Industry and security agencies unite to foil foreign espionage

The nation’s peak industry body has formed a security working group to help business prepare for an increase in foreign espionage.

Australian Industry Group Defence Council head Kate Louis. Picture: Zak Simmonds

The nation’s peak industry body, the Australian Industry Group, has formed a security working group to help business prepare for the emergence of a multi-billion-dollar defence industry that security agencies fear is set to become one of the country’s top targets for foreign espionage.

With Australian businesses poised to reap a windfall from the shipbuilding industry taking shape in South Australia, security agencies are working out how to protect the complex supply chains that will supply the componentry to the 12 new submarines and nine new frigates set to be built over the next three decades.

Kate Louis, former first assistant secretary of the Defence Department, joined the Ai Group last year and established the working group a year ago.

Since then, she has been convening quarterly meetings between industry and represent­atives from the security agencies. The meetings involve briefings from the agencies around emerging threats.

One of her main tasks has been to educate so-called SMEs, the small to medium enterprises that will be instrumental in building the new boats, on how to meet the Defence Department’s stringent security standards.

“It’s about getting Defence to explain what they’re doing and what their requirements are. It’s about telling them what the threats are,’’ Ms Louis told The Australian.

The Ai Group’s initiative is part of a broader push by industry and the security services to better protect the burgeoning new defence industry, expected to reap billions of dollars in profit and employ tens of thousands of Australians.

It has led to a deepening of the collaboration between major defence contractors and spy agencies such as the Australian Signals Directorate, which, while not exactly secret, has traditionally kept a low profile. That has now changed.

The Australian has been told that in recent months there has been “a major uptick’’ in engagement with businesses, mostly through the newly formed Australian Cyber Security Centre, which brings together cyber security capabilities from across the intelligence community.

While the ACSC has been the public face of the spy service’s outreach campaign, The Australian understands senior members of the ASD have been meeting privately with business leaders and boards to deepen collaboration and identify vulnerabilities.

“This is a huge national endeavour. Cyber is an existential threat and how we respond to that is going to be critical,’’ Ms Louis said. Much of the focus will be on supply chain security, to ensure components have been sourced by a reputable provider and cannot be compromised by cyber attack.