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.

A petabyte (PB) indicates the fifth power to 1,000, a million gigabytes or a thousand terabytes. That’s how much data was transferred by the weekend of November 17-18, 2012 to Defence’s two commissioned data centres in Sydney and Melbourne.

One of the most ubiquitous technologies, the global position system (GPS), that emerged last century threatens a military and civilian operations due to a fatal vulnerability, that is only now getting attention.

With the opening of its new Canberra facility this year, Lockheed Martin has begun focussing its Australian interest on ICT, already a huge part of its US business.

One of the more competent and intelligent ministers in the present administration, Attorney-General Nicola Roxon issued for general discussion some reforms of national security legislation in July.

Australia and its allies would avoid a war with another state without due cause. However a cyberwar – aggression via mainly internet offensives – is quietly on the table.

Thales Australia and the Department of Defence have commenced the Next Generation Desktop (NGD) project pilot program, which is delivering a new secure desktop computer system that is simpler to use and less expensive to sustain than current systems.

The second annual cyber security summit covered a great deal more ground than the first. Yet it was more interesting for what it did not cover.

Back in 2004, a little-known Canadian-based security software consulting company, Titus received an email request from the Australian Federal Police (AFP) for an email classification product. They wanted a customised tab for inserting the classification level in Microsoft Outlook, recalls Tim Upton, Titus’ president and founder.

Differing views on the indigenous electronic warfare (EW) sector were evident at the biennial convention of the Australian Chapter of the Association of Old Crows – Defence thought the sector was growing and many industry participants did not, although there was common ground on the threats and opportunities presented by cyber.