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Australia’s cyber management `minimalist`, hostage to handful of bureaucrats

Source: IT News, 20/12/2018


“What exists at the moment is minimalist, and appears hostage to
the preferences of a handful of senior officials in Australian
Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) and the Department of Home Affairs
who may not be in post within several years,” Adam Henry and
professor Greg Austin wrote in The Conversation this week.
Instead, they argue, cyber civil defence is the responsibility of
the entire community and there should instead be a national
standing committee for security management and resilience that is
an equal partnership between government, business, and academic
specialists.
The strong stand made by Austin, a respected former Defence
Intelligence Organisation official, reveals not all quarters of
the the national security community are comfortable with the way
the current cyber agenda has been formed and is being run,
particularly the dominance of the Department of Home Affairs.
Austin and Henry`s observations follow the release of the
government’s first Cyber Incident Management Arrangements (CIMA)
for state, territory and federal governments last week and ongoing
controversy over new encryption busting laws.
Austin and Henry argue although CIMA is commendable step towards a
national civil cyber defence strategy, far more needs to be done
than issuing glossies.
In particular the pair warned that beyond CIMA, “the government
needs to better explain to the public the unique threats posed by
large scale cyber incidents and, on that basis, engage the private
sector and a wider community of experts on addressing those unique
threats”.
CIMA’s aim is to reduce the scope, impact and severity of a
national cyber incident, which is defined as being of potential
national importance, but less severe than a “crisis” that would
trigger the Australian Government Crisis Management Framework
(AGCMF).
But at only seven pages, the CIMA fails to outline specific
operational incident management protocols, which will instead be
left to state and territory governments to negotiate with the
Commonwealth.
“That means the protocols developed may be subject to competing
budget priorities, political appetite, divergent levels of cyber
maturity, and, most importantly, staffing requirements.”
Those staffing requirements are the same ones affected by the
severe lack of skilled cyber workers in general, and particularly
in the case of specialist areas needed for the management of
complex cyber incidents.
Speaking from within the sector, Austin and Henry said Australian
universities have exacerbated the skills crisis by failing to
deliver high-quality education and training programs for these
specialist tasks.
“Our universities, for the most part, do not teach â€` or even
research â€` complex cyber incidents on a scale that could begin to
service the national need.
“The federal government must move quickly to strengthen and
formalise arrangements for collaboration with key non-governmental
partners â€` particularly the business sector, but also researchers
and large non-profit entities.”
They suggested critical infrastructure providers, such as
electricity companies, would be ideal businesses to target for
collaboration first, due to the scale of the potential fallout
should something go wrong.
Healthcare providers and transport operators would also be ideal
candidates - the UK’s National Health Service lost $160 million in
the Wannacry attacks, and shipping giant Maersk lost half a
billion dollars in the weeks it was shut down by NotPetya.
While CIMA outlines the first plans to institutionalise regular
cyber incident exercises that address national needs, Austin and
Henry said better long-term planning is needed.
“First, the government needs to construct a consistent, credible
and durable public narrative around the purpose of its cyber
incident policies, and associated exercise programs.”
That’s in opposition to former minister for Cyber Security Dan
Tehan and then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull warning about cyber
storms, and cyber coordinator Alastair McGibbon speaking of a
cyber catastrophe as the only existential threat to face
Australia.
This political rhetoric failed to properly articulate in the
public domain what those ideas actually meant, it`s argued.
Possible solutions
Despite CIMA being meant to operate below the level of national
cyber crisis, Austin and Henry argue the country is “in dire need
of a civil defence strategy for cyber space that addresses both
levels of attack”.
“This is a completely new form of civil defence, and it may need a
new form of organisation to carry it forward. A new, dedicated arm
of an existing agency, such as the State Emergency Services (SES),
is another potential solution.”
In 2016 Austin proposed the creation of a new cyber civil corps
that would be a disciplined service relying on part-time commit
Austin had previously proposed in 2016 the creation of a new
“cyber civil corps” that would help define training needs,
contribute national training packages, and function as
“disciplined service relying on part-time commitments from the
people best trained to respond to national cyber emergencies”.
The second element of Henry and Austin’s strategy is for private
enterprise to build their own body of expertise in cyber
simulations and exercises.
“Contracting out such responsibilities to consulting companies, or
one-off reports, would produce scattershot results. Any “lessons
learnt” within firms about contingency management could fail to be
consolidated and shared with the wider business community.”
Austin and Henry said it is the task of all stakeholders to
mobilise and more actively engage the expanding knowledge base
from academia, government and the private sector.


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