The Australian Government is making Australia one of the world's most cyber secure nations by 2030.
Since the launch of the 2023-2030 Australian Cyber Security Strategy, the cyber threat environment has intensified. We are seeing rapid jumps in capability through technologies like artificial intelligence and increasingly complex, evolving cyber threats.
The measures we are announcing under Horizon 2 of the Strategy set out how we will position Australia to respond and build on the achievements of Horizon 1, which included the country's first Cyber Security Act, the appointment of the National Cyber Security Coordinator and the establishment of the Executive Cyber Council.
The Albanese Government is proactive in addressing cyber threats and harnessing opportunities. In responding to challenges posed by frontier artificial intelligence, we have drawn on our well-established technical capabilities and international connections to assess risks, and we have used our strong and trusted relationships with key industries to put out practical and reliable advice.
This is the approach we will continue to take as we position Australia to respond to an evolving threat environment under Horizon 2.
Horizon 2 will scale the cyber maturity we built through Horizon 1 across the whole economy. Government, in partnership with industry, international partners and the broader community, will work to reduce the real-world impacts of cyber threats to Australians and businesses by identifying risks and opportunities, providing practical supports and coordinating responses where the stakes are highest.
The Government will invest an additional $89.3 million over four years to drive key actions under the three pillars of Horizon 2.
Protecting critical infrastructure and government systems
We will support Australia's economic resilience and national security by securing infrastructure that underpins essential services including through:
- an expanded national exercise program to test real-world coordination and response and an enhanced focus on cyber supply chains
- strengthening emerging areas such as drone security and subsea cables.
These efforts will be supported through close partnerships with industry, critical infrastructure operators and international partners. This will be critical to embracing and securing new technologies as they continue to emerge.
Securing technology at its source across technologies and systems people and businesses rely on
We will support proactive and safe engagement with critical technologies by:
- building on secure technology standards established under Horizon 1 by extending protections to connected technologies used across homes and businesses - such as routers, operational technology, consumer energy resources, smart devices and connected vehicles.
- supporting consumers to make more secure choices through improved transparency, including development of a voluntary smart device labelling scheme to provide clearer information at the point of purchase.
Enabling people as our strongest defence - strengthening Australia's "human firewall" in preventing, detecting and responding to threats
This will include:
- simplifying cyber security particularly for small and medium businesses through initiatives such as the CyberSmart Program. CyberSmart offers scalable, affordable support and certification tailored to business maturity, while strengthening supply chain security across the economy
- expanding national efforts to translate cyber awareness into everyday action, building on the successful Act Now. Stay Secure campaign and ensuring our approach continues to stay relevant in the context of emerging threats.
- Working with telecommunications and cloud providers to give them the power to enable upstream blocking of cyber threats.
The Horizon 2 Action Plan, and more information about the Horizon 2 program, can be found at: Action Plan for Horizon 2 of the 2023-2030 Australian Cyber Security Strategy
Quotes attributable to Minister for Cyber Security, Tony Burke:
Our greatest area of risk is always government systems and critical infrastructure. Horizon 1 was about putting the strongest possible locks on the front door.
In Horizon 2, we look at the supply chain that engages with government and critical infrastructure. We are now locking the windows.
"Artificial intelligence has the capacity to mimic voices. Businesses make investments in firewall technology only to be let down by an innocent mistake by their own employee, who's been tricked into uploading malicious software.
Investing in a technical firewall is not enough. We need to improve the human firewall for real cyber security."
