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The Australian government has announced a $230m cyber strategy. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
The Australian government has announced a $230m cyber strategy. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Australia puts $230m towards fighting cybercrime, including 50 extra police

This article is more than 7 years old

Specialist officers in the federal police and Australian Crime Commission and 50 security experts spearhead

A $230m cyber security strategy, which includes cash for more specialist cybercrime officers in the Australian Crime Commission and the Australian federal police, has been announced by the government.

The crackdown is designed to tackle cyber crimes including malware which attempts to force users to pay a ransom, “hacktivism”, denial of service attacks and theft of data or intellectual property through cyber espionage.

It is estimated 101 more cyber security experts will be hired across the government and its agencies, about half of whom will be officers in the two crime-fighting agencies.The federal police will get a further $20.4m and the crime commission $16m to conduct threat detection, technical analysis and forensic assessment.

Cyber crime costs Australia more than $1bn a year, the strategy says, but adds that “the real impact of cybercrime to Australia could be around $17bn [a year]”, based on estimates that losses from cyber security attacks are about 1% of GDP a year.

“The Australian Cyber Security Centre threat report 2015 says the cyber threat is undeniable, unrelenting and continues to grow,” it said. Threats come both from other countries and non-state actors such as criminal networks.

The strategy said cyber espionage activities target Australian government networks almost daily and gives a frank admission that government systems have been compromised.

In December, reports suggested China had conducted a successful cyber attack on the Bureau of Meteorology that compromised sensitive systems across the federal government.

The government will assess its agencies’ cyber security weaknesses and improve security advice on emerging technologies to help mitigate and deter attacks.

Most cybercrime targeting Australians originates overseas, so the strategy calls for greater international cooperation to shut down safe havens for cyber criminals.

The government will boost its expertise with a new minister assisting the prime minister on cyber security, special adviser in the department of prime minister and cabinet, and a cyber ambassador.

In a foreword to the strategy Malcolm Turnbull said it was important to promote international norms of behaviour that were consistent with a free, open and secure internet.

“These norms include that states should not knowingly conduct or support cyber-enabled intellectual property theft for commercial advantage,” the prime minister said.

The $230m funding commitment comes on top of $400m already committed to cyber security in the defence white paper.

The strategy is equivocal on the impact of encryption, noting it helps to secure information and improve users’ cyber security, but may also be used to hide illegal activity such as recruiting individuals to terrorist or criminal enterprises.

The government wants to share information with the private sector on cyber threats. It will spend $39m to move the Australian Cyber Security Centre from Canberra and $47m to set up threat sharing centres in capital cities and an online portal to improve cooperation.

Cyber threat information should be shared in real time between and within the public and private sectors, the strategy said. “Both have unique information to contribute to the threat picture.”

Sharing information will help identify patterns and to analyse and predict cyber security threats.

Businesses own and operate most internet infrastructure and have info about malicious activities on their networks and systems. The strategy said the government had intelligence and restricted information it may share. Businesses which want to share information about attacks with each other will be able to do so using the government as an honest broker.

Big businesses in the ASX 100 will be able to participate by signing up to voluntary cyber security health checks to understand their weaknesses. The government will also give $15m in grants to small businesses to have their systems tested and improved by accredited experts.

The government will spend $30.5m from its innovation policy to set up a Cyber Security Growth Centre to support innovation and companies that can commercialise cyber security solutions for sale worldwide.

The CSIRO will get $7.5m to conduct cyber security research.

The strategy said Australia must address a cyber security skills shortage by expanding training in registered organisations such as Tafes and potentially developing cyber security apprenticeships. It noted a lack of diversity in information security, as just 10% of professionals in the sector were women.

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