Australia’s New Cyber Coordinator Says Threat Levels ‘Dire’

In this photo Illustration hands type on a computer keyboard in Berlin, Germany, on June 22, 2016. Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images

Australia’s newly appointed national cybersecurity coordinator says the world faces a “dire” challenge keeping safe from cyber threats.

Air Marshal Darren Goldie, appointed by the Albanese government on June 23, said Australians need to be educated as cyber challenges grow.

“That challenge will continue to increase in its complexity and severity, and I think we are all in this together as a nation,” he said.

Goldie, who will head up the National Office of Cyber Security, will assist Home Affairs Minister Claire O'Neil to oversee Australia’s cyber security policy and responses to major incidents.

“In the past, we’ve seen national security matters as principally the concern of government,” O'Neil said.

“One of the reasons that cyber is such a really significant and different challenge is that it has to be a partnership approach. The national security that we face as a country is dispersed amongst citizens and businesses and one of the most important things that Air Marshal Goldie will be doing will be working with companies who are under attack and working with citizens to manage cyber incidents when they occur.”

O'Neil said many challenges could be dealt with easily.

“If you think about Medibank and Optus, the ones that I think our nation’s most familiar with, a lot of the issues are very practical and operational.

“How do we replace the driver’s licenses of millions of Australians? How do we replace their passports, how do we ensure that we’re working across government to get information off the dark web that shouldn’t be there?” she said, noting that Goldie could handle these issues with ease.

Government Concerned Over Recent Cyber Attacks

The appointment of the national cyber coordinator comes weeks after the federal government and all four major Australian banks were potentially exposed to a data leak via the hack of law firm HWL Ebsworth.

In April, Russian cybercriminal BlackCat, also known as AlphV, hacked into the database of HWL Ebsworth and stole four terabytes worth of company information. The group then released approximately 1.45 terabytes of sensitive information on the dark web on June 8.

Over 40 Australian government agencies are believed to have been impacted by the database hacking of HWL Ebsworth, as well as the banks.

O'Neil said the attack demonstrated why it was important for Australia to have a national strategy to manage growing risk.

Meanwhile, Opposition Shadow Home Affairs Minister Senator James Paterson welcomed the government’s appointment saying in a statement on Twitter that he was pleased the appointment had finally been made.

“It is welcome the government has finally appointed the cyber security coordinator that was supposed to be in place by March,” Paterson said.

“Their first task must be to find out which sensitive government information has been lost by HWL Ebsworth.”

In a published statement, HWL Ebsworth said it was “conducting a detailed and comprehensive review of the impacted data and informing impacted third parties and individuals as swiftly as we can.”

“We have an ongoing engagement with relevant authorities in relation to this process, including the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, the Australian Cyber Security Centre, and law enforcement agencies in their ongoing investigation into the incident,” they said.