The Australian government is becoming dead serious when it comes to raising the ante of its country’s cybersecurity defenses. And the best example to prove its objective is the recent $17.6 million investment allocated to deliver the Victorian’ government’s first ever Cyber Security Strategy.
According to a press release issued by the State Government of Victoria, the said budget allocated for the FY 2018-19 will help protect the privacy of Victorian populace, while safeguarding government networks and agencies from hacking threats.
As hackers have shifted their focus on to government networks to infiltrate and steal data from and to disrupt government services, the State government of Victoria decided in August 2017 to architect principles to boost the current cybersecurity strategies. The principles were meant to be collaborative, enabling, proven, scalable and proportionately sustainable.
In October last year, the government appointed John O’Driscoll as its first CISO (Chief Information Security Officer). His job was to oversee the state’s response to ongoing cyber threats and the development of government policies that allow Emergency Management Victoria (EMV) to act in the case of cyber emergencies.
The strategies were meant to strengthen partnerships across all levels of government and the private sector to share best practice, intelligence and insights, rationalize and better coordinate the procurement of proven cybersecurity services.
Victorian government is said to use the funding of $17.6 million in ASD (Australia Dollar) to attract, develop and retain skilled cybersecurity public sector workers in order to become a world leader in tackling cyber threats.
Note- The Investment includes a $2.6 million ASD investment to assist the office of the Victorian Information Commissioner to better support government in protecting the privacy of Victorians.
