Australia is going after those responsible for cyber attacks, the Minister assisting the Prime Minister on Cyber Security, Dan Tehan says.
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Mr Tehan, who is also the Member for Wannon, said an Information Warfare Division would be set up within the Defence Department to handle military cyber operations, military intelligence, joint electronic warfare and Australia’s military space operations such as the use of satellites.
“This information warfare division will integrate all existing operations across our defence forces to support our deployed Australian Defence Forces personnel and systems,” Mr Tehan said.
“The division is authorised to conduct self defence, passive defence, active defence and offensive operations.
“This is an important national security initiative to keep the nation and the Australian people safe.”
Mr Tehan said Australia had the capability to defend itself from those responsible for cyber attacks, whether the attacks came from a hostile nation or criminal organisations.
In another announcement on Friday, the federal government said it had authorised the Australian Signals Directorate to use its offensive cyber capabilities to tackle cyber criminals’ networks.
The use of the capability, which is currently used to help disrupt terrorist organisations such as Islamic State, was subject to stringent legal oversight and consistent with the government’s obligations under international law, the government said.
Cybercrime was conservatively estimated to cost the Australian economy $1 billion a year, the government said.
Since its inception at the end of 2014, there have been over 114,000 reports of cybercrime registered with the Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network (ACORN).
About 23,700 of the reports have been received over the past six months.
The federal government said the number highlighted a growing occurrence of cyber criminal activity across the nation.
