Cyber Security !

The man former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull chose to advise the government on cyber security is quitting that role and has made a chilling warning that a cyber attack on the Australian national  structure under which we  live is now inevitable.

Alastair MacGibbon has for the past three years been the face of cyber security in Australia and in that time he has managed the attack on the national census in 2016 and the hacking earlier this year of both the parliament and its political parties.  He makes it quite clear that cyber attacks are now the greatest danger to this country and that they have the ability to cripple our economy.

We now live in the age of the computer and its communication systems  for every aspect of our lives.  When we buy groceries, put petrol in our cars, pay bills the money travels electronically between the buyer and the seller.  We are aware of the sheer panic anytime that system has a failure that lasts a few hours.  Imagine if a cyber attack shut down banking for days or perhaps weeks.

In this modern world our main essential is the electricity supply.  That would probably be the prime target of a cyber attack on this country because it would cause the most harm.  Without electricity the banking system would collapse and the shops would have to close.   The electric trains that bring commuters to their jobs would grind to a halt and without electricity our mobile phone networks would cease to function.  Life as we know it would cease to exist if a cyber attack was successful in closing down the power supply.

Unfortunately, electricity and banking are both closely integrated with the computer systems that deliver the complex infrastructure which makes them work.  We are well aware that both criminal hackers and military departments of possibly hostile governments have the ability to bypass the passwords and other protections that guard entry into our computer networks.  Some of the biggest and most complex organizations in the commercial world have had intrusions that stole commercial secrets and gave access to personal data that compromised the security of their customers.

With every passing year the extent with which computers run our economy increases.  We are reliant on the computer networks because that is the most economical way to run the business world and we believe in the safety of numbers.  Our military is also developing the ability to penetrate other countries computer systems and competing countries are similarly vulnerable to attacks on their electricity and banking segments.

The problem is that it is difficult to clearly identify the source of a cyber attack and therefore impossible to deliver a timely response.  An attack can be cleverly masked to disguise its military origin and the intention may be to do commercial damage that will suit a competitor for international markets.  It is clearly a new venue for commercial war.

This is a clear warning that we need to improve our cyber security.  Having the best military defence system gives little protection if the infrastructure of the country can be crippled and prevents that military might from doing the job.