ADF boosts its cybersecurity capabilities

The Australian Defence Force has been upping its cybersecurity capabilities via a series of new initiatives — in the Royal Australian Navy and Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), respectively.

In a bid to defend HMAS Toowoomba during her first operations in the Middle East, the Navy’s Fleet Cyber Unit has deployed two personnel and specialised equipment to work across multiple systems and protect networks against cyber attack.

Fleet Cyber Unit detachment lead Lieutenant David Hayes said the Navy’s defensive operators were a roving guard force who searched the network for unusual trends and malicious activity.

“Fleet Cyber Unit will contribute by developing priorities to defend Navy’s mission-critical systems from adversary collection, manipulation and denial,” Lieutenant Hayes said.

“In today’s operational environment, state and non-state actors regularly attempt to use cyber effects to achieve results that can have a greater impact on operations.”

Meanwhile, the RAAF has begun training new recruits with its No. 462 Squadron Cyberspace Incident Analyst Course. This six-month intensive training is designed for the RAAF’s two newest employment categories: Cyber Warfare Analyst (CWA) and Cyber Warfare Officer (CWO).

The program will cover topics such as the triage of malware to determine its behaviour and risk to mission, analysis of network traffic to identify malicious activity and intel briefs on cyber threat actors.

The officer in charge of the RAAF’s Cyber Warfare Training, Flying Officer Hayden Wade, said the program will use internally developed, off-the-shelf material.

“The course aims to provide skills, knowledge, attitudes and behaviours required to employ digital forensics to analyse cyberspace incidents, determine causes and provide recommendations for remediation,” Flying Officer Wade said.

“Due to the current COVID-19 restrictions, the 462 Squadron training team rapidly adjusted the course format to distance delivery mode with minimal impact, leveraging digital platforms such as GovTeams for live instruction and ADELE for course material.

“We have been bringing small numbers back into the workplace on a semi-routine basis for those elements limited to in-person delivery, as well as to ensure training objectives around cohesion and collaboration are met.”

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/africastudio