From Discovery to Innovation: Revolutionising AI-driven Scam Prevention 

  Host: Professor Dali Kaafar 

  Wednesday 28 May 2025, 6pm – 7.15pm 

  Theatre G25, Michael Kirby Building, 17 Wally’s Walk, Macquarie University

Overview

The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence has created new ways to address global challenges. Apate AI, a world-first innovation developed through research at the Macquarie University Cyber Security Hub, uses AI technology to help prevent cybercrime. The technology uses advanced conversational AI to create thousands of AI-driven bots that interact with scammers in real time, disrupting fraudulent operations while collecting intelligence from voice and text interactions. Apate AI Tech was recognised as one of the Top 50 Australian Inventions Changing the World in 2023.  

The technology goes beyond passively gathering fraud intelligence, helping to identify scam campaigns, spot impersonated organisations, and detect emerging fraud tactics early, giving financial institutions and governments better tools to defend against cybercrime.  

This talk will explore how the research was developed into practical innovation, showing how research-driven AI is revolutionising scam prevention and redefining how we combat digital threats on a global scale. We will explain the core technology, and how our partners (including the Commonwealth Bank, GovTech Singapore and Chainalysis in the US) use this to protect safeguarding individuals and organisations.

Biography

Professor Dali Kaafar is the Executive Director of the Macquarie University Cyber Security Hub and Professor of Cyber Security and Privacy Preserving Technologies at the School of Computing, leading research and innovation in the area of trustworthy digital economies. He is Director of the Cyber Range Training Centre and director of the Cyber discipline at the Institute of Applied Technology Digital in New South Wales, and co-director of the MQ Future Communication Research Centre. Since 2019, Professor Kaafar has served as New South Wales Cyber Ambassador. 

Before joining Macquarie University, he founded and led the Information Security and Privacy group at CSIRO Data61, specialising in data security. He also led the Networks Research Group and the Mobile Systems Research Group at National ICT Australia. 

Professor Kaafar holds senior editorial positions at leading cybersecurity journals including IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics & Security. He represents Australia on the Board of the Journal on Privacy Enhancing Technologies and chairs CORE's Security and Privacy research field. His contributions to cybersecurity innovation have earned him recognition in the Australian Top 100 Innovators list in both 2023 and 2024.

Contact Us

For more details about the series, contact us at fse.outreach@mq.edu.au.