Acknowledging that cyber security is a growing problem in Australia, the 2030 Strategy is designed to improve Australia’s cyber security, manage cyber risks, and better support citizens and small businesses to manage the cyber environment.

The Strategy is based around six cyber ‘shields’ designed to better defend Australia against cyberattacks. These are:

1. Strong businesses and citizens
2. Safe technology
3. World-class threat sharing and blocking
4. Protected critical infrastructure
5. Sovereign capabilities
6. Resilient region and global leadership.

The Australian Government committed $586.9 million as part of the 2030 Strategy, including:

• $290.8m support for small and medium business, building public awareness, fighting cybercrime, breaking the ransomware business model and strengthening the security of Australians’ identities
• $129.7m to build regional cyber resilience and global leadership by investing in regional cooperation, cyber capacity uplift programs and leadership in cyber governance forums on the international stage
• $143.6m to strengthen Australia’s critical infrastructure protections and uplift government cyber security
• $9.4m to build a threat-sharing platform for the health sector
• $8.6m to grow Australia’s sovereign cyber capabilities by professionalising our cyber workforce and accelerating the cyber industry in Australia
• $4.8m to establish consumer standards for smart devices and software.

An earlier announcement outlined a $7.2 million commitment to establish a voluntary cyber health-check program for businesses to undertake a free self-assessment of their cyber security maturity, and a further $11 million towards a Small Business Cyber Resilience Service to provide one-on-one assistance to help small businesses navigate their cyber challenges.

Minister for Home Affairs and Cyber Security Clare O’Neil said that as an advanced economy, Australia is an attractive target for cyber criminals, which is why cyber security must be an urgent national priority.

“Our Strategy will make every Australian citizen, business, government agency and organisation a harder target. It will enable us to bounce back faster from attacks that we cannot prevent.

“Delivering this strategy requires close collaboration between government and industry. Our Government is committed to consulting closely with industry every step of the way. Years of cooperative effort lie ahead, and we need to work together to help make our country safe.

“By 2030, we can reach our vision of becoming a world leader in cyber security. Our Strategy charts the course to get there.”

More information can be found on the 2023–2030 Australian Cyber Security Strategy, which is accompanied by an Action Plan.

Victorian Chamber advocacy

The Victorian Chamber has been a cyber advocacy leader and provided detailed industry insights to the Federal Government to help shape the 2030 Strategy through our Cyber Security and Scams Policy Position.

The Policy Position, developed through extensive consultation with small, medium and family businesses, telcos, social media platforms, health providers, education institutions, banks and other critical infrastructure, contains 24 ‘game-changers’ to protect businesses from cyber threats.

Pleasingly, the Government fully or partially adopted 17 of our policy ‘game-changers’ (recommendations), including our top three game-changers of establishing Cyber Health Clinics with one-on-one support to uplift business cyber security, a Cyber Safe Score (voluntary labelling scheme for consumer-grade smart devices) and an apprenticeship training model to professionalise Australia’s domestic cyber workforce.

Victorian Chamber Chief Executive Paul Guerra said: “The threat of cybercrime is a massive concern for our members, so the Victorian Chamber is pleased that the Federal Government has set out a strategy to bolster our collective defences.

“We commend the Federal Government’s Cyber Security Strategy, and we are delighted that many of the initiative align with the Victorian Chambers Policy which was released in September this year. Our Policy was a result of strong engagement with Victorian businesses from small, medium and large enterprises.

“We look forward to seeing the operational detail of the strategy, and how the Victorian Chamber will be engaged to implement programs, campaigns and projects for Victorion businesses to help Australia become the most cyber secure nation by 2030.”