Australia launches first review into cybersecurity since 2008

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Australian government is launching its first review into cybersecurity since 2008, ZDNet reports.

At the opening of the new Australian Cyber Security Centre in Canberra on Thursday, Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced that a new wide-ranging Cyber Security Review will be conducted by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet with a panel of experts.

The panel includes Jennifer Westacott, the CEO of the Business Council of Australia; John Stewart, the chief security officer for Cisco; Mike Burgess, Telstra's chief information security officer; and Tobias Feakin, the director of the International Cyber Policy Centre at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

Abbott said the review will look at how to improve national security and the security of online transactions; assess the risk of cyber attacks; examine how the government can work with industry to reduce cyber attacks; and assess how government protects networks and information.

The PM said that in the last year, the Australian Signals Directorate responded to 940 "cyber incidents" involving government agencies, a 37 percent increase on the previous year, and that the cost of cybercrime in Australia is estimated at over AU$1 billion.

The review has long been called for, after the then-Labor government abandoned its plans for a cybersecurity review in 2012.

Australia's largest bank, Commonwealth Bank, called for the review earlier this year in its response to the government's financial system inquiry. The bank said at the time that there should be a focus on the private-public sector cooperation, according to ZDNet.

The government already has a Cyber Security Operations Centre operated by the Department of Defense, and the government has previously admitted that 95 percent of staff in the new center will come from Defense.

The distinction between the two centers, as explained last year, was that there would be a "layered" approach to security to allow industry into the Australian Cyber Security Centre to work in partnership with the government.

On Wednesday, Nov 26, Justice Minister Michael Keenan announced the establishment of ACORN, a new center for Australians to report incidents of cybercrime and have those reports forwarded on to the relevant law-enforcement agency.