Australia must stand up to cyber assault

Australian society, companies and citizens are under cyber-assault by criminal gangs and state actors, and real action must be taken to protect them.

Who was behind the Optus attack?

Given the massive scale of the Optus security breach, the nature of the personal information and the utility of this data, the government should come clean about whether a state or criminal actor was behind the attack.

Will Google abandon Australia?

The Australian government’s plan to force Google to pay news organisations for content may see the online giant pull its search and advertising from Australian markets.

Pushing back against China

A collective response by allied nations and regional powers is required to contain China’s increasingly brutal international bullying.

Cyber strategy 2.0

Back in 2016, Australia launched its first national cybersecurity strategy and the government has just launched a discussion paper to kick off the public consultation on its successor.

The encryption deal done, but more work is needed

Australia has a strong history of bipartisanship on national security issues and is much stronger for it. This tradition has held, just about, through the debate on data encryption, but much still remains to be done.

Introducing integrated e-government in Australia

Launching a national effort to integrate service delivery across all three tiers of government would be a political challenge but it would deliver benefits for every Australian.

What’s the big deal about digital identity?

New steps towards developing secure digital identities have a lot of potential to make our lives easier, but privacy and security concerns means it must be done right.

Hacking for ca$h

It’s time we named China as a perpetrator of commercial cyber espionage and work in coalition with other states to escalate pressure until the Chinese leadership decides the costs are too high for it to keep orchestrating the theft of intellectual property.

Are we being played in the Pacific?

If you were trying to design a low-cost strategy to constrict the operational horizon of an important US ally in the region, China’s ploys in the Pacific wouldn’t be a bad model to examine.

Naming and shaming the unshameable

In the light of escalating cyber attacks from Russia, China and other hostile actors, the West is taking a more proactive approach to naming the perpetrators and taking active counter-measures.