The second biennial Civil Security Congress and Exposition (CIVSEC) was held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre this week, building on the inaugural event held in 2016.
Run by the Aerospace Maritime Defence and Security Foundation of Australia (AMDA), the three day event was held on May 1-3 and took place in parallel with the invitation-only Police Conference (PC18), which attracted the Police Commissioner of Australia and the Chief Police Officer of the ACT.
According to AMDA officials, CIVSEC 2018 had around 2,000 delegate registrations over the three day period and the modest exposition hall attracted 74 exhibitors, displaying a range of capabilities and products.
The conference itself was broadly organised into threads, including the Strategic Security Summit, which the organisers touted as the ‘primary thought leadership forum’ in the civil security sphere. Other threads included forums such as ‘Civil Security in the 21st Century’, the Cyber Security Careers Forum, the AustCyber Pitchfest and the DST Group-led ‘Science and Technology Innovation for Civil and National Security’ series of discussions and presentations.
In kicking off the latter on the opening day of the conference, Chief Defence Scientist Dr Alex Zelinsky launched the Australian Government’s National Security Science and Technologies policy and priorities document. The document sets out the newly-created National Security Science and Technology Centre’s role in helping national security agencies with understanding and prioritising their science and technology requirements and to co-ordinate research and development efforts to meet the ever-evolving threat.
Dr. Zelinsky told delegates that national security has been a growing concern over the last two decades and that the environment is becoming increasingly unstable, with threats forever changing and that timely and accurate intelligence is vital to countering the emerging threats.
“Science and technology can be an integral part of national security,” he said.
He highlighted the government’s six national security priorities in this area: cyber security; intelligence exploitation; border security and identity management; investigative support and forensic science; preparedness, protection, prevention and incident response; and technology forecasting.
On the second day of CIVSEC 2018, the Strategic Security Summit Stream launched the 5RD Council, a ‘Five-Eyes’ initiative to co-operate on civil security research and development in an unclassified forum.
Dr Richard Davis, Chief Technology Officer National Security at the NSSTC said the 5RD initiative is a multi-lateral forum with the aim of, “informing and co-ordinating public safety, research, development and evaluation (RDT&E) to expand capacity and deliver more efficient and cost-effective access to results.”
CIVSEC 2018 was the first public unveiling of the 5RD Council, and was represented by Dr Davis, Director General Defence Research and Development Canada Dr Mark Williamson, the UK Home Office’s Science & Technology Officer Simon Staffell, and Jay Martin, Director of Research & Development Partnerships (S&T Directorate) with the US Department of Homeland Security.
The CIVSEC Innovation Award winners include Fivecast (cyber security), Intelligent Security Australia (physical security and policing), and DST and the University of Melbourne (disaster relief, emergency management and humanitarian services plus the National Innovation Award). High commendations went to Zirkata and DroneShield.
A more in-depth look at CIVSEC 2018 will appear in the June issue of ADM.