Comstel ICT to Exhibit at the National Education Summit Melbourne 2026
Bringing enterprise-grade Bitdefender cybersecurity and connected classroom technology to Australian educators
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When
3 – 4 Sept 2026
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Where
MCEC, South Wharf
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Focus
Cybersecurity for Schools
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Comstel ICT is proud to announce that we will be exhibiting at the National Education Summit Melbourne 2026, taking place on Thursday 3 and Friday 4 September at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre. The Summit is one of Australia’s most significant gatherings of K–12 educators, school leaders, IT managers and decision-makers — and we are bringing a focused message to South Wharf: schools deserve enterprise-grade cybersecurity without enterprise-grade complexity.
After more than three decades supporting Australian organisations with telecommunications, networking, managed print and ICT services, Comstel has built its 2026 education stack around a single principle: protect the students, the staff and the learning environment first — everything else follows. At the heart of that stack is Bitdefender GravityZone, the threat-prevention platform we have selected as our flagship cybersecurity offering for the education sector.
A premier professional learning event
Built for educators, by educatorsNow in its tenth year, the National Education Summit has become a key fixture for Australian K–12 schools. The 2026 Melbourne edition features Conferences, Workshops and free Seminars across themes including AI in the Classroom, Diverse Learners, Wellbeing for Future Focused Schools and Capacity Building School Libraries. |
The Education ShowAlongside the conference program, attendees can explore The Education Show — a free trade expo where leading providers showcase classroom technology, learning resources and support services. It is here, on the exhibition floor, that Comstel ICT will be hosting demonstrations and consultations across both days. |
Australian schools are now a primary target
Why cyber resilience has moved from an IT issue to a board-level concern
Education has become one of the most heavily attacked sectors in Australia. Schools hold an extraordinarily rich pool of personal data — student records, parent contact details, medical and welfare notes, payment information, staff HR files — and they typically run on lean IT teams with broad device fleets and tight budgets. For threat actors, that combination is irresistible.
Ransomware incidents, phishing campaigns targeting staff inboxes and credential-theft attacks against student management systems have all increased materially over the past two years. The reputational damage of a single successful incident — not to mention the obligations under the Privacy Act and the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme — means “we’ll get to it next year” is no longer a defensible position for any school executive.
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1 in 3
education organisations report a ransomware incident in the past 24 months
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90%+
of school breaches start with a phishing email or stolen credential
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72hrs
notification window under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme
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Bitdefender GravityZone for Education
The world’s leading prevention-first cybersecurity platform — deployed, managed and supported in Australia by Comstel ICT.
Bitdefender is consistently rated number one for protection by independent testing labs including AV-TEST, AV-Comparatives and SE Labs. GravityZone is its unified business platform, combining endpoint protection, advanced threat detection, patch management, encryption, email security and managed detection and response under a single console.
For schools, the appeal is straightforward: one lightweight agent on every laptop, desktop and server, one cloud-based console for the IT coordinator, and a layered defence model that stops the overwhelming majority of attacks before they execute — not after.
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Capability 01
Ransomware MitigationBehavioural detection blocks ransomware before encryption begins, with automatic file recovery for any tampered files. |
Capability 02
Email & Phishing DefenceMicrosoft 365 and Google Workspace integration filters out impersonation, business email compromise and credential-theft links targeting staff inboxes. |
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Capability 03
Patch ManagementCentralised patching for Windows, macOS and 200+ third-party applications — the single biggest reduction in school attack surface, automated. |
Capability 04
Managed Detection & ResponseOptional 24/7 SOC service from Bitdefender analysts, hunting for threats inside your network so your IT coordinator does not have to. |
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Capability 05
Full Disk EncryptionNative BitLocker and FileVault management ensures that lost or stolen staff laptops do not become a notifiable data breach. |
Capability 06
Single Cloud ConsoleOne pane of glass for every endpoint, server and mailbox — managed by Comstel on your behalf or co-managed with your team. |
Beyond cybersecurity — the full Comstel education stack
Bitdefender is the headline at NES, but it sits inside a broader conversation we are having with schools across New South Wales, Victoria and beyond: how to consolidate technology vendors, simplify operations and free up the IT coordinator to focus on outcomes rather than firefighting.
BizTel Cloud Phone SystemsReliable telephony across reception, classrooms, libraries and remote campuses with auto-attendant, IVR and integrated mobile. |
Business-grade NBN & FibreHigh-availability internet with SLAs designed for schools that cannot afford an outage during exam periods or assessment windows. |
Kyocera Managed PrintSecure follow-me printing, per-classroom usage reporting and predictable per-page pricing — with built-in protection of staff print data. |
Mobile & ConnectivityPooled mobile plans for staff, 4G/5G failover for critical systems and managed connectivity for excursions and off-site programs. |
What to expect at the Comstel ICT booth
| Activity | Description |
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| Live GravityZone Demo | See a real-time ransomware simulation blocked, and walk through the unified console as it would look for your school. |
| Free Cyber Posture Review | Book a no-obligation 30-minute review with a Comstel consultant. We will benchmark your current setup against the Australian Cyber Security Centre’s Essential Eight. |
| Education Pricing | Sector-specific pricing for Bitdefender GravityZone, BizTel and Kyocera bundles, available exclusively to NES attendees through to 30 September 2026. |
| Meet the Team | Our solutions consultants and education account managers will be on the floor across both days — no high-pressure sales pitch, just a straight conversation about what works. |
Come and say hello in Melbourne
Whether you are responsible for IT, finance, operations or the whole school, we would love to walk you through what a consolidated, secure and well-supported school technology environment can look like in 2026 and beyond.
Book a Meeting |
Melbourne Convention & Exook%20a%20meetinghibition Centre, 1 Convention Centre Pl, South Wharf VIC 3006
Published by Comstel ICT · Australian telecommunications and ICT since 1992 · luz@comstel.com.au