Call for ‘cyber army’ to fend off attacks

Australia will need more than 17,000 additional cyber security workers over five years to protect against ‘devastating’ attacks.

CyberCX chief executive John Paitaridis is ­pushing Scott Morrison to prioritise cyber security training via the government’s JobMaker program.

Australia will need to train more than 17,000 additional cyber secur­ity workers over the next five years to protect companies from “devastating” attacks and the ­malicious targeting of critical infra­structure systems.

CyberCX chief executive John Paitaridis, a former Optus business managing director and ­Telstra executive director, is ­pushing Scott Morrison to prioritise cyber security training via the government’s JobMaker program and shield threats to supply chains.

“Cyber security underpins our economic and national resilience. After the devastating bushfires and a global health crisis, a cyber attack may well be the next major national security event,” Mr Paitaridis­­ told The Australian.

“To ensure Australia is best placed to deal with a significant cyber incident, we need a comprehensive cyber industry plan.”

Last year, Mr Paitaridis joined forces with Alastair MacGibbon, former head of the Australian Cyber Security Centre and cyber security adviser to Malcolm ­Turnbull, to establish CyberCX as the country’s largest independent cyber security firm. Mr Paitaridis, who leads a cyber security team of more than 500 people across 20 offices, said ­Australia’s reliance on foreign cyber security firms had “reached concerning levels”, and warned that “we cannot be beholden to offshore­ providers, including US multi­nationals”.

“In cyber security, the interplay between government and the private­ sector is more prominent than in other national security domain­s,’’ he said.

“Private industry accounts for more than 80 per cent of Australia’s cyber security workforce.

“Businesses are compelling target­s for a devastating cyber ­attack — for example, potentially crippling the financial sector or shutting down an energy grid.

“And when cyber incidents occur, it is the private sector most often on the frontline, repairing critical infrastructu­re, tracking intruders­, or testing systems.”

Mr Paitaridis, who is also chief executive of BGH Capital’s ­technology portfolio, said the scope of national security agencies’ cyber security activities should become more specialised, shifting greater responsibility to the private sector.

“Industry can improve the way Australia manages supply-chain cyber security in two ways,’’ he said. “First, by enhancing the technica­l inspec­tion processes of products’ source code and hardware design specifications.

“Internet-connected devices should be screened to assess ­security and back-door vulnerabilities and meet minimum stand­ards of cyber resilience.

“And second, we need to better understand the origins and vulnerabil­ities of the technology we use.”

Cyber Security Co-operative Research Centre chief executive Rachael Falk has also warned of cyber threats to businesses and ­individuals “running systems connect­ed to the internet”.

“The reality of cyber breaches is blunt and surprisingly simple,’’ Ms Falk wrote in The Australian on Thursday.

“Ultimately, in most cases it comes down to the number­ one — that is the number of people a hacker needs to trick to gain access to data. ‘’

Ms Falk said that cyber crimin­als were “versatile’’.

“They always have been,’’ she said. “During the pandemic, it has been easy for them to pivot their activities to take ad­vanta­ge of the increase in people working from home.

“But for them it is also business as usual, pandemic or not. Because valuable data is, and always has been, a target.”

Mr Paitaridis said the co-ordin­ation of schools, TAFEs, univer­sities and companies must be improved to boost the country’s cyber workforce.

“We also need an honest discussio­n about what new regulatio­n is required to combat increasing cyber threats,” he said.