$230m plan to shut down hackers
MORE than $230 million will be spent boosting Australia’s defences against malicious cyber attacks by deploying an aggressive front line, including 100 newly recruited IT experts.
For the first time, the four-year program, to be announced today by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, will create a capacity to launch pre-emptive attacks on cyber raiders.
Strategies will be drawn up to co-operate with allied nations to shut down overseas “safe havens” for cyber criminals before they can launch raids on our computers.
Mr Turnbull has personally driven the project with the aim of strengthening the economy and employment as well as national security.
Cyber security would be an economic asset, along the same lines as trusted justice systems and infrastructure networks, as it would attract investment and job creation.
But it’s more than offering reassurance to overseas investors. By 2020 Australia’s domestic internet economy is expected to be worth $1349 billion, or 7.3 per cent of economic output.
The objectives are not confined to national security units and the demands for safeguarding government organisations. It will bring in co-operation with big business and families.
One measure is being likened to a digital “Slip, Slop, Slap” campaign aimed at protecting the health of household cyber security.
Sources have said that like the 1981 campaign to prevent skin cancers, the digital “Slip, Slop, Slap” measures will be aimed at alerting email users to the dangers they face and how to protect themselves — by, for example, not opening unsought emails, by not clicking on untested web sites.
The government is beefing up Australia’s cyber security.Source:News Limited
Individuals will be encouraged to increase their own precautions against malware and other online nasties that can ruin household computers and even require a ransom payment to eliminate.
Small business could get funds to have their cyber security tested. The government also wants to create “an online cyber threat sharing portal” for all businesses to pass on threats.
It is much more than a consumer advice. The interconnectivity of the internet means all digital outposts have to be secure or the entire system could be at risk.
A central change under the program announced today will be to take cyber security out of the closed silos of the intelligence organisations and open it up co-operation with corporations and individuals.
Cyber security agencies will be decentralised out of Canberra with offices closer to boardrooms in city CBDs, allowing easier consultations with business and timelier warnings from companies of cyber incursions.
This could help reduce the rising cost of cyber security. Those costs are expected to hit $US22 billion by 2020.
The Prime Minister wants business to have be better informed about cyber risks, using improved data collection to be shared by the public and private sectors.
Source | News.Au
