Australia's cybercrime problem: agenda for the next government

The Australian Centre for Cyber Security (ACCS) at the University of New South Wales Canberra today released a discussion paper, titled ‘Secure in Cyber Space: A Policy Agenda for the Next Government against High Tech Threats’. It is a scholarly analysis of the Australian government’s recently released policy ‘Australia’s Cyber Security Strategy’ (21 April 2016).

The new discussion paper notes the substantial spending gap between the new measures announced by the federal government in the recent Budget and comparable spending commitments made by its allies for cybersecurity in the past half year. The new ACCS paper also traces in some detail the differences in Australia’s assessments of threat in cyberspace and the threat assessments of our allies. For example, on 25 May, the UK released a major policy statement reiterating its view that the cyber menace is a Tier 1 national security and economic threat. The UK paper also promised much closer attention than Australian policy has so far to systemic threats to critical cyber infrastructure. The new ACCS paper includes a comparison between the policies of France and Australia, especially in the area of regulation of big data and privacy.

Professor Greg Austin, a co-author of the new ACCS paper, said: “It seems that many Australians do not see cyberthreats in the same way as their peers in our closely allied countries. We need to understand why.”

Professor Jill Slay, director of ACCS, and the other co-author of the new ACCS paper, said: “It is time to begin to develop a national workforce strategy for cyberspace capability across the board. We don’t have one yet.” She also said: “We have to respond to the recent Cyber Security Strategy by laying out a national agenda for skills education that is more sophisticated and detailed than a focus on awareness raising or cyber hygiene. There are new high tech threats that are not being addressed in most of the country.”