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Australia opens centre to train for cyber attacks

Hi-Tech

The Australian Cyber Collaboration Centre is officially opened in Adelaide to further vital work to protect against attacks.

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Established as an independent not-for-profit entity through a $10 million investment by the South Australian government, the centre is located in Adelaide’s Lot Fourteen innovation neighbourhood and will concentrate on training cyber experts and developing security products.

Dubbed A3C, the organisation’s newly appointed chief executive officer Hai Tran said the centre includes a Cyber Training Academy and a Cyber Test Range.

“The Cyber Test Range will be used to carry out security testing of equipment or network configurations in the knowledge that networks are safe from interference,” Tran said.

The range gave researchers and businesses access to a safe way to test or certify new cyber security devices, software and techniques in their bid to get new products to market.

The A3C has already launched a pilot industry training course in collaboration with University of Adelaide and aizoOn Australia introducing concepts related to digital forensic and incident response. The six-day course will be delivered through a combination of webinars and in-person seminars at A3C, with several free and commercial supporting tools.

South Australian Premier Steven Marshall said at today’s launch that cyber security was now more important than ever.

“Cyber security and resilience are increasingly becoming front of mind for the business community and COVID-19 has created further awareness due to working off-site arrangements, which are likely to continue in unprecedented numbers,” Premier Marshall said.

He said recent cyber attacks in Australia showed there are real threats to businesses, governments and essential systems “and we must ensure we have the right people, skills and infrastructure to head them off”.

“Cyber is a business risk, in the same way we would consider product quality and workplace safety as an integral part of doing business,” Premier Marshall said.

“The Australian Collaboration Centre (A3C) is set up as a place where businesses can come to get advice and build their skills and workforce capability.”

A report by Australia’s CSIRO scientific research organisation found that Australia’s small cybersecurity industry is expected to grow from around 20,000 workers today to 31,600 by 2026 and triple its revenue to $6 billion.

The report also states that “the majority of Australian organisations currently lack the capacity to employ large internal cyber security teams.”

Centre member BAE Systems Australia chief executive officer Gabby Costigan said it was critically important to enforce cyber security throughout Australia’s defence industry supply chain.

This included ensuring businesses involved with projects like ASC Shipbuilding’s work on the Hunter Class frigates were secure along with any of their products that were being incorporated into platforms.

“Our participation in the A3C aims to develop strong relationships with key industry, academia and researchers to help us find solutions to complex problems,” Costigan said.

“A3C will also develop a strong talent pool of cyber professionals that we will need to draw upon in the future for our nationally important defence programs.”

The A3C has been established in collaboration with industry, academia, and federal and state governments, including BAE Systems Australia, Optus, Dtex Systems, UniSA, Flinders University, TAFE SA, South Australia’s Office for Cyber Security, AustCyber, the Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre, The University of Adelaide and the Defence Science and Technology Group.

This is a Creative Commons story from The Lead South Australia, a news service providing stories about innovation in South Australia. Please feel free to use the story in any form of media. The story sources are linked in with the copy and all contacts are willing to talk further about the story. Copied to Clipboard

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