Turnbull commits to strengthening ties with US on cybersecurity

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has announced a strengthening of ties between Australia and the US on cybersecurity, including an annual ‘Australia-US Cyber Security Dialogue’, following his recent talks with President Barack Obama during his official visit to the US.

The PM said this new dialogue will build on Australia’s “already close cyber cooperation” with the US and will engage senior representatives from both countries’ business, academic and government sectors to discuss common cyber threats, promote cybersecurity innovation and shape new business opportunities.

“Like the US, Australia supports a cyberspace in which nations abide by international law and their behaviour is supported by agreed norms. We will continue to work closely together to ensure the internet remains open, free and secure by promoting peacetime ‘norms’ for cyberspace,” said Turnbull.

Turnbull hopes these standards will lead to practical confidence building measures that will reduce the number of malicious cyber incidents and the risk of conflict as a result.

“This means we need to better understand how Australia and the US would cooperate in the event of a significant cyber incident affecting both nations,” said Turnbull.

“To achieve this, we agreed to improve our response efforts, beginning with mapping our cyber incident response structures and mechanisms with the aim in the future to exercising our incident response measures.”

To meet the growing threat of cybercrime, Australia will also cooperate with the US through increased exchanges between law enforcement and cybercrime experts from both nations, and increase collaboration on cybercrime investigations.

Turnbull said he has agreed to enhance Australia’s coordination of cyber capacity building efforts in the Indo-Pacific and to help other nations in the region to do the same.

Image caption: Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull and US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter depart Arlington National Cemetery after participating in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Image courtesy of Ash Carter under CC BY 2.0