Australia’s new Cyber Security Strategy

In January 2013, Prime Minister Julia Gillard released Australia's first National Security Strategy, Strong and Secure: Ten years on, Australia’s Cyber Minister Claire O’Neil releases today Australia’s new 2023 – 2030 National Cyber Security Strategy.

In ten years the scale of the problem and the scope of the problem have increased but we have seen subsequent Australian governments deal with this very complex problem.

The government within the strategy has committed $587 million to better protect cyber security infrastructure and protect Australia.

The new national cyber security strategy highlights a number of key changes and investments including:

$291 million package supporting small and medium businesses especially to deal with cyber incidents;
$144 million to strengthen critical infrastructure and enhance government cyber security;
$130 million for regional and global cyber resilience initiatives;
New measures to protect and respond against Ransomware attacks;
The key role that Universities have in contributing to sovereign capability development but also the key role they have in innovation, especially through research;
A new Cyber Incident Review Board will be set up to investigate national cyber incidents.

The strategy will be based upon six cyber shields including strong business and citizens; safe technology; world-class threat sharing and blocking; protected critical infrastructure; sovereign capabilities and resilient region / global leadership. With such a comprehensive strategy, it has been broken into three phases for implementation: Horizon 1 (2023-25), Horizon 2 (2026-28) and Horizon 3 (2029 – 30).

It is great to see that the government recognises in the strategy the importance of protecting all of Australia from critical infrastructure, small businesses to citizens. We are living in the new cyber normal, this strategy is a key step in helping to protect Australia in the future against the wide range of cyber threats that Australia faces. Unlike previous national cyber security strategies, this strategy clearly defines what success looks like and the three phases of implementation needed to get to a successful outcome. For me, this strategy is a key step in the right direction for the protection of the whole of Australia.

Author:

Professor Matthew Warren,

Director of RMIT Centre for Cyber Security and Research Innovation

23 November 2023

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Australia’s new Cyber Security Strategy