The government and industries have been warned to invest in stronger cyber defences as part of a national push to fight crippling ransomware and other online attacks.

Andy Penn, outgoing CEO of Telstra and chair of the cyber industry committee that advises the federal government, said that the country needs a whole-of-nation approach against cyber threats because the rate of digital adoption has gone to a whole new level. According to Mr Penn, the digital space is on the cusp of yet another great leap forward in technology that will “enable a whole new world” by the end of the decade.

“A world with unprecedented processing power, storage capacity and access to unlimited knowledge from cloud and edge computing,” he said in an address to the National Press Club in Canberra.

“A world of multiplying possibilities from artificial intelligence and the ‘Internet of Things’, the new digital metaverse, robotics, autonomous vehicles, nanotechnology and quantum computing.”

Mr Penn said Australia cannot risk falling behind, but must also face up to new threats.

“The risk of attacks on Australian networks from geopolitical tensions, whether directly or inadvertently, has also increased,” he said.

“And while the threat of cyber attack from state actors is real, it is the knock-on effects that represent significant risks for consumers.”

Telstra has been working hard in the last few years to protect its networks from malicious activity, blocking more than one billion malicious emails and 200 million scam calls last year.

The telecommunications giant has also been able to block 1500 scam texts every minute on a daily basis.

Mr Penn also warns of the escalating risks of businesses being caught in ransomware attacks, email scams and smartphone malware. He pointed to a racket known as “business email compromise”, in which malicious actors use email to pretend to be a legitimate business and send messages prompting the recipients to send money or goods.

It is estimated that 80 per cent of Australian companies suffered a ransomware attack in 2021 and more than $80 million was lost to email scams.

As Cyber Security Minister Clare O’Neil overhauls the government’s cyber security strategy, she states that she wants as much industry input on cyber defences as possible. The next iteration is expected to back critical technologies, support new jobs and skills, and put cyber at the heart of national security.

Mr Penn said that while the elevation of cyber security to the federal cabinet is a recognition that it is a national priority, the “biggest single lever” is community awareness.

“Unless we actually help the community help themselves by better password protection, patching systems, offline backups, we’re never going to be able to catch everything,” he said, explaining that basic cyber awareness needs to be built into school curriculums for robotics, software engineering, analytics and data science.

“A cyber specialist is usually coming in after the event and trying to fix the problem, whereas in fact, we can build cyber security more into the products and services from the beginning.”

With AAP

Eliza Sayon

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Eliza is a content producer and editor at Public Spectrum. She is an experienced writer on topics related to the government and to the public, as well as stories that uplift and improve the community.

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