Australia has appointed its first national cybersecurity co-ordinator responsible for tackling one of the biggest challenges facing the country: cyber criminals.
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Air Vice-Marshal Darren Goldie has been chosen after a four-month candidate search and will start in the role next month.
He will support Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil to lead co-ordination of national security policy, responses to major incidents and whole-of-government preparedness.
Ms O'Neil said a lack of co-ordination against cyber threats had left Australians at a disadvantage to attackers.
"There is a big conceptual shift we have to make with cyber security; in the past we have seen national security matters as principally the concern of government ... (but) it has to be a partnership approach," she said.
"One of the most important things Air Marshal Goldie will be doing is working with companies under attack and working with citizens to manage cyber incidents."
Ms O'Neil said the goal in a digital age could not be to eradicate cyber attacks but rather make sure Australia was able to respond quickly and limit the risk of them happening.
Asked why the government had not appointed a cybersecurity expert to the role, Ms O'Neil said the senior commander had previously been responsible for security in the air force.
"Something that I don't think is understood in this area is that a cyber incident response is not principally a technical problem, it is an operational problem," she said.
"We are incredibly confident and very pleased that this commendable person, who has served his nation in uniform for so long, has agreed to take on this responsibility."
Since joining the Royal Australian Air Force in 1993, Air Marshal Goldie has held several distinguished roles including a stint in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, where he provided strategic foreign policy advice.
Air Marshal Goldie said Australia faced a "dire" cyber security challenge.
"That challenge will continue to increase in its complexity and severity and I think we're all invested in it together as a nation," he said.
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said the co-ordinator's first task should be to determine what data was breached in a recent cyber attack against HWL Ebsworth.
The law firm has clients at commercial and government levels in every state and territory, including some of the biggest banks.
Senator Paterson said Air Marshal Goldie must investigate the implications of the breach, how to mitigate them and the steps taken to inform and support impacted parties
Monash University cybersecurity expert Monica Whitty told AAP the appointment signalled the government was treating cyber attacks as a serious concern.
But she said there needed to be a bigger focus on the impact of cyber crime on the public.
"Victims of cyber attacks are often expected to look after themselves (but) we need to provide support as we do for victims of other types of crime," she said.
Prof Whitty said it would also be important to further discuss ransomware.
The government's position is that people and businesses should not pay ransoms to cyber criminals.
"We haven't had a proper conversation about ransomware and whether we should or shouldn't pay it ... we don't actually know yet whether or not it fuels other attacks," Prof Whitty said.
In cases where a company breach occurred through no fault of the customer, there should be more transparency and information about the data obtained, she added.
"People often fail to understand how their data can be used and recombined to find out other information and steal an identity," Prof Witty said.
Australian Associated Press
