Lake Macquarie City Council

The Challenge: Rising threats. Limited clarity.

The Council relies on digital systems and email communications to deliver essential services to its community. With sophisticated cyberthreats on the rise, the Council needed greater visibility into suspicious email activity and a faster way to determine whether alerts represented real threats.

Expanding visibility and protection

While email security tools filtered many malicious messages, analysts still needed deeper insight into how suspicious activity developed across the email environment. Investigations often required manual correlation across systems to validate whether alerts represented genuine threats.

Why Darktrace

The Council looked for a solution that could deliver richer context, earlier detection, and more automated investigation. After an evaluation led by Data#3 and Security HQ (SHQ), it selected Darktrace / EMAIL to modernize its approach to email security.

Key reasons included:

1. Self-Learning AI for earlier threat detection

Darktrace’s AI models learn the organization’s unique communication patterns and identify unusual behavior in real time. During the proof of value, Darktrace detected threats significantly earlier than legacy tools, helping analysts identify high-risk activity before it could disrupt operations.

2. Clear context that accelerates investigations

Rather than forcing analysts to manually correlate evidence across multiple tools, Darktrace surfaces behavioral indicators and context behind each alert. This clarity helps teams quickly determine whether activity represents a real threat or normal business communication.

3. Streamlined operations with trusted partners

Working alongside SHQ and Data#3, the Council successfully transitioned to Darktrace with strong operational guidance and post-deployment support.

“SHQ's support was instrumental in helping us make a well-informed decision. Their ability to translate technical capability into operational value, paired with Darktrace's strengths in behavioral detection, gave us confidence that we were choosing the right solution for Council.” - Joshua Crooks, Chief Technology Officer, Lake Macquarie City Council.

The Impact: Clear visibility. Confident defense

With Darktrace / EMAIL in place, Lake Macquarie City Council strengthened its ability to detect sophisticated threats while reducing operational strain on its security team.

Key outcomes include:

• Sharper detection of phishing, impersonation, and spoofed email attacks
• Reduced alert fatigue through behavior-driven detection and clearer context
• More efficient investigations, freeing analysts to focus on high-priority risks
• Stronger protection for critical digital services supporting the Council’s community

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