The fear of attacks on critical infrastructure such as nuclear power plants, dams and electricity substations is not new – there has been a decade of commentary about threats to public services emanating from cyberspace. …
Debate: "National Security"
The incoming Australian Attorney-General George Brandis’ top priority is the elimination of what he views as a ‘left-wing control of the human rights debate’. And he plans to conduct a national audit of federal statutes …
In an attack linked to pro-Syrian government supporters, the sites of The New York Times, Twitter and up to ten other sites were compromised by the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA). Using stolen log-in credentials from …
David Connery’s recent post prompts us to understand serious and organised crime as a national security issue. This is often difficult to comprehend because organised crime is like an iceberg: the majority of it is …
The Minister for Home Affairs released the Australian Crime Commission’s (ACC) latest update to its Organised Crime in Australia (PDF) series recently. This report is important and has implications for every Australian. The media needs to …
As a Strategist post earlier this week reported, former CIA head Michael Hayden has accused Chinese Telecommunications company Huawei of snooping for the Chinese Government. Huawei isn’t new to controversy, after being blocked from working …
Last Friday saw the publication of the full transcript of an interview conducted with the former Director of the CIA, Michael Hayden. The interview gave us insight into US intelligence and strategic thinking which don’t …
I’ve had a number of conversations (both real and virtual) about intelligence oversight since I first wrote about it here a couple of weeks ago. In particular, Andrew Zammit’s response was a thoughtful piece on …
Andrew Davies valuable post calls attention to the range of watchdog mechanisms holding Australia’s intelligence agencies to account. It also asks why Australians don’t know much about these checks and balances. I would suggest that’s …
Toby Feakin’s post the other day brought up the topic of oversight of government security operations. He’s right that a liberal democracy requires checks and balances to prevent excesses from government agencies. But it got …
At Australian Defence Magazine’s 3rd Cyber Security Summit this week, members of the shadowy cyber world gathered to swap war stories and scare one another silly with worst case scenarios. The thought that every major …
Coming at a time when the US has been increasingly turning the screw on China about its persistent hacking of US computer networks, the revelation that the US government itself has been gathering metadata on …