Today MacGibbon runs a computer security consulting business called Surete, is a director of the Centre for Internet Safety at the University of Canberra, and chief executive of the newly formed CREST Australia which registers 'ethical hackers' who conduct penetration testing on enterprise IT systems.
In his spare time he raises a herd of belted Galloway cattle, and with his wife home-schools three young children.
Largely by dint of timing MacGibbon, now 44, has become one of the better known cyber security specialists in Australia, and is a sought after speaker and consultant. He grew up in the Sutherland Shire, south of Sydney with his father and brother in a male-only house after his mother left home when MacGibbon was six.
'I wanted to be an ornithologist and entomologist but was told you can't get a job as an ornithologist or entomologist. Because I probably didn't understand what it took to stand up to people '¦ I accepted that.' Although his father was an engineer, MacGibbon developed an interest in politics and studied for an arts degree at Sydney University.
'My first proper paying job was working for a politician in research and speechwriting for Michael Baume while I was at university.' While the lure of political life was strong; 'I had a view that people who worked at parliament house should get a job first.'
Having been an army reservist he tossed up a military versus policing career and chose the latter. When MacGibbon joined the federal police force he was not only older than most of the young recruits, he also had a degree. Early on he joined the national investigative stream.
'The national and international aspect interested me. I had a view that policing is as much about politics and history and geography and anthropology as anything else."
Birds and bees spawn cybercop
It was the birds and the bees that interested Alastair MacGibbon as a boy. But he was told pretty firmly that it wasn't likely he'd get a job as an ornithologist or entomologist, a warning that set him on a trajectory to eventually become the head of Australia's high tech crime unit and a leading cyber security specialist.
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Beverley Head
Beverley Head is a Sydney-based freelance writer who specialises in exploring how and why technology changes everything - society, business, government, education, health. Beverley started writing about the business of technology in London in 1983 before moving to Australia in 1986. She was the technology editor of the Financial Review for almost a decade, and then became the newspaper's features editor before embarking on a freelance career, during which time she has written on a broad array of technology related topics for the Sydney Morning Herald, Age, Boss, BRW, Banking Day, Campus Review, Education Review, Insite and Government Technology Review. Beverley holds a degree in Metallurgy and the Science of Materials from Oxford University and a deep affection for things which are shaken not stirred.
