- $290.8 million to provide support for small and medium businesses, build public awareness, fight cybercrime, break the ransomware business model, and strengthen the security of Australians’ identities.
- $4.8 million to establish consumer standards for smart devices and software.
- $9.4 million to build a threat-sharing platform for the health sector.
- $143.6 million to strengthen critical infrastructure protections and uplift government cyber security.
- Growing our sovereign cyber capabilities by investing $8.6 million to “professionalise” the country’s cyber workforce and accelerate the cyber industry.
- $129.7 million investment in regional cooperation, cyber capacity uplift programs, and leadership in cyber governance forums on the international stage.
The federal government had shared earlier this week an 18.2-million investment to help small and medium businesses improve cybersecurity resilience and response to cyber-attacks, also part of the strategy. “Given the federal government claims that there are 2.5 million small businesses operating in Australia today, this equates just more than a takeaway coffee’s worth of cyber assistance for each small business over the next seven years. It’s a pittance and it’s nowhere near enough,” Vizza said.
The delivery of the strategy
The Australian cybersecurity strategy has most, if not all, aspects of cybersecurity covered but there are a lot of things to focus on and the timelines for the delivery of each is not clear. The 28-page action plan details each action the strategy proposes and the departments that will be involved, but not by when each is expected to be in place. It only states some will commence immediately, and the plan will be reviewed every two years.
A lack of concrete steps to deliver the strategy worries some in the industry. “The strategy aims high and aspires to meet the needs of as many stakeholders as possible. It’s often said in aiming to please all, you please none. I feel that this outcome is highly likely here and as a result, we will see a failure of this Strategy to achieve many of its stated outcomes,” Vizza said.