{"id":37308,"date":"2023-10-20T14:49:20","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/will-the-governments-cyber-security-strategy-be-successful-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:49:20","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:49:20","slug":"will-the-governments-cyber-security-strategy-be-successful-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/will-the-governments-cyber-security-strategy-be-successful-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Will the government’s Cyber Security Strategy be successful? – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By\u00a0Robert Merkel<\/em><\/p>\n

The Cyber Security Strategy<\/a> announced\u00a0by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull clearly places a high priority on protecting Australian government systems from foreign powers.<\/p>\n

But when it comes to protecting citizens’ personal information, it appears to be rather a mixed bag.<\/p>\n

While very short on specifics, it does announce several potentially useful initiatives that may help protect Australians against cybercrime. But notably absent is any pressure on the private sector to improve its cybersecurity efforts.<\/p>\n

First, it commits the government to increasing the number and training of cybersecurity specialists in the Australian Federal Police and Austral<\/a>ian Crime Commission<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The government also wants to get its own house in order, in part by conducting additional independent security assessments of internal federal government IT infrastructure.<\/p>\n

This is an interesting move given Turnbull has confirmed both the Bureau of Meteorology and the Department of Parliamentary Services had been the victim of recent cyberattacks.<\/p>\n

But if more externally focused departments, such as the Australian Tax Office, Centrelink and Medicare, are also thoroughly audited, it would reduce the risk of those organisations’ large collections of personal data being compromised by criminals.<\/p>\n

The strategy talks about sponsoring research to better understand the cost of malicious cyberactivity to the Australian economy. It says figures vary, with some putting the cost of cybercrime in Australia at about $1 billion a year, but other estimates put it as high as $17 billion.<\/p>\n

But perhaps the most useful contributions to cybersecurity for the broader public come from two measures:<\/p>\n