Cybercrime business IDCARE grows to 40 staff, goes global

From catching criminals to sharing secrets of cyber safety, a professor has grown a Caloundra-based cyber security company to a global success story. Here is how.

IDCare founder Dr David Lacey. Picture: Patrick Woods.

A professor of cyber security with a longstanding career in law enforcement and government is now working to protect us from the threat of cyber crime and identity theft.

Caloundra’s David Lacey spent decades “catching the bad guys” who committed the crimes, but nowadays he heads up IDCARE – Australia and New Zealand’s national identity and cyber support service.

Dr Lacey took a “leap of faith” to quit his day job to get IDCARE off the ground, but the Caloundra-based outfit now employs more than 40 staff and helps thousands of Australian and New Zealand victims of cyber crime.

“After 15 years of working in national security and law enforcement I have gone from focusing on targeting the people committing these crimes to supporting their victims,” Dr Lacey said.

“Starting IDCARE also gave my family a great excuse to return to the Sunshine Coast, where my wife was born, and this has been the perfect location for us to grow our global business.”

IDCare founder Dr David Lacey. Picture: Patrick Woods.

Dr Lacey said the sheer volume of scams circulating Australia each month meant that “each and every one of us” could easily get caught.

“When you think of cyber crime you think of the Nigerian prince scam and vulnerable elderly being preyed on, but it’s not that,” he said.

“It’s the telco you’ve been waiting for a call from whose had a scammer interject into that conversation and the crippling after effects of that.

“I have helped out many businesses and individuals in our Sunshine Coast community who, with the simple click of a button, have lost their supply chain, customer orders, payroll or privacy.”

IDCARE uses specialist identify and cyber security case managers and analysts to apply a human-centred approach to identity and cyber security.

“We place the centre of everything we do on the concerns and needs of the individual, not the technology or process,” Dr Lacey said.

“Many of our customers are emotionally distraught and have been very intimidated by the crime committed against them.”

Dr Lacey said the team’s success in growing the business globally was down to finding great local talent and a product that “transcends nationality”.

“Our assistance is just as useful to someone in Indonesia or Italy as it is for someone on the Sunshine Coast,” he said.

“But we are not missing not jumping on a plane one bit.

“We have long since worked remotely and grown used to having online meetings and conferences so we have kept things business as usual during the pandemic.”

Dr Lacey said businesses concerned about talent gaps on the Sunshine Coast should rest easy.

“We have never struggled to find good people locally,” he said.

“There is nothing stopping anyone from building a global business right here on the Sunshine Coast.”

Originally published as Cybercrime business IDCARE grows to 40 staff, goes global