Skip to content

Security

Last updated: 3 October 2026

Cogniti is built and operated by the University of Sydney. This page summarises how we protect the service and the data in it. Contractual commitments are in our Terms and Policies; where this page and your agreement differ, your agreement governs.

Two ways to use Cogniti

Cogniti hosted service (app.cogniti.ai). The University operates the service on servers in Australia. Each institution has its own organisation within the service, logically separated from other institutions.

Cogniti on Microsoft Marketplace. Cogniti is deployed as a managed application into your institution’s own Azure subscription, in the Azure region you select. Your data, AI model deployments and logs stay in your subscription. The University’s access is limited to the application’s managed resource group, for support, updates and security operations.

Statements below apply to both unless one is named.

Hosting and data location

  • The hosted service stores customer data in Australia, with the database replicated across Australian locations.
  • Marketplace deployments store data in the Azure region the institution selects.
  • The third parties that process data for the service are listed in Annex C of our Data Processing Addendum.

Network protection

  • All traffic reaches Cogniti through Azure Front Door with a web application firewall and platform protection against denial-of-service attacks.
  • Application servers are not directly reachable from the internet.
  • Databases and configuration stores accept connections only from the application’s own network.
  • Uploaded files are scanned for malware and are served only through short-lived signed links.

Identity and access

  • Users sign in through their institution’s identity provider using SAML 2.0, OpenID Connect or LTI 1.3 from a learning management system. Cogniti stores no user passwords.
  • Multi-factor authentication and conditional access are applied by your identity provider, so your institution’s sign-in policies apply to Cogniti.
  • Access within Cogniti is role-based. Educators control who can use the agents and resources they create, and institution administrators manage their own organisation.
  • Sessions expire after 24 hours by default.
  • University staff access to production systems is restricted to those who need it, requires multi-factor authentication, and is logged.

Encryption

  • Data in transit is encrypted with TLS 1.2 or higher.
  • Data at rest is encrypted with AES-256, using keys managed by Microsoft and, for the hosted service, MongoDB.
  • Application secrets are held in Azure Key Vault and accessed by managed identities.

Monitoring and incident response

  • Security logs are collected centrally and analysed with Microsoft Sentinel, which raises alerts on suspicious activity.
  • The University maintains incident response, business continuity and disaster recovery plans for Cogniti, reviewed at least annually.
  • If a security incident affects your institution’s data, we notify you without undue delay and no later than 72 hours after confirming it, as set out in the Data Processing Addendum.
  • Current and historical service status is published at status.cogniti.ai.

Resilience and backup

  • The hosted service runs across multiple availability zones. Its database is replicated across Australian locations with automatic failover, which has been tested on the production service.
  • The hosted service database is backed up continuously with point-in-time recovery. Backups are encrypted.
  • For Marketplace deployments, resilience and backup settings are those of the deployment in your subscription.
  • Availability targets and support hours for the hosted service are set out in the Support and Service Level Schedule that forms part of the subscription terms.

Secure development

  • Changes go through pull requests with peer review before release.
  • Automated tests, static code analysis, dependency and supply-chain analysis, container image scanning and infrastructure-as-code checks run as part of development.
  • Third-party dependencies are pinned to verified versions, and newly published versions are held back for a period before adoption.
  • The application runs in minimal container images as a non-privileged user.
  • Security updates are applied on a regular cycle, and critical vulnerabilities are prioritised outside that cycle.
  • Independent penetration testing is carried out periodically. A summary is available to customers under a non-disclosure agreement.

Artificial intelligence

  • Your conversations, documents and personal data are not used to train or fine-tune any AI model.
  • By default Cogniti uses models hosted by Microsoft Azure (Azure OpenAI and Azure AI Foundry). An institution may choose to connect its own accounts with other model providers, in which case that provider’s terms apply to those requests.
  • Educators write and can see the instructions given to each agent, and can review how their agents are used.
  • Users are told when they are interacting with generative AI and can report any message of concern.
  • Content filtering is applied where the model host or the institution’s connected content safety service provides it.
  • Cogniti is not designed to make automated decisions about students. Institutions keep human oversight of decisions about assessment, progression and welfare.

More detail is in our AI Transparency Statement.

Privacy and data handling

  • The University handles personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles and our Privacy Policy.
  • Your institution’s content remains your institution’s. The University processes it only to provide the service.
  • At the end of a hosted subscription, data is available for export and is then deleted from the production service, on the timetable in your agreement. Deleted data can remain in encrypted backups until those backups expire, and is not restored except for disaster recovery.
  • For Marketplace deployments, data remains in your subscription until you delete the application.

Assurance

  • Cogniti is governed by the University of Sydney’s cyber security programme, which is aligned to the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and led by the University’s Chief Information Security Officer.
  • Cogniti runs on Microsoft Azure and, for the hosted service, MongoDB Atlas. Both providers hold independent certifications including SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001, available from their trust portals.
  • A completed HECVAT, our incident response, business continuity and disaster recovery plans, our AI risk assessment and a penetration test summary are available to customers and prospective customers under a non-disclosure agreement.

Your responsibilities

  • Configure sign-in, multi-factor authentication and account lifecycle in your identity provider.
  • Decide who in your institution holds administrator roles in Cogniti, and review them.
  • Tell your staff and students how Cogniti is used at your institution, and obtain any consents your policies require.
  • For Marketplace deployments, manage the Azure subscription, region, AI model deployments, logging and backup settings that the application runs in.

Reporting a security concern

If you believe you have found a vulnerability in Cogniti, please email cogniti@sydney.edu.au with enough detail for us to reproduce it. Please do not test against other institutions’ data or disrupt the service.

We do not operate a paid bug bounty programme.