Govt discusses cybersecurity with industry

The federal government today met with Australian business leaders to further develop key initiatives arising from the Prime Minister’s inaugural Cyber Security Summit in July.

The roundtable, chaired by Christian Porter, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, discussed potential future strategies to strengthen the nation’s cybersecurity landscape, jointly across business and government.

“At the July summit, business leaders told us they wanted national leadership and a coordinated approach to address cybersecurity threats, one that included a strong partnership between the government, businesses and the research community,” Porter said.

“Today the government started in earnest the process of engaging business leaders to work with government to co-design a range of practical initiatives.

“We considered ways to share critical information about cyberthreats and enable rapid response to issues.

“We shared ideas about identifying best practice cybersecurity for Australian businesses and we also talked about ways to grow Australia’s cybersecurity workforce and meet critical job needs.

“Importantly, we discussed the role that innovation plays in growing economic opportunities for Australian businesses and developing home-grown cybersecurity capability.

“We will continue to develop these ideas and feedback from the summit and today’s meeting will inform a new Cyber Security Strategy, to be released later this year.”

The Australian Government is investing in cybersecurity initiatives to support businesses and the community.

To date, these investments include $14.6 million in the Australian Cyber Security Centre, $3 million for cybercrime reporting and $10 million on countering email spam and online scams.

For more information on the Cyber Security Review and Strategy, go to www.dpmc.gov.au.

Image courtesy of Simon Yeo under CC