[LINK] National Cyber Policy Proposals from the Australian Computer Society

[Tom Worthington]

The Australian Computer Society has released a Submission for the 
Australian Cyber Policy White Paper: 
http://www.acs.org.au/index.cfm?action=show&conID=201111160944455149

As well as a short summary, the full 14 page 270 Kbyte PDF document is 
available: "Response to The Department of the Prime Minister and 
Cabinet's Discussion Paper": 
http://www.acs.org.au/attachments/ACSCyberDiscussionPaperSubmission.pdf

This is in response to the "Connecting With Confidence: Optimizing 
Australia's Digital Future" discussion paper, issued by the Department 
of Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) in September 2011: 
http://cyberwhitepaper.dpmc.gov.au/white-paper

PM&C plan to issue a "Cyber White Paper" in early 2012: 
http://cyberwhitepaper.dpmc.gov.au/about

The ACS assisted with public consultations around Australia in October 
2011. I am a member of the ACS Cyber Task Force which assisted in 
preparing the ACS submission and the consultations: 
http://blog.tomw.net.au/2011/10/protecting-canberra-from-cyberattack.html

Excepts from the ACS submission summary:

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The ACS recommends

* greater focus on education - noting that ICT education in primary and 
secondary schooling is essential to developing ICT skills of the future 
and that school level educational activity forms the base on which 
appropriate tertiary level education programs can function for the 
education and training of ICT professionals

* greater assistance to small and medium sized business as this is the 
engine room of the Australian economy 3

* policy coordination on trusted identities

* better coordination of cyber related education and research

* providing consumers and businesses with resources directed to the 
everyday real-life challenges they face

* global Internet governance changes designed to underpin and deliver 
trustworthy people, processes and systems including, where appropriate, 
a legislated mandatory baseline of trustworthiness attributes analogous 
to the non-excludable warranties implied in consumer contacts.

... ACS members design, implement, and maintain the online systems which 
underpin the Australian economy for the benefit of the Australian 
community. The ACS has a vital interest in seeing that these systems are 
secure and in ensuring the proposed 2012 whitepaper details real policy 
guidance directed at national ICT research organisations to address 
these challenges as they are critical to meet any objectives that the 
whitepaper may have. We suggest that Moving from Trusted to Trustworthy 
would be an appropriate theme to complement the Connecting with 
Confidence discussion paper.

     The ACS has prepared this response to the discussion paper to 
assist with the design of the cyber whitepaper expected in 2012. The ACS 
also welcomes the opportunity to promote discussion and support of our 
digital economy to position Australia for the future. Drawing from its 
membership of ICT professionals, and academics – particularly in areas 
of cyber resilience and security - the ACS established a Cyber Taskforce 
for this purpose.

     While the ACS Taskforce will respond in broad terms to the issues 
raised by the discussion paper, the Taskforce also appreciates the 
opportunity to highlight important issues not fully articulated in the 
paper and hopes that these will help to inform future discussion and 
policy leadership.
     ...

     In addition, many critical contingencies for Australia to ‘connect 
with confidence’ are absent in the discussion paper. Most notable are 
issues of cyber space sovereignty, such as Free Trade Agreements, the 
rights of individuals, privacy leakages and breach notification 
reporting, freedom of information and the role of data collection 
agencies. As ICT is a truly global profession and operates in global 
markets, the whitepaper should recognise this basic fact. In particular, 
the roles and responsibilities of the ICT industry, and its vendors and 
system operators, must be emphasized so that professionalism becomes a 
fundamental element in achieving trustworthiness in people, processes 
and systems. ...
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-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards 
Legislation

Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Research School of Computer Science,
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/