Steven Marshall says COVID-19 will boost SA’s bid to be world player in cybersecurity
South Australians new-found reputation for safety has put it in the box seat to reap billions as the centre of the global fight against cyber crime.
Coronavirus News
Don't miss out on the headlines from Coronavirus News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Inside SA’s response to a deadly pandemic
- How police work helped us dodge a bullet
- Are you getting the most from your Advertiser subscription?
The state’s success fighting COVID-19 has it in the box seat to be a global centre for combating cyber crime, potentially creating thousands of jobs in an industry to be worth $6 billion nationally by 2026, Steven Marshall says.
The Premier said South Australia’s newly won reputation for safety meant it was in a prime position to attract foreign cybersecurity companies to open new bases in the state.
The $9 million Australian Cyber Collaboration Centre – soon to open at Lot Fourteen in the heart of the CBD – will be the largest commercial cyber-testing range and training academy in Australia.
The centre will involve universities, government agencies, defence companies and others such as Optus, Symantec and smaller companies like Silicon Valley’s cybersecurity specialist Dtex.
Mr Marshall said he was talking with some of Australia’s biggest companies and expected to welcome them to the new cyber centre.
He said the coronavirus had triggered an increased reliance on digital communications globally, changing how companies and people worked and fuelling a huge rise in the activities of cyber criminals.
Mr Marshall said cyber security – now an essential “insurance” for business – could create thousands of jobs in coming years on the back of SA’s success in suppressing the virus, which he had been using to woo US cyber companies.
“Adelaide’s always been one of the 10 most liveable cities in the world,” he said.
“It’s now the safest city in the world. I am, in between meetings on COVID, sitting down with cybersecurity companies like Splunk and CrowdStrike and Cyber CX and Dtex, and encouraging them to move their offices to SA, the safest place in the world. Dtex has moved in, Splunk has just put its first person in SA, CrowdStrike has a small team based in SA, Cyber CX has purchased some businesses in SA.
“But we’re just at the start of a very large industry and while some industries take years or decades to get going, cyber is going to be on us before we know it. There is going to be such an explosion in terms of demand.”
Mr Marshall said SA had seen how US state Maryland had, over 10 years, made itself a key centre for cyber security, which now drove many of its new jobs.
“We’re now seeing more and more companies’ and individuals’ digital assets being compromised, costing business hundreds of millions of dollars each year, if not billions,” Mr Marshall said.
MORE NEWS
South Australia signs $7.8bn hospital deal
Ex-Lensink staffer on $13.5m fraud charges
Trump: When the looting starts, the shooting starts
“This isn’t just a threat, it presents SA with a great opportunity to work to develop product, and services, and train skilled people, to create jobs in this massively growing global industry.”
While most businesses could not afford in-house cyber protection, even those that could – such as banks and utilities – could never be sure they were safe.
“So, this is not an area where the business can say, ‘I’ve fixed that’,” Mr Marshall said. “Each week, each month, there are new cyber threats emerging, which means businesses and individuals need to constantly update their cyber preparedness and resilience.”
Mr Marshall believed defence companies and their suppliers would be key clients – a view backed by Data61, the digital specialist arm of the CSIRO.
“We believe that Adelaide is an emerging hub for cyber security, particularly in the defence and manufacturing industries, which we know are going to grow rapidly over the next decade,” a Data61 spokeswoman said.
She said the industry offered opportunities in defence and manufacturing, “which is growing in Adelaide and is important for Australia’s sovereign capability and national security”.
A CSIRO report in March forecast the nation’s cybersecurity industry would increase by more than 10 per cent a year to hit $6 billion within six years, and that jobs would grow by 50 per cent to more than 31,000.