Bendigo Startups Step Up Cybersecurity Drills in Local Tech Scene

Bendigo Startup Collective opened registration last week for its July cybersecurity drill series at the Hargreaves Street incubator, with the first session set for 15 July and places capped at 45 participants.

The timing follows the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency admission that it assembled its incident playbook mid-attack, a detail that reached local founders through industry newsletters and prompted immediate scheduling of tabletop exercises here. Bendigo companies now face the same risk of learning procedures while under pressure rather than beforehand.

Workshops at two city sites

Organisers booked the main room at the Bendigo Tech Centre on View Street for the 15 July drill and moved the 22 July follow-up to the Forge space inside the Railway Precinct building. Both venues already host weekly founder meetups, so the added cybersecurity tracks slot into existing calendars without new overhead. Participants will work through simulated ransomware scenarios using red-team tools supplied by a local firm based on Mitchell Street.

Attendance fees sit at $120 for the pair of sessions, with a reduced $80 rate for members of the Bendigo Innovation Network. The network reported 187 active startup members as of its June 2026 census, up from 142 the previous year.

Next steps for teams

Founders who complete the drills receive a one-page incident checklist tailored to Bendigo’s common cloud providers and local data-storage rules. Several teams have already booked follow-on audits with the same Mitchell Street contractor for August. Anyone without a seat can still join the 29 July open review at the Tech Centre, where drill notes will be shared publicly.