Time is right for switch to electronic voting

Now is the right time for Australia to consider online voting, according to the boss of AustCyber.

AustCyber chief executive Michelle Price.

Now is the right time for Australia to consider online voting, according to the boss of AustCyber, the Australian Cyber Security Growth Network.

Michelle Price, who took the top job at AustCyber last April, said last week’s reported hack on the Australian parliament and political parties meant now was the perfect time to have a conversation about whether the country moved to electronic voting.

“There are challenges in securing electronic voting but now is absolutely the right time to be considering it,” she said. “We need to be talking about it. Based on my experiences from talking to my US colleagues, who I talk to pretty frequently, they say the evidence is that it’s much more robust from a security perspective to go electronic.

“And we have a great opportunity to bake in security at the beginning, and avoid the challenges other countries have had, who have all had to work out security later. We’re at an advantage now so it’s time to start talking about it, and thinking about developing, with Australian capabilities, this platform for voters.”

Ms Price said that between the Australian parliament hack, last week’s Toyota breach and the reported Cabrini hack, it was tempting to think we’re in the midst of a “cyber storm”.

She said that it was more that reporting around cyber security issues was stronger, thanks to better media reporting and legislation forcing companies to report data breaches.

“People are more comfortable talking about it now, and we are now better understanding that Australia is a target,” she said. “This is just situation normal now. In any given week there are thousands and thousands of malicious attacks, and they are now increasingly being reported on.”

Ms Price added that she supported the government’s decision to ban Huawei from building Australia’s 5G network, and said while we might get criticised globally for not having a strong cybersecurity capability, she said it’s one that is far more agile than competitors.

“Trust is a factor that underpins how we do business, and I think Australia is far more agile on delivering on that trust quotient,” she said.

The president of ACS, the peak body representing Australia’s computing companies, Yohan Ramasundara, called for real consequences for the perpetrators of Australia’s parliamentary hack, and said as a nation we “cannot just shrug our shoulders and let this stand”.

“This kind of behaviour has unfortunately become business as usual, and it needs to end,” he said. “There need to be real and serious consequences for actors who perpetrate these acts. It’s an act of aggression, beyond the bounds of regular spywork.

“Our response shouldn’t end with naming and shaming. We should be very public about who hacked us and why. But beyond that, we should be working with international partners to formulate a real response, with real teeth, to deter these kinds of actions in the future. This should not be the new normal.”

Ms Price said that attack highlighted the need for political parties to realise they are just as much a target as everyone else.

“They are a high-value target,” she said. “Just as a bank has large amounts of money, political parties have large amounts of very valuable data. They then face the same types of corporate challenges as everyone else and need to work on their security just as hard.”