Page 26 - May 2019

Cyber Security
Senior Defence figure raises

concerns about future cyber attacks

that in the event of a significant incident on
Australia in cyber space, the resources that
would be required to respond might not exist at
the scale that might be required," Major General
Thompson said.
The Australian Defence Force's ability to
step in and protect such systems is limited, as
the military is not allowed to conduct operations
in Australia.
Major General Thompson said Australia was
planning to step up its own offensive capability,
particularly in foreign conflict zones.
But he has questioned whether the Defence
Force could have a role to play if a major attack
was launched against key infrastructure.
One of Australia's senior military figures says "Defence is not legislated to operate in
the threat of cyber attacks against the nation's a domestic setting [but] there are call-out
infrastructure and military networks is on the rise. provisions in the Defence Act," he said.
Major General Marcus Thompson leads the "All of that would be options for the Government
Information Warfare Division, which was set up in to consider in the event of an incident."
mid-2017 with the aim of providing both defensive "If a threat is coming at scale it would be
and offensive cyber capabilities. a shame to have highly trained, incredibly
In his first media major interview, he told professional soldiers, sailors, airwomen sitting
the ABC the job of protecting Australia from on the bench while their civilian mates are trying
serious cyber threats was only becoming more to fight it off."
challenging. The threat is not hypothetical — Australia's
"What I'm seeing is a significant up-tick in the intelligence agencies are currently responding to
threats both from a criminal perspective as well two recent attacks aimed at the nation's political
as from state-sponsored [groups]," he said. system.
The primary responsibility of the Information The Australian Signals Directorate and the
Warfare Division is to defend the military's own Australian Cyber Security Centre were called
systems, but Major General Thompson said in after hackers targeted the Parliament House
he held concerns about the threat to civilian computer network and also tried to crack into the
infrastructure. systems of the major political parties.
That includes Australia's ability to respond if a As to where the weaknesses in the systems
major cyber attack were to be launched on critical are, the Major General declined to point out any
systems such as banks, telecommunication or specifics.
utility companies. "I speak with the banks and telcos routinely,
He said it was the broader Australian [they are] very well defended," he said.
Government's capacity to respond to a big fight "But I think there are other industry, other
in cyber space that kept him up at night. government departments that are incredibly
"I have a concern, and I know this concern important for the continued functioning of
is shared by many of my colleagues and mates government and society that perhaps aren't as
throughout the national security community, well defended."

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