Wednesday, November 13, 2024

11:30 AM - 12:30 PM

Swan Room

---

Details

Protecting network interconnectedness is a critical element of our cyber and physical world - but so is watertight communications security. If unprotected, the enemy will exploit.
Information in the wrong hands can be dynamite – from the battlefield to the boardroom. Which is why trusted and secure communications – as much as traditional cyber defences – is a matter of National Security.
Today, as Australia's terror threat rises from possible to probable in the midst of growing geo-political risk, this talk will explore some of the new and emerging tactics that Australia and its sister nations are facing; and must defend against and plan for. Including:
1. Sovereign Communications and control of the infrastructure, users and data. (Protecting your people, your data, your IP – and communications. Also encompassing disaster management – such as when networks go down in floods and fires)
2. Certification – How Australia compares to other ‘Five Eyes’ nations as to how certain technologies are used in the public sector (eg; US NIAP, NATO certification)
3. Are you being tapped? It is dangerously easy to eavesdrop on or monitor modern mobile devices, even over the latest LTE and 5G networks. A illustration of threats – fake mobile towers, spy balloons, “man-in-the-middle” (MITM) interceptions and identity spoofing)
4.“Good enough, until you’re caught” – why consumer grade encrypted messaging apps cannot be relied upon for sensitive or classified communications. Growing vigilance on enforcing standards and use of appropriate tools for sharing sensitive information. (For example, with WhatsApp you can see the location of anyone you communicate with, without them being aware)
5. International collaboration: the importance of private-public sector collaboration and how shared intelligence (AUKUS, Five Eyes) can help support a prevention-first approach to both cybersecurity and secure communications policy
6. Case studies: Ensuring sensitive communications are private does not require burner phones and James Bond style gadgets:

• When an official’s phone is hacked… what happens next? Executives and world leaders are targets for espionage, leaks and interception - how this can be avoided.
• Data lifecycle protections – moving from the consumer paradigm user owns the data to one of the organizations owns the data for government communications
• NATO – A look at how teams keep their cyber-defence strategy top secret and ensure secure, encrypted free flow of information (wherever they are located)

In this session, the audience will learn how threat actors are accessing valuable information by any means necessary in a risky geo-political era. And how NATO and other governments are protecting commercial and classified information to fortify and augment efforts to protect national security.

---

Speaker