Australia's Information Security and Cyber-Warfare

Somewhere in Australia stands a building with a group of federal government information security experts peering at flat screens and being fed reports from various sources. Watching for the next big thing to hit the Australian digital shores - from other governments, criminals, terrorists or crackers.

The Australian Department of Defence also thinks about this topic often. Pondering how other governments or terrorist groups might attack or harm Australia's military IT infrastructure and other related assets.

This has become a worrying reality for other countries and our own, as we have seen recently with the Chinese Google hacking issues, and Australian members of parliament having their websites hacked or defaced.

Can we ever can be safe from cyber attacks or similar quasi military actions?

The answer is yes and no at the same time. Just think about where we are today. Australia is already in a constant state of cyber war - with other governments, military organisations, corporations, individuals and criminals using the Internet constantly searching for information and knowledge they can use against our interests. Both in Australia and elsewhere, it's an intelligence orgy out there! Fraud, espionage and information collecting are important parts of these cyber-actions.

The real potential of our cyber warfare organisations is not being utilised. There is a focus on protecting the military and government sectors, but we need to be proactive and ready to employ everything from EMP devices, secret back-doors in manufactured hardware, and unmanned drones with electronic jamming/eavesdropping equipment.

In summary, we are fighting and surviving a cyberwar, while at the same time it is hard to estimate the potential damage if the cyberwar was to escalate. This is why the answer to the question of Australia's cyberwar preparedness seems to be "yes and no".

Australia needs to increase its cyberwar preparedness, even if Australia seems to be coping with the problem at the moment. Any new technologies and cyberwar developments can rapidly change the IT security landscape here. This would leave Australia vulnerable very quickly, and without time for our cyber security teams to react in an effective manner.

We are living in strange and uncertain times.