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The Minister for Home Affairs and Cyber Security has announced that 87 new “critical infrastructure assets” have been declared as systems of national significance.
This brings the number of systems of national significance to a total of 168 assets in the communications, energy, transport, financial services, and IT sectors.
Neither Minister Clare O’Neil nor the federal government has revealed what these assets specifically are.
“We are relentlessly focused on safeguarding our country against significant cyber attacks, but it’s not something we can do alone,” Minister O’Neil said in a statement.
“The protection of our critical infrastructure is a shared responsibility, and these declarations will help to build vital partnerships with the owners and operators of our most important assets.”
Being designated as a system of national significance comes with an enhanced set of obligations for their operators. They must assess, identify, and fix vulnerabilities, provide the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) with information regarding their systems, and manage a “near-real-time threat picture”.
The declaration is a part of the government’s Critical Infrastructure Risk Management Program, which began in February 2023. It included a six-month grace period for infrastructure operators to get their cyber security readiness up to speed, which expired on 17 August.
“I want to thank the owners and operators of systems of national significance for helping make Australia the most cyber secure country in the world,” Minister O’Neil said.
Minister O’Neil was in Melbourne today (8 September) alongside Australia’s national cyber security coordinator, Air Marshal Darren Goldie, for a third round of National Cyber Exercises. According to Minister O’Neil, the exercises are a key part of making Australia a more cyber resilient nation.
“These exercises will help prepare our essential services for cyber attacks and incidents. Today’s exercise was with Australia’s leading telecommunications providers,” Minister O’Neil said while attending Tesltra’s Security Operations Centre.
“Cyber security is a team sport – it takes government, industry and citizens working together to make Australia a more cyber secure and resilient country.”
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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