This week, the Home Affairs Industry Advisory Panel Report was released in support of Australia’s National Cyber Security strategy for 2020. The panel provided sixty recommendations for the Government to consider as it finalises the strategy.
The sixty recommendations were based upon the following key objectives:
- Objective 1: There are clear consequences for targeting Australians;
- Objective 2: Cyber risks are owned by those best placed to manage them;
- Objective 3: Australians practise safe behaviours at and at work;
- Objective 4: Government is a cyber security exemplar;
- Objective 5: Trusted goods, services and supply chains;
- Objective 6: Comprehensive situational awareness enables action.
And recommendations were also linked to the following key Australian Cyber Security enabling factors:
- Enabler 1: The Australian Signals Directorate’s Joint Cyber Security Centres (JCSCs);
- Enabler 2: Cyber security skills;
- Enabler 3: Intelligence and Assessment;
- Enabler 4: Governance;
- Enabler 5: Evidence and Evaluation.
The sixty recommendations reflect the view of industry on how Australian Cyber Security can be enhanced and developed within Australia. In relation to academia, several key areas were identified:
- Increase investment in Cyber Security research;
- That academia has a key role to play to strengthen the pipeline of skilled Australian Cyber Security Professionals post 2020;
- The Australian government should work with academia to ensure that Cyber Security is taught to a broader audience including engineering and data science disciples and also extending teaching of Cyber Security skills to company directors;
- There should be a strengthening of voluntary professional accreditation of University Cyber Security courses;
- There should be the creation of a staff exchange program between the Australian Cyber Security Centre, academia, and industry to enable collaboration and information sharing.
But there are also several key areas in relation to academia that were not covered by the Home Affairs Industry Advisory Panel Report. The following areas should be considered by the government in the finalisation of the Australia’s National Cyber Security strategy for 2020. These key areas are:
- Development of a National Cyber Security Research Strategy / Roadmap that will allow all of academia in Australian to contribute in developing Australian future Cyber sovereign research capability in partnership with industry and government especially in undertaking research in key areas;
- The role that academia has in contributing to Australia’s start-up sector in partnership with AustCyber or industry initiatives such as the Cyber Ready Cloud Innovation Centre in partnership with Amazon Web Services. Academia has a key role to play in the development of Australia’s future Cyber Innovation sector, but a national roadmap / plan is needed to support this and to include all of academia;
- Development of an International Cyber Security engagement research strategy to allow Australian researchers to undertake research internationally on key research topics with a particular focus on Five Eyes partners.
The Home Affairs Industry Advisory Panel Report recommendations are a positive step in informing the development of Australia’s National Cyber Security Strategy for 2020 but the role of academia is key for Australia’s future Cyber Security development.
Matt Warren is the Director of the RMIT University Centre of Cyber Security Research and Innovation.
