How the Chinese military exploits Western universities and tech firms

The willingness of Western universities and tech firms to work with Chinese experts without checking their links with the PLA could advance China’s military capability to our strategic disadvantage.

Reducing Australia’s vulnerability to foreign interference

Russia and China have used a range of overt and underhand means to influence the results of democratic nations’ elections in recent years and Australia must step up its measures to guard against such interference.

Will India’s anti-satellite weapon test spark an arms race in space?

India’s successful test of an anti-satellite weapon in low-earth orbit demonstrated its ability to counter the Chinese threat, but better ways must be found to prevent a damaging arms race in orbit.

Online data – What can we do to protect it?

It’s a battle to protect your personal data online, but you can improve your odds against the hackers and scammers by following these simple, but often overlooked, safeguards.

Owning it

After the Christchurch terror attack, there will inevitably be reflection upon the social and political factors that led to the shootings. There needs to be scrutiny of both the online hate speech which contributes to radicalisation and the intelligence failings which allowed such an attack to occur.

Southeast Asia’s looming drug crisis threatens regional security

The regional drug crisis provides an opportunity for Australia to work with ASEAN authorities to strengthen border controls and disrupt illicit drug supply chains.

The internet is now an arena for conflict, and we’re all caught up in it

Most people think the internet operates as a kind of global public square. In reality, it’s become a divided arena where conflict between nation states plays out.

All planned out

The Defence Department faces the choice of either sticking with the certainty of insufficient funding or undertaking the whole planning process once again and hoping the next ‘certain’ figure will be more meaningful.

In fighting online interference, the first line of defence is the mind

The internet and social media give authoritarian nations a lever to pull in democracy’s debates through intermediaries who guide opinions in their interest or undermine the legitimacy of democracy itself.

Will national security concerns end the globalisation of technology?

Fears about data security are prompting calls to ban Chinese technology from sensitive sectors, as state sponsored Chinese cyber-espionage and surveillance continues to menace western democracies.

Preparing for the era of disasters

An emerging era of disasters will increasingly stretch emergency services, diminish community resilience and escalate economic costs and losses of life. It will also have profound implications for food security in our immediate region, with cascading impacts that will undermine Australia’s national security.

Australia’s other border security problem: visa overstayers

There’s been plenty of discussion about the problem of asylum seekers arriving by boats, but the problem of visitors overstaying their visas is a much more common problem.