Muscling up on cyber security

New US Department of Justice legal documents underline the importance of recommendations made by the Morrison government’s expert panel on cyber security. The documents make up the formal indictment of two Chinese hackers, both former engineering students working undercover for Beijing’s notorious Ministry of State Security spy agency. Among a vast range of online criminal activities targeted at hi-tech manufacturing companies as well as Chinese dissident groups in countries across the world, they stole a vast trove of confidential documents from an Australian defence contractor last year. More recently, according to the indictment, they hacked into the computer networks of an Australian solar company. They also recently “probed for vulnerabilities in computer networks” of American companies developing COVID-19 vaccines.

As an endorsement of the cyber-security challenges outlined by the panel led by Telstra chief executive Andy Penn and including Tesla chairwoman Robyn Denholm and former Trump administration Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, the indictment could not be more timely. With China waging industrial-scale mass cyber attacks against Australian interests, governments and industry must work together to meet the threat Australians face online. As the panel said, there is a need for tougher legislative powers to enable security agencies to support the private sector against cyber attacks. As well, government should impose “clear consequences” against state-based actors and criminal outfits maliciously targeting Australians. Technology, as Mr Penn said, lies at the heart of most Australians’ daily lives. It “increasingly shapes our economy, our society and our future”. Yet we are exposed to increasing levels of malicious cyber activity, both state-based and criminal.

Scott Morrison’s pledge last month of “significant investment” to beef up our cyber defences will go a long way to achieving that. The $1.35bn package for cyber security and intelligence warfare includes an army of 500 newly trained specialists tasked with protecting the country from attack and hunting down spies. The panel called for increased investment in not-for-profits that support everyday Australian victims of cyber crime, as well as enhanced messaging on online safety from the government. They also call for more assistance to businesses and consumers for cyber-security toolkits.

The threat democracies across the world face is not just from China. As US Assistant Attorney-General John Demers said in disclosing the case filed against the two Chinese students, “China has now taken its place, alongside Russia, Iran and North Korea in the shameful club of nations that provide a safe haven for cyber criminals.” After being accused of cyber attacks aimed at disrupting the 2016 US election, Moscow was charged on Tuesday by the British parliament’s intelligence committee with interfering in last December’s Brexit election. Moscow also has been accused of trying to steal COVID-19 vaccine secrets. Mr Morrison has been understandably circumspect about naming China. But there is no doubt Beijing’s cyber dirty tricks have Australia firmly in their sights. The communist dictatorship, as FBI director Christopher Wray said, is embarked on a “whole-of-state effort to become the world’s only superpower by any means necessary”. Doing whatever is needed to thwart the authoritarian state’s malevolent cyber attacks on Australia could not be more vital.