Share this article on:
The federal government is making moves to shift cyber risk from individuals and businesses onto the creators of the security software they use.
In an opening speech at the Australian Information Security Association’s cyber conference, Cyber Security Minister Clare O’Neil said that currently, community members bear the brunt of the risk involved with cyber security and that the upcoming cyber security strategy aims to change that.
A brilliant start to my day opening @AISA_National's Australian Cyber Conference in Canberra.
— Clare O'Neil MP (@ClareONeilMP) March 21, 2023
The Albanese Government is hard at work building a strong cyber defence around our country and working to make us more resilient from current and future cyber threats.#CyberCon2023 pic.twitter.com/OIDIoR8IZF
The new cyber security strategy, which is being developed by an appointed Expert Advisory Board led by former Telstra chief executive Andrew Penn, is considering a number of solutions that will displace the risk of cyber security from the community onto the tech sector.
“Business[es] do not feel that their cyber security obligations are clear or easy enough to follow,” she said. “Cyber risks [should be] managed by those best-placed to do so.”
The government hopes to create “a legislative framework to shift cyber security risks away from our most vulnerable members of the community towards those who are best placed to manage it, including software and cyber security service providers, telecommunications firms and technology developers”, according to O’Neil.
In addition, the Cyber Security Minister has said that the government will continue to provide cyber security advice and support for businesses, which she said will gain a “competitive advantage” by having good cyber trust and practices.
The continued support for businesses comes only a month after the Australian Productivity Commission called for a single incident reporting solution to be developed to ease the process for businesses and increase the efficacy of cyber response while decreasing the response times.
Combined with the goals of the new cyber security strategy, Minister O’Neil’s goal is to increase the cost of cyber crime for threat actors.
The minister previously stated that she wanted Australia to be a hostile environment for cyber criminals and hopes that by 2023, Australia can be the safest cyber nation in the world.
A number of policies have already been implemented already, including the establishment of a 100-strong task force of cyber experts to “hack the hackers”, as well as increased penalties for businesses that suffer from serious or repeated breaches from $2.2 million to whatever is the most of: