Published on the 03/12/2014 | Written by Beverley Head
The Federal Government has launched a six month review of its six year old cyber security strategy and is also introducing a bill to force social networks to take down cyber-bullying material…
A review of Australia’s cyber security strategy has been announced, and will look at ways industry and government can work together to make online systems more resilient.
The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet will lead the review assisted by a panel of experts including the CEO of the Business Council of Australia, Jennifer Westacott; Cisco chief security and trust officer John Stewart; Mike Burgess, chief information security officer at Telstra and Dr Tobias Feakin, director of the International Cyber Policy Centre at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
The stated goals of the review include assessing the risk of cyber attacks in the public and private sectors with a view to making online systems more resilient; examining how government and industry can better work together to reduce the risk of cyber attacks; and assessing how Government can best protect its networks and information.
According to the Government, in the last year the Australian Signals Directorate responded to 940 cyber incidents involving Government agencies, a 37 percent increase on the previous year while the direct cost of cyber-crime to Australia in the past 12 months is estimated to be more than $1 billion.
Whether the review will put back on the table earlier recommendations that organisations are mandated to report security breaches which put at risk personal information remains to be seen.
Besides announcing the review the Government formally opened the Australian Cyber Security Centre in Canberra which brings together the cyber security teams of the Australian Crime Commission, the Australian Federal Police, the cyber elements of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the Australian Signals Directorate and the Attorney-General’s Department Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) Australia.
In a separate but related initiative the Federal Government will today introduce the Enhancing Online Safety for Children Bill, which seeks to establish a children’s e-safety commissioner who can receive complaints about online bullying of children, direct online sites to remove offending material, and impose daily fines of $17,000 on organisations which fail to follow that direction.
