Today, the federal government released a public discussion paper as part of the development of the Cyber White Paper, which invites submissions from business and the general public on a range of issues regarding the importance of cyberspace to Australia’s social well-being, economic prosperity and broader national interests.
And, the government in its ‘Digital Citizenship in a Networked Society” discussion paper, or if you like - Connecting with Confidence: Optimising Australia’s Digital Future - seeks your views on a wide range of issues, including “how we can together minimise cyber risks to maximise social and economic opportunities in the digital economy.”
The government is looking for input from big and small business, industry leaders, individual ‘digital citizens’ and members of the public so it can develop what it says is Australia’s first ever cyber white paper, scheduled to be released in the first half of next year.
And it seems Australia has taken to cyberspace like a rocket, with our digital world becoming more and more pervasive. Citing research from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), the government makes the point that 8.4 million Australians accessed social networking sites and 5.5 million accessed video streaming sites from home, in just on month - December last year.
A few other stats show just how much we have embraced technology and the digital, online world in particular. At the end of December last year there were 10.4 million active Internet subscribers in Australia, 93 percent of Internet connections are no longer dial-up and 81 per cent of connections offer a download speed of 1.5 megabits or greater, and from June 2005 to June 2010 the number of Australians considered heavy users(online activity of more than 15 hours a week) of the Internet doubled.
And, pumping up its National Broadband Network (NBN), the government reckons the continuing roll out of the NBN, the steady migration of media and entertainment services online, and the convergence of these and other online services onto mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, is likely to see expanded social interaction through the Internet over the next decade.
The discussion paper released today also stresses the rapidly increasing online activities by Australians for accessing all manner of services and buying and selling products, not least of all for access to government services or information.
According to the government, given a choice, most Australians would prefer to use an e-government channel to access a government service and, consequently the National Digital Economy Strategy outlines a goal that by 2020, four out of five Australians will choose to engage with the government through the Internet or other type of online service.
However, all this cyber activity by our digital citizenry, has its risks. Cyber security threats loom large and the government, in its discussion paper, warns that various individuals and groups, including nation-states, sophisticated cyber criminals, politically motivated hackers and cyber bullies are making use of cyber tools to “harm Australia’s social wellbeing, economic prosperity and broader national interests.”
And, furthermore, the government makes the point that cyber tools are cheap to acquire and the growing value of information that individuals, businesses and governments store online is “motivating a growth in malicious cyber activity.” The impact of the growing security threats includes:
- The overall risk of cyber crime to the Australian economy is more than a billion dollars a year [AFP: 2010]
- In 2010 major cyber intrusions cost Australian organisations an average of $2 million per incident [Symantec: 2011]
- Reported online scam losses totalled more than $63 million in 2010, with 45 per cent of reported scams occurring online [ACCC: 2011]
- More than 50 percent of all Australian teachers had at least one cyber-safety incident directly reported to them in 2010 [IRIS: 2011]
- Over 200 cyber intrusions against the Department of Defence were investigated in 2009 [Defence: 2010]
The final government white paper to be produced after the public discussion plays out over the next few months, will look at how governments, businesses and individuals can realise the full benefits of cyberspace while at the same time ensuring current and emerging risks can be managed.
So, have your say now. The public discussion paper is available at www.cyberwhitepaper.dpmc.gov.au and submissions will be open until 15 November.
---
Autor(en)/Author(s): Peter Dinham
Quelle/Source: iTWire, 15.09.2011
Bitte besuchen Sie/Please visit:
