Despite the hoopla of the Government’s Cyber Security strategy announced in May for the next four years, the Government has expressed little interest in resourcing it effectively. ADM’s Cyber Summit looked at some of the issues facing this sector.

Three clear themes emerged this year: the overarching strategic research framework into cyber is unclear; insider threats are huge; and finding/growing cyber warriors is a big challenge.

Former Rear Admiral Mike Brown had a good word for Australia’s approach to cyber security.

This year was a tough year for cyber security. In May the US Government suffered a major breach of the records of its Office of Personnel Management.

Cyber threat Indicators point to another tough year for security staff, especially in the Defence sector. China and the US account for more than half of all observed attack traffic, according to Akamai’s ‘State of the Internet’ Report for the fourth quarter 2014.

The concept of operations for the future ADF is to fight in a networked battlespace where the knowledge edge will provide a decisive advantage.

The cyber threat landscape is ever changing and the race to keep up with the threats is never ending.

While Boeing may be best known for their work in aerospace and communications, they are moving into the cyber domain with the recent opening of first Cyber Analytics Centre outside the US in Singapore, to bring advanced cyber security capabilities and services to customers in the Asia-Pacific region.

The last many of our readers would have heard of the establishment of Australian Cyber Security Centre (not to be confused with the Australian Command & Staff College) was a year ago, when then Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced its establishment.

In this country’s somewhat belated approach to cyber warfare - it was mentioned for the first time in the 2009 Defence White Paper – the casual observer could be forgiven for thinking that most effort appears to be focussed on the defensive aspects of cyber warfare rather than on its employment for offensive operations

According to the Australian Signals Directorate, it recorded some 2168 incidents due to cyber attacks in 2013, amounting to a 72 percent increase over the previous two years increase of the base of 1259 such incidents.

The summit reflected a strengthened direction and resolve in Government efforts to deal with a rise in cyber attacks. However the challenges were becoming more frequent and more complex, according to the speakers.

The Federal Government leadership and systems for its Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) is yet to be firmed, according to the most recent public evidence provided to Senate Estimates hearings, in February.

NZ is not bereft of cyber security agencies; there is the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the National Cyber Policy Office (NCPO).

The long running project to upgrade Defence’s cryptographic capability known as JP 2069 is now scheduled to offer initial operations by “late 2014” according to the most recent advice received from the Department.

In our Kokoda Foundation report in early 2011, we called for an updated National Cyber Security Strategy together with a cyber capability plan to be developed across government and industry. The vulnerabilities inherent in cyberspace made it imperative for Australia to develop the requisite strategy, capabilities, policy, tactics, techniques, and procedures for employing the full suite of cyber operations to ensure freedom of action in cyberspace and, to the maximum extent practicable, the safety and security of Australian citizens using cyberspace.