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Hugh Ashcroft

Principal Cloud Security Engineer, 15 years

Ashcroft Cyber Advisory · Canberra, ACT · 15 years experience

Not Available

About

Independent cloud security engineer advising Australian Government and regulated industry on zero-trust architecture, identity and access management, and system accreditation. Fifteen years across Commonwealth digital-services teams and an ASX-listed fintech. Specialist in Azure and AWS reference architectures accredited to PROTECTED under the Protective Security Policy Framework. ISO 27001 Lead Auditor; frequent technical advisor to board-level cyber risk committees.

Expertise

Technology & IT

Sector Experience

Government & Public SectorDefence

Skills & Recognition

Software & Tools

AzureAWSTerraformMicrosoft SentinelCrowdStrike FalconHashiCorp Vault

Standards & Methodologies

Australian Government ISMEssential EightPSPFISO/IEC 27001NIST 800-53

Languages

English

Qualifications & Registrations

Academic Qualifications

CISSP, Information Security

2016

ISC²

Master of Cyber Security, Cyber Security

2014

University of New South Wales

Experience

Principal

2021–Present

Ashcroft Cyber Advisory

Independent practice advising Commonwealth agencies and regulated firms on cloud security architecture and accreditation. Retained security architect to three Commonwealth programs.

Senior Cloud Security Engineer

2017–2021

Digital Transformation Agency

Technical lead for cross-agency cloud reference architectures. Authored two Commonwealth-wide zero-trust design patterns.

Projects / Case Studies

Standout projects from Hugh's career, with the challenge, approach, and outcome for each.

Zero-trust reference architecture for a Commonwealth digital service

2024

Commonwealth agency (confidential) · Defence

Principal architect, zero-trust reference designHands-on

Design and IRAP-assessment support for a PROTECTED-accredited Azure reference architecture.

Challenge

Agency migrating from a bespoke perimeter-based design; needed to meet ISM 2024 and Essential Eight Maturity Level 2 in a single migration window.

Solution

Authored the reference architecture, identity/conditional-access model, and control-mapping matrix; ran two cycles of IRAP-style assessment dry-runs ahead of the formal assessment.

Outcome

PROTECTED accreditation granted on first assessment pass; pattern adopted by two further agency programs.