Australia gets serious about cyber defence strategy

With trans-border cyber-attacks getting more sophisticated and increasingly focussing on sensitive targets like global companies and government institutions, Australia has decided to develop a cyber defence strategy to combat hacking and electronic espionage, the government said on Friday. 

Australia's cyber defence blueprint will confront the growing threat posed by electronic espionage, theft and state-sponsored cyber attack, attorney-general Robert McClelland and defence minister Stepehen Smith said. 

"The Cyber White Paper will examine what we need to do to protect ourselves online, the role of government, industry and the public in protecting our interests," McClelland told a cyber security function in Sydney. 

The strategy paper, to be completed in the first half of 2012, would look at a broad range of areas including consumer protection, cyber safety, cyber crime, cyber security and cyber defence, McClelland said. 

The announcement of the creation of Australia's first cyber white paper comes soon after Google Inc revealed it has discovered sophisticated attacks on hundreds of users of its email service, Gmail, aimed at stealing their passwords and monitoring their email.

Google announced on Wednesday that hackers tried to steal passwords of hundreds of Google email account holders, including senior US government officials in the departments of state and defence as well as the US Defence Intelligence Agency, apart from Chinese activists and journalists.