one that appeared to be an extreme close-up study of a palm tree.

It’s a physical manifestation of Paul Godfrey’s love for the art of photography, a love first kindled when he was just a child.

Now a senior technical advisor with ECU’s photomedia program, Godfrey remembers every camera he has owned and the quirks that made each one special.

“I fell in love with taking pictures when I was in primary school, when for my birthday I was bought a little instamatic camera,” he says.

“Within five minutes I’d used up that roll of film and that was the start of it.”

As he grew older, his uncle passed along a hand-me-down Exa from the 1960s, while his brothers bought him his first development tank and a flash.

At 15, Godfrey scraped together enough to buy his first medium format camera, cutting a deal with the camera shop that employed him to snap Santa pictures over summer.

“I used to lug it everywhere – a big twin-lens Mamiya that weighed about 2kg,” he says.

“I would get on the bus and go all over the place taking photos. All the money I had went to buying film. It was kind of an obsession.”

Today Godfrey can see that same obsession in some of the students who come through the photomedia program, where he provides technical support as well as looking after resources.

“You probably see it in a handful of students every year, and I don’t know if it is that the other students have different passions and photography is a side thing,” he says.

“But when you find a student who is in to it in the same way you are — it is the same for a lot of the staff here — it is a buzz.

“You find kids who might have a digital camera then they discover film and that’s it. They are walking around shooting it all the time. You see the joy then.”

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Behind the Scenes

“You find kids who might have a digital camera then they discover film and that’s it.″

Dave Taylor School of Education

The bed on the back of the truck in front of him wasn’t properly secured — which is why it smashed through the windscreen of David Taylor’s truck.

For the gruff Yorkshireman, who had departed the northern economic wastes of Thatcher’s Britain for work in the sunburned country, it was very nearly the end.

“Somebody didn’t tie a bed on a trailer and it blew off and came through the windscreen of the truck I was driving, hit me in the head,” he says, in an accent barely diminished in 35 years away from his homeland.

“I rolled over, crashed, spent four years recuperating, and had a massive heart attack.”

He was first told he had three weeks to live. Then, that he would never work again.

“But I had to get summat to do so I managed to get this job — I’ve been here ever since.”

“And the third type is the person who’s scared of them — and they are even more dangerous.

“They’re too careful, too nervous. Instead of taking a firm grip on the wood and pushing it towards the blade, they hold it loose. I’ve had to duck a few times with bits of things flying around the room.”

Taylor admits he “tells it like it is” to students as they meet band saws and grinders for the first time, but he’s got their best interests at heart.

The same goes for his older charges — teachers undertaking the Switch program, retraining in skills such as metalwork.

“You expect them to know more because they are older but they are just as thick,” he laughs.

“If they haven’t had any experience, well in the blink of an eye they can lose an arm or a hand.

“I usually get through by having a good laugh with them a few cheeky jokes. I find if you get to know a person and accept them, you can get away with murder.”

Not that Taylor expected his role as design and technology technician in ECU’s School of Education to last as long as it has.

Years of independence spent driving trucks and a stint in the British Army didn’t make him a natural fit for explaining the finer points of dovetail joints to future woodworking teachers.

But for 11 years, Taylor has overseen the workshop, maintaining equipment, supporting the lecturers — and ensuring students leave with the same number of fingers they had on arrival.

That last job can be a challenge, with fewer students growing up with a backyard shed, though his care and attention means there has not been a serious accident in more than a decade.

“There’s three types of people on machines,” he says.

“One, a person who respects machinery, knows what it can do and how it can damage. The second type is gung ho and they’re dangerous.

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″I rolled over, crashed, spent four years recuperating, and had a massive heart attack.″

Behind the Scenes

Rob Czarnik School of Science

When a University offers as many outdoor disciplines as ECU — including Marine and Freshwater Biology — there needs to be someone who can navigate the different environments where staff and students will work.

That’s where Rob Czarnik comes in.

Working in field safety and support, Czarnik’s role is to ensure staff and students can study and work safely in diverse locations, whether on land or sea.

“With all the research work we do in the natural sciences it can be quite a hazardous environment and there are a lot of rules and regulations that apply,” he says.

“We have a lot of international students and researchers and they may not come from a culture with such a focus on safety.

“My role it ensure that when they go into the field, that not only that they are safe but the whole team is safe.

Jo Gosling School of Nursing

The body can cry. The body can bleed and scream.

The body can even vomit mid procedure — though “we don’t tend to let them, because then we have to clean it up,” says Jo Gosling, a technical officer who uses high fidelity simulation mannequins to help train Nursing and Midwifery students.

Gosling is one of a group of four technical staff in the area who help in the complex simulation labs used to train students in dealing with patients, who might be sad, difficult, sick or dying.

“We have mannequins that don’t do very much, but students work on them as a patient,” she says.

“Then we have some that do limited things. Students can do more invasive treatments, put tubes up their noses and cannulas in their hands.

“Then we have high fidelity mannequins and we run simulations for things like a patient having a heart attack, so they need resuscitation.

“They can breathe, sweat, cry, talk — we sit behind a desk and can change what happens depending on what a student does to them. We can make them better … or not.”

It sounds macabre, but the real-life experience helps students concentrate on the work that needs to be done, rather than the distracting body under their hands.

Within a few sessions, Gosling says, students are less frightened and can talk and reassure the ‘patient’, no matter what the mannequin gets up to.

An enrolled nurse, Gosling has been with ECU since even before it became a university. She’d been working at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital but needed a change, when she saw the position advertised.

“I didn’t want to leave nursing altogether and wanted something I could use my skills at, and this was just right,” she says.

“It might sound corny but I knew through this I would still be contributing to humanity, by helping to get students out into the wide world and make sure they are safe.”

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“They can breathe, sweat, cry, talk.″

Behind the Scenes |

Doreen MackieSchool of Medical and Health Sciences

When Doreen Mackie and her family emigrated to Australia in 1989, she found almost two decades of experience in medical microbiology was not recognised by Australia’s National Association of Testing Authorities.

It meant that she needed to look for somewhere she could apply her skills in laboratory sciences— and ECU beckoned.

Now the School Laboratory Manager for Medical and Health Sciences, Mackie’s role is extensive, working closely with staff, students and the many partners ECU has in the medical and science community.

“We have a lot of staff eager to bring industry into our teaching so in the laboratory we try to mimic what happens outside in the research areas, and increasingly that’s the way we operate,” she says.

Mackie’s role has accelerated with ECU’s growing ranks of internationally recognised researchers from the science and medical fields, and she now deals with people from a dozen different disciplines, all of whom need support.

They might be the very best in each field, but their work relies on having the equipment and tools necessary to remain on the leading edge.

“You have to be a jack of all trades but I’m only as good as the people who support me,” she says

“We have individuals in different disciplines who are the experts and then I just oversee everything to try to make it happen.'

“Our research profile is now tremendous and many of our staff are in the limelight now for their work. We have a lot to offer.”

“It might be the first time they are exposed to the importance of safety but we make sure that they come out of it industry-ready.”

Czarnik studied fisheries, science and aquaculture in his undergraduate degree before heading to work in aquaculture and then as a diver on tuna farms for seven years in South Australia.

Returning to WA to study, his experience in field safety saw him join ECU’s School of Science as a technical officer to provide that expertise within the University.

These days, a day at work can find Czarnik almost anywhere, in a job that is spent outdoors as much as in.

“I can be four-wheel driving up in the bush, on a boat or in the marine environment, diving or underwater,” he says.

“I’m not stuck in an office all the time. I can be in the field 30 or 40 per cent of the time doing something hands-on.”

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“I can be four-wheel driving up in the bush, on a boat or in the marine environment, diving or underwater.″

A betterbeginning“Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man” — so said sixteenth century Jesuit missionary Saint Francis Xavier.

While children are raised very differently today than the methods of 500 years ago, the idea that the first few years of a child’s life are fundamental to their development is just as relevant today.

What happens in the first years of a child’s life can have ramifications for the rest of their days. David Gear looks at four ways researchers and governments are trying to set children up for success.

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What happens in the first years of a child’s life can have ramifications for the rest of their days. David Gear looks at four ways researchers and governments are trying to set children up for success.

A betterbeginning“Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man” — so said sixteenth century Jesuit missionary Saint Francis Xavier.

While children are raised very differently today than the methods of 500 years ago, the idea that the first few years of a child’s life are fundamental to their development is just as relevant today.

It is increasingly acknowledged that the key to tackling many of the ills associated with modern life, from depression and mental health problems to obesity, is to focus resources on children from a very young age.

In fact, researchers are finding that it is never too early to start helping a child develop what they need to grow into healthy and happy adults.

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Never too early to encourage good mental healthNo matter what statistic you look at — the more than 2000 Australians who take their lives each year, or the estimated $20 billion it costs the economy — the burden of poor mental health on individuals, families and wider society is undeniable.

Associate Professor Lynn Priddis, who has spent much of her career researching the mental health of infants and their families, says the best way to promote a mentally healthy population is to work with children and their families as early as possible, even before birth.

“The relationship a child develops with their parents forms the foundation of all future relationships,” she says.

“When things go well, the child develops a template for how to behave in healthy relationships as well as what to expect from others in interpersonal interactions.

“If we can support and nurture this relationship, children are more likely to develop stable, positive relationships as adults.”

Priddis, the course coordinator for ECU’s new Master of Infant Mental Health, says being a new parent is a stressful time, reflected in the growing number of initiatives that seek support families.

HappinessOne element that is often missing from discussions about early childhood development is happiness, according to Dr Bronwyn Harman.

Harman, who researches families and parenting, said ensuring children are happy and secure during their formative years was vital to their development.

“One of the key things children need to feel happy, safe and secure is routine and consistency. Children thrive when they have routine and know what to expect,” she says.

“The flip side of this is that you shouldn’t have too strict a routine where kids are dragged from activity to activity with no time for play. It’s important for children to have time to play and be kids as well.

“It’s all about striking the right balance.”

Harman says there is a lot of pressure on parents to be perfect.

“We know that children pick up on the stress of their parents,” she says.

“So one of the take home messages is ‘don’t stress’ and have some fun with your kids.”

Groups like Community Link and Network WA run dozens of parenting courses a year, backed by the Department of Local Government and Communities, in everything from building resilience in children to helping your child reduce anxiety.

“If we can support and nurture this relationship children are more likely to develop stable, positive relationships as adults,” Priddis says.

“The evidence tells us that it is never too early to start helping parents promote positive mental health in their children.”

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Better food can start at childcareThe portion of Australian children overweight or obese has been rising for decades, climbing to a quarter of all young people in 2008 according to the ABS.

In an effort to tackle this problem, primary schools have been introducing measures to encourage healthy eating, from serving more nutritious food in canteens to establishing vegetable gardens on their grounds.

But with more than a million Australian children attending childcare, PhD candidate Ruth Wallace says there is a need for childcare centres to do more to promote healthy eating to their young clientele.

As part of her PhD studies, Wallace developed the Supporting Nutrition in Australian Children (SNAC) website to provide reliable, accurate resources about healthy eating to childcare workers.

“Centres are the ideal places to help children develop healthy eating habits,” she says.

“Childcare guidelines recommend that children who attend full-time receive between 50 per cent and 70 per cent of their daily intake at childcare, so what they eat there has a huge impact on their overall diet.

“We know one in five children currently overweight or obese faces a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease as adults. This is why we need to help children establish healthy eating habits from a young age.”

Connecting primary students with better health In 2012, the State Government announced a program to establish Child and Parent Centres at primary schools around WA.

The centres offer a range of services to parents of young children, including speech pathology, physiotherapists, paediatric services and counselling services, as well as early literacy and numeracy support. Education Minister Peter Collier says the State Government has invested over $50 million to date to establish 21 centres across WA.

"Parenting is challenging and we know the first four years of a child's life are critical for development," he says.

“The Child and Parent centres provide wrap-around services that embrace both the parent as well as the child in those vital early years.

"(They) are located in areas of most need to help children facing challenging circumstances reach their full potential."

Collier says the success of the centres has attracted interest from around the country.

“We’ve had enquires from three other states who are interested in looking at the model,” he says.

A Better Beginning |

Writing already on the wall by school ageThe Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) estimates that almost half of Australian adults have below adequate levels of literacy.

Adults with low literacy skills have lower average incomes and are more likely to be unemployed than those with high literacy.

Clearly schools have a core role in teaching children to read and write, but early childhood literacy expert Professor Caroline Barratt-Pugh says that the building blocks of literacy are laid well before a student starts school.

“Research suggests that the development of literacy skills begin at birth and are developed through daily interactions between parents and children.”

But while Barratt-Pugh says it is never too early to start exposing children to reading and writing, that doesn’t mean pushing very young children into formalised learning.

"You do not need formal worksheets and programs in the early stages of literacy," she says.

"Pointing out labels in the supermarket, reading signs in the street, talking about leaflets that come through the letterbox, these are all about literacy and support the early stages of learning to read and write."

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The making of a university

It was 1991 and bombs were falling on Iraq. Bob Hawke was in his final year as Prime Minister. The WA Inc Royal Commission was in full-swing. Sandgropers were advised to fill up their cars before noon on Saturdays, before all but a few ‘rostered’ petrol stations closed up shop. And as Rob Payne writes, the nation’s newest university opened, with the official foundation of Edith Cowan University on January 1.

Churchlands Nursing Building

ECU's Joondalup Campus today

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The Making of a University

ECU is both WA’s youngest university as well as the State’s oldest tertiary institution, with roots reaching back to 1902 and the establishment of the Claremont Teachers College. From the mid-1950s, other teacher-training institutions and colleges opened, including at Graylands, Nedlands, Churchlands and Mount Lawley.

In an effort to control costs, the Commonwealth Government pushed these to amalgamate as the Western Australia College of Advanced Education or WACAE — affectionately pronounced ‘wacky’ — in 1981. In 1986, a thriving college in Bunbury would join, followed by a new campus in the WA State Government-planned city of Joondalup in 1987-88, completing the grouping of what would later become ECU.

Geographic diversity has long been a defining ECU trait but initially not everyone was happy with the arrangement. In 1982, Bob Pearce, a Labor member of WA’s legislative assembly, called it “a real blueprint for an empire.”

But the 1980s saw WACAE thrive, with initiatives that included the founding of WA’s first

university nursing program and development of Aboriginal education courses in Broome. In 1987, Fremantle MP John Dawkins, Commonwealth Minister for Employment, Education and Training, controversially introduced the Unified National System, which sought to turn colleges into universities and transform free education into HECS. WACAE faced two options: ask Curtin, Murdoch or the University of Western Australia for sponsorship to upgrade into a university, or go it alone.

According to historians Geoffrey Bolton and Gabriel Byrne, the Vice Chancellors of the existing WA universities were candid in their opposition to WACAE gaining university status. Partly this was on academic grounds but mostly it was a desire to curtail competition. Ever the battler, WACAE chose to undergo an independent review, in the form of the Caro Committee in 1989, led by University of Melbourne Professor David Caro and including future-ECU Vice-Chancellor Roy Lourens.

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The Committee looked at sites and facilities, missions and objectives, the needs of the community, range and standards of academic programs, and the potential for research and scholarly achievement. Lourens remembers WACAE’s case as a strong one and “an easy decision”, while former Vice-President (Corporate) Warren Snell recalls it as a “very clean endorsement”, with no conditions.

Snell attributes much of WACAE’s success to its director, Dr Doug Jecks, a headstrong leader who shaped the diverse colleges into a relatively cohesive and dedicated institution, who would go on to become ECU’s first Vice-Chancellor.

The government of the day was happy with the outcome, particularly as WACAE’s presence

in the planned city of Joondalup aligned with long-term plans to establish the area as a ‘growth node’. The Liberal opposition weren’t in full agreement, however, with some arguing that Perth had enough universities. Given that neither Curtin, Murdoch or UWA would endorse the Caro Report’s recommendation that WACAE move to university status, it is fair to say they agreed.

ECU or Murdoch North?While WACAE was being given a green light, enrolment and budgetary difficulties at Murdoch, and debate about how many institutions were needed, led to talk of university amalgamation. Most debate in Parliament centred on

Edith Cowan University came into being on 1 January 1991.

WA’s first university simulcast lecture transmitted to Singapore.

WAAPA becomes part of ECU Mount Lawley.

1991 1993

a UWA-Murdoch merger, but Dawkins approached Jecks to suggest WACAE consider adding another campus to its stable. The idea apparently didn’t sit well with Jecks, who didn’t relish sharing power with an established university bureaucracy.

According to Bolton and Byrne: “Jecks pointed out that as WACAE’s academic staff outnumbered Murdoch three to one, WACAE would expect three-quarters of the voice in academic governance … These rather crude and mechanistic demands effectively torpedoed any further negotiations.”

“A new campus doesn’t have any traditions or guidelines or precedents to follow. Our attitude was one of ‘let’s decide where we’re headed and what we hope to achieve’.” – Professor John Renner

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First screening of Perth International Arts Festival films at the ECU Joondalup Pines outdoor cinema.

Edith Cowan OBE recognised with presence on Australia’s $50 note.

ECU introduces Women in Leadership public lectures.

The Making of a University

1995 1996 1998

What’s in a name?The name of the new university prompted considerable debate. Doug Jecks and WACAE pushed for University of Perth — in fact the guild was so keen it spent $70,000 in support.

“The student guild even paid to have a whole load of T-shirts printed, so for a while a lot of people were running around campus wearing the University of Perth on their chests,” Warren Snell recalls.

Then-Minister of Education Geoff Gallop rejected the idea, fearing it would give the university an unfair advantage attracting overseas fee-paying students.

According to The West Australian, a “collective sigh of relief” could be heard from Curtin, Murdoch and UWA.

Many argued the time had come for a university to be named after a woman, with suggestions including social worker Caroline Chisholm, authors Kath Walker and Aeneas Gunn, and politician Dame Enid Lyons. In an August 1990 letter to the editor in The West Australian, Jean Ritter put forward author and historian Mary Durack, but also advocated strongly for Yagan University of Western Australia, in honour of the local (male) Aboriginal warrior.

Other options included C.Y. O’Connor University for the engineer who oversaw the

Goldfields Water Supply Scheme, though a group of WACAE students opposed this, citing his suicide after alcoholism and mental illness; in 1902 O’Connor shot himself as he rode his horse into the water at Robb Jetty.

WACAE education graduate Raeme Goves-Jacka began a campaign for Edith Cowan, a role model long admired by her mother. She wrote letters to Jecks and Gallop outlining Edith Cowan’s contribution to social justice and the nation’s political life, as the first woman elected to Australian parliament. Goves-Jacka's passion and reasoning resonated with Gallop, who announced the name in September 1990.

According to Snell, the name came as a bit of a surprise, but people quickly saw its value and warmed to it. The Liberal Party weren’t yet ready to give up the University of Perth, though.

MLA Barry House put forward perhaps the most controversial idea, proposing a name swap between UWA and the new university. He told Parliament, “the University of Western Australia (should) be the name attached to a multi-campus university in the state, such as WACAE is, and the University of Perth would be ideally suited to a Perth-based university such as UWA as it stands today.”

What UWA might have thought of this swap isn’t recorded.

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2001 2002 2003

Multi award-winning Chancellery Building opens at Joondalup.

Multi award-winning Science & Health Building opens at Joondalup.

ECU headquarters moves from Churchlands to Joondalup.

The campus was set to open in 1987 but delays saw this pushed back, and the first intake of students had to attend classes in the City of Wanneroo local authority buildings. By 1988, Joondalup’s first phase was complete, taking the form of the concrete-heavy structures now part of buildings four and six.

“They looked a bit like high school buildings, but were sufficient for a decent-sized student intake,” Snell says.

A second stage of buildings and the lake were completed in 1991 and the train station opened in 1992. At the time, the freeway only extended to Joondalup Drive and Lakeside Joondalup Shopping Centre wouldn’t be completed until 1994.

Renner recalls that a lack of shops meant having to make a packed lunch, with the feeling of remoteness leading some staff to refer to the campus as ‘South Geraldton’. In fact, the area was so newly developed that for the first decade, students and staff would have to contend with mobs of kangaroos from

a call from Jecks’ secretary one morning asking him to take a road trip.

“It was my first taste of the wilds north of Perth. When you drove up, it was mile upon mile of bush, native plants and banksia forest, and it felt so far removed from the city,” says Renner, whose book with Associate Professor Sybe Jongeling, The Joondalup Story, will be published this year.

“My impression was that this was not an environment where you would ever find a university campus.”

Still, one problem remained: the state government’s refusal to fund the land’s purchase — a stance that prompted Jecks rather audaciously to use WACAE’s own money to cover the $1,150,000 price. Snell sees this as grasping a strategic opportunity.

“I think the government agreed with the idea, but they didn’t necessarily know how to proceed,” Snell says.

“Jecks, who was always a bit of an impatient man, said, ‘fine, we’ll go ahead and buy it’. He wanted to get the deal done. He was a person of action.”

Joondalup: the campus that almost wasn’tToday the Joondalup campus is ECU’s main administrative centre and home to the Chancellery, but in 1991 it hosted just 1857 students. What’s more, if Jecks hadn’t made one staggeringly bold move, students would have been heading to classes at Hepburn Heights, the site originally proposed as WACAE/ECU’s future home.

“Student places were on the rise and strategic thinking knew the northern suburbs were going to develop and we needed to be a part of that,” Snell says.

Yet rumours circulated that Curtin University was also exploring the idea of a northern campus. In this atmosphere, the Joondalup Realty Development Corporation made an offer to WACAE in 1983 of a 45.5 hectare block for development of a campus. Jecks saw its potential, though it was by no means a clear-cut and popular plan.

Professor John Renner, ECU’s first Dean of Science, Technology and Engineering, recalls getting

“They were eternally generous as people and very present as human beings. I can honestly say that I carry the core values and ethos that I picked up at ECU to this day.” - Psychology graduate Pearl Proud

The Joondalup Campus class of 1992

Professor Roy Lourens

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Yellagonga Regional Park moving in, which could be stressful in the mating season.

“You had to be careful where you stood sometimes,” Psychology graduate Jon Bilson says.

Fellow psychology graduate Pearl Proud describes the new campus as feeling like a nature reserve.

“I remember a lot of serenity – there was a calm hush and the pace was very gentle,” she says. “The architects had wonderful vision, and you had the sense that they knew they were building something very special for the long-term.”

While this peacefulness may have been appreciated, life at the university could come as a shock, particularly for international students arriving from densely populated Asian cities.

“Those early international students did sometimes seem a bit lost, as not much was happening in the area,” Lourens says. “I would say they were the real pioneers of the Joondalup campus.”

The Making of a University

2005 2007 2008

Award-winning Joondalup Library and ICT Building opens.

Kurongkurl Katitjin, the Centre for Indigenous Australian Education and Research, opens.

ECU’s Health & Wellness Institute officially opened at Joondalup.

Five campuses and one lost VCThe five-campus system proved problematic for Vice-Chancellor Lourens, who admits to occasionally arriving in the wrong suburb for meetings.

“When you have five or six appointments in a day, you sometimes get in the car and eventually realise you’re heading in the wrong direction,” he says.

“The Vice-Chancellor of UWA could walk across campus, but my situation was a bit more complex.”

Turning a minus into a plus, this minor tyranny of distance led ECU to embrace innovations that

others would later follow, including becoming the first university in WA to invest in a fibre-optic link to allow videoconferencing between campuses and being the first to simulcast a lecture to Asia in 1993.

The university also became the first to put course materials and resources online.

The complexity of five campuses was eventually deemed inefficient, and Claremont closed in 2004 under Vice-Chancellor Professor Millicent Poole and Churchlands in 2008 under Vice-Chancellor Professor Kerry Cox. Since that time, the frequency of Vice-Chancellors getting lost has reportedly diminished.

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2012 2013

ECU campuses become smoke-free.ECU first named in world’s top 100 universities under 50 years old.

2009

Joondalup Campus hosts Australia’s then largest Australia Day citizenship ceremony.

The spirit of the early yearsWhen ECU arrived on January 1, 1991, it found itself the 13th largest university in Australia by size, with 15,000 students, 600 academic staff and six teaching divisions: Arts and Applied Sciences, Business, Community and Language Studies, Education, Nursing and WAAPA, as well as its Bunbury branch. By year’s end, enrolments would rise to 17,411. While one might expect that the separation of five campuses and the stress of transforming a college into a university would create an impersonal environment, the opposite occurred.

“When we became ECU, there was a sense that this was recognition for all that we had

achieved, and the feeling was ‘excellent, now let’s get on and do things’,” Snell says.

Psychology graduate Pearl Proud describes the feeling of those early days as one of community and being part of ‘a new team’, and along with other students attributes the source of this spirit to the lecturers.

“They were eternally generous as people and very present as human beings,” Proud says.

“I can honestly say that I carry the core values and ethos that I picked up at ECU to this day.”

In the early days, Renner remembers this spirit being enhanced by regular Friday gatherings at which staff and students would mingle.

“A new campus doesn’t have any traditions or guidelines or precedents to follow. Our attitude was one of ‘let’s decide where we’re headed and what we hope to achieve’ – we wanted to be distinctive and not be a clone of the other universities,” Renner says.

One story that perhaps shows ECU’s attitude to students more than any other involves Lourens, who as Vice Chancellor once presided over a graduation ceremony for a terminally ill student in Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. The event featured graduation robes and all of the formalities of ECU’s regular graduation ceremonies and was attended by a small gathering of family, friends and hospital staff. The student, who graduated with a Nursing degree, died a short time later.

Professor Steve Chapman

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The Making of a University |

The futureECU’s current Vice-Chancellor, Professor Steve Chapman, has big ambitions for WA’s second largest university.

For starters, he wants to dramatically boost the quality and volume of the University’s research outputs.

This will come through recruiting more academic staff and PhDs, in addition to the more than 20 Professorial Research Fellows ECU will attract in coming years.

And how will we know this strategy is working? Chapman says that by 2020, he wants to see ECU in the top 50 of the Times Higher Education 100 Under 50 rankings (ECU is currently 90) and in the top 500 of the World Universities Rankings (currently 501-600).

“But this focus on research will not be at the expense of teaching quality. ECU will continue to

“It’s an incredible story of what an organisation can do to move from being a modest teachers’ college to grow and develop a broad academic profile and research capacity,” he says.

“Yet, even with this background, ECU isn’t locked into the past, and that has allowed it to set new directions to meet emerging needs and priorities and continue to evolve – all while staying true to its commitment and engagement with students, stakeholders and alumni.

“We’ve always been like the smallest child in the family, agile and willing to adapt.”

2014 2015

the university had brought in 29 world-class professors, including historian Professor Geoffrey Bolton, environmentalist Professor Harry Recher and comparative genomics specialist Professor Alan Bittles. They helped lift the university’s reputation, which some circles had taken to calling ‘Enid Blyton University’.

The university focussed on several select strengths while widening its offerings to the community. By 1994, ECU had already reached the top 25 per cent of Australian universities for teaching satisfaction, a trend that continues to present day with its Good Universities Guide five-star rating.

Flexibility sets tone for the futureOverall, Snell sees the evolution of ECU from WACAE to a world-class university as a testament to attitude, engagement and flexibility.

ECU Health Centre in Wanneroo, incorporating the GP Super Clinic, opens to the public.

Establishment of the Jackman Furness Foundation for the Performing Arts.

Multi award-winning Ngoolark Building opens at Joondalup.

offer students the inspiring and supportive learning environment for which we’re known,” he says.

ECU will also welcome more domestic and international students in 2020 and beyond, both on-campus and offshore locations.

“I might expect us to have one or perhaps two overseas campuses by 2020,” he says.

“I’d like to see those campuses focus on disciplines we do very well, for example education or performing arts.”

When ECU celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2041, Chapman says he wants ECU to be a highly respected, world-class teaching and research university.

“Rather than be renowned for research in a few key areas, by 2041 I expect all of our research activity to be at world standard or above.”

Changing perceptionsWhile the early years were full of promise and passion, challenges remained, included raising skill levels to meet university standards, as only 22 per cent of staff at the time had doctorate qualifications. When he arrived as Vice-Chancellor in 1993, Lourens also saw a need to build confidence and promote creative thinking.

“The staff were committed to teaching, and were the cream of the crop of their generation, but not being a university, they didn’t always feel that they were as good and needed to build confidence,” he says.

“Basically, we let them fly, and when I did encourage them, they flew very well.”

Lourens set out to hire strong professors to provide leadership and guidance to less experienced academics. Within three years,

Thanks to Dr Helen Cripps, Fred Troncone, Pearl Proud, Jon Bilson, Warren Snell, Professor Roy Lourens, Professor John Renner and Dr Geoff Gallop for their help in this story.

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A group of ECU Photomedia students have captured some of the diverse stories of modern day China, including skateboarding in Shanghai, the country’s one child policy, the affection for their “fur babies” and the impact of national tourism on the remote Yunnan province.

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During the four-week intensive photojournalism workshop in China students worked on ambitious projects including mastering the art of street photography — a style that’s all about people going about their daily lives — and video pieces with more in-depth, researched stories.

Photomedia course co-ordinator and tour leader Duncan Barnes said the trip was an opportunity for students to work on ambitious projects, well beyond the scope of what was possible for a typical assignment.

“Professionally it’s also a chance to engage with experts and mentors in the field of photojournalism, such as world-renowned photographer Philip Blenkinsop,” Mr Barnes said.

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AUGUSTJULYTHE WEST AUSTRALIAN ECU LECTURE SERIES – PROFESSOR RALPH MARTINS Joondalup Campus 15 July

ECU’s Chair in Ageing & Alzheimer’s Disease Professor Ralph Martins AO and his team are playing a leading role in the international effort to find new treatments for Alzheimer’s.

JOONDALUP OPEN DAY Joondalup Campus 17 July

With information about careers, courses and informative displays, Open Day is a great chance for potential students to chat, explore, watch, listen and soak up the university atmosphere. Also at Mount Lawley (14 August) and South West (28 August).

MAYINSPIRATIONAL LEADERS: ADAM SIMPSON Domain Stadium 12 May

The coach of the West Coast Eagles gives an inspirational insight into the leadership journey that helped take the team to the AFL Grand Final.

JUNEBRING IT ON, THE MUSICAL Regal Theatre 11-18 June

WAAPA’s second and third-year musical theatre students perform the musical of the hit movie Bring It On. Developed by some of the funniest and most creative minds on Broadway, the show was nominated for a 2013 Tony Award.

THE WEST AUSTRALIAN ECU LECTURE SERIES – PROFESSOR BETH ARMSTRONG Joondalup Campus 17 June

ECU’s Foundation Chair in Speech Pathology Professor Beth Armstrong leads a number of nationally funded research projects examining the effects of traumatic brain injuries on patients and will explore the latest treatment methods.

Events

For more information on ECU events, visit www.ecu.edu.au

THE WEST AUSTRALIAN ECU LECTURE SERIES – PROFESSOR PERE MASQUÉ Joondalup Campus 19 August

Professor Pere Masqué’s research examines environmental processes using radioactive isotopes. This includes the role of marine environments in offsetting climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide and the impacts of radioactive waste on the environment.

LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS FEATURING ANH DOH 24 August

Vietnamese-born Australian author, actor, producer and comedian Anh Doh went from being a starving refugee at the age of three to one of Australia's best-loved entertainers. His story is an inspiration, told with his well-known and much loved humour.

33

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Alumni

Throughout his Master degree in Information Security and Intelligence at ECU, one key lesson was drummed in to Maarten Van Horenbeeck — think beyond your role.

Security roles can require intense examination of minute lines of code, and an understanding of niche threats, but a reminder to step back and see the big picture has resonated and helped guide Maarten Van Horenbeeck’s career through companies including Microsoft, Google and Amazon.

Originally from Belgium, Van Horenbeeck joined ECU in 2006, looking for a cyber security degree that would relate to his work and link his influences and interests.

He settled on ECU in part due to a conversation with ECU Security Research Institute Professor Craig Valli.

“I could do a degree in security that had computer security and cyber security as a very big component, but it also brought in all of the different streams such as risk management and crime reduction approaches,” Van Horenbeeck says.

“I thought Craig was extremely friendly, together with Bill Hutchinson who managed the

program when I studied. They were incredibly forthcoming with how they saw the future of the program."

That course saw him working on what was then a new form of cyber attack, now known as persistent attacks, including nation-against-nation attacks and threats targeting not-for-profit organisations.

While addressing these sophisticated attacks, Van Horenbeeck began to report vulnerabilities to Microsoft that he had identified in their products.

“I ended up being invited to go and interview with them for a position and ended up working with Microsoft for five years,” he says.

“Those were probably the most exciting days of my life so far, in the sense that sometimes I would work 12, 13 hours a day, but it was because I was really passionate about the work that I was doing.”

From this launch pad he headed to Google for 16 months and then to Amazon, working with intelligence teams to combat increasingly powerful and subtle attacks.

Van Horenbeeck says his work has been influenced by the message from his ECU lecturers that security is part of a greater whole.

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Maarten Van Horenbeek's career in information security has seen him work with Microsoft, Google and Amazon.

“Bill and Craig taught me to think beyond your direct individual role, and to think about the internet as a bigger place,” he says.

“How do we protect that bigger place? How do we make it a safe place for our children and family members that want to use it and be proud of this Internet that connects everyone?”

Google gave him a platform to explore this work, he says, as have his roles since, most recently with a smaller company, Fastly, which works to improve speeds across the Internet.

Just three months into this new venture, Van Horenbeeck says he has no plans to move on — yet — but when he does he says he will continue to combine interests.

“When I came to ECU I think it was here that I started thinking bigger," he says. "There’s more than just the company you work for day to day.”

Maarten is featured in ECU's 25 years, 25 faces project, showcasing successful graduates from across the last quarter - century. See www.ecu25.com.au for more.

Take advantage of a range of benefits available to ECU’s alumni community, by ensuring your details are up to date at www.ecu.edu.au/alumni

You have probably heard of viruses and malware, dangerous pieces of software that make their way into your computer and wreak havoc. Malware authors are intent on stealing your data and disrupting the proper functioning of your digital devices.

Then there is ransomware — crafted by cyber-criminals for extorting data from innocent users, it a rapidly growing threat.

Ransomware does not steal data — it holds it captive, by encrypting files and displaying a ransom note on the victim’s screen. It demands payment for the cyber-extortion and threatens obliteration of data otherwise.

While the concept has existed for more than 20 years, it wasn’t until 2012 that technological advances aligned and allowed it to flourish.

Today, ransomware combines file encryption, uses “dark” networks to conceal the attacker, and employs cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin to prevent law enforcement from tracing the ransom payment back to the attacker.

For a small upfront cost and relatively low risk, ransomware developers can net good returns: industry estimates range from 1000% to 2000% return on investment.

What’s driving ransomware proliferation?

For ransomware creators, it’s a lucrative business. Industry figures

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011$0010 0110000$ 0110$110 01$00100 01$10011 01101$11 0$101101 01$00101 011$0111 0110000$ 011$0010 0$100101 001$1111 011$0010 0110000$ 0110$110 01$00100 01$10011 01101$11 0$101101 01$00101 011$0111 0110000$ 011$0010 0$100101 001$1111 011$0010 0110000$ 0110$110 01$00100 01$10011 01101$11 0$101101 01$00101 011$0111 0110000$ 011$0010 0$100101 001$1111 011$0010 0110000$ 0110$110 01$00100 01$10011 01101$11 0$101101 01$00101 011$0111 0110000$ 011$0010 0$100101 001$1111 011$0010 0110000$ 0110$110 01$00100 01$10011 01101$11 0$101101 01$00101 011$0111 0110000$ 011$0010 0$100101 001$1111 011$0010 0110000$ 0110$110 01$00100 01$10011 01101$11 0$101101 01$00101 011$0111 0110000$ 011$0010 0$100101 001$1111 011$0010 0110000$ 0110$110 01$00100 01$10011 01101$11 0$101101 01$00101 011$0111 0110000$ 011$0010 0$100101 001$1111 011$0010 0110000$ 0110$110 01$00100 01$10011 01101$11 0$101101 01$00101 011$0111 0110000$ 011$0010 0$100101 001$1111 011$0010 0110000$ 0110$110 01$00100 01$10011 01101$11 0$101101 01$00101 011$0111 0110000$ 011$0010 0$100101 001$1111

vary but reports suggest developers can earn more than US$1 million a year, enough to attract skilled programmers and engineers.

There have been many reports of Australian businesses paying ransoms. Even authorities aren’t safe, with several US police departments having paid to recover files. And we’ve even seen reports that FBI experts have advised victims “just pay the ransom” if they need their data.

Paying small ransom amounts just supports the industry. If you don’t, you lose your data; if you do, then you contribute to a worsening problem.

The biggest concern is the rate at which it is adapting to combat security protections. We have found ransomware developers are learning from their mistakes in previous versions. Each generation includes new features and improved attack strategies.

And over 80% of recent ransomware strains were using advanced security features that made them difficult to detect, and almost impossible to crack.

It is increasingly using advanced encryption, networking, evasion and payment technologies. Developers are making fewer mistakes and writing “better” software.

It’s not a stretch to imagine a ransomware developer working on ways to attack corporate databases, or versions that lay low while they identify your backup disks.

So how to protect yourself?

Recovering files from ransomware is impossible without the attacker’s approval, so you need to avoid data loss in the first place. The best thing is to practise good “digital hygiene”.

Don’t fall prey to social engineering or phishing, where an attacker attempts to have you reveal sensitive information. If you receive a suspicious email from grandma, ask yourself whether it’s unusual before you click. If you’re not sure, contact the sender via a different medium like a phone call to cross-check

Don’t install software, plugins or extensions unless from a reputable source. And certainly don’t be tempted to pick up USB sticks found on your travels.

Update all software regularly to ensure you are always running the latest versions and back up: treat important documents like valued possessions. Grab a handful of USB keys and rotate your backups daily or weekly, never leaving them plugged in.

Having multiple copies means the adversarial effort of holding you for ransom is pretty much worthless.

Zubair Baig is a Senior Lecturer of Cyber-Security and Nikolai Hampton a Master of Cyber Security Candidate at Edith Cowan University.

This article was first published on theconversation.edu.au

What would it mean if you lost your family photos, research or business records? How much would you pay to get them back? As ECU cyber security experts Zubair Baig and Nikolai Hampton write, there’s a burgeoning form of cybercrime that hinges on your answers.

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