National security firm appoints Brisbane head, opens office

Australian security firm CQR has entered into Queensland for the first time, opening a Brisbane office and appointing a branch head.

“We are opening the Brisbane office with an existing portfolio of Queensland-based clients and we’re looking to grow the business organically,” said CQR's national director of information security Phil Kernick.

Kernick said that the city's prosperity and the hosting of the G20 summit were "strong drivers" for the expansion.

The company announced Sarah Meehan as the head of the Brisbane office. According to CQR, Meehan has implemented and maintained Information Security Management Systems for "two leading national data centre service providers". Prior to CQR, she worked for Red Hat as a technical writer.

CQR is headquartered in Adelaide, with existing branches in Melbourne, Sydney and Oxford, UK.

"Heightened regulations like our new Privacy Laws are driving companies to us, but consumers and shareholders are also becoming less accepting of the growing wave of cybercrime in Australia," said Kernick.

"Companies want compliance but they are also increasingly conscious of the need to demonstrate best practice corporate governance."

CQR provides services such as "vulnerability assessments, business continuity, penetration testing, on-site information security, compliance, risk analysis, access control, and payment card security". The company made headlines last month when Melbourne employee – and former IT hacking victim – Alex Woerndle won the AISA rookie of the year award.