AustCyber releases latest roadmap

AustCyber has released the 2019 update to its Australia’s Cyber Security Sector Competitiveness Plan at an event at the NSW Cyber Security Innovation Node on Wednesday.

More than 100 representatives from governments, industry and academia convened at the event, which was the first of eight planned events to be conducted across Australia.

It aims to address challenges facing the sector such as the estimated shortage of 17,000 cybersecurity workers by 2026, hurdles to the growth and maturation of local companies, and what AustCyber perceives as a lack of alignment between research and commercialisation.

It details actions aimed at growing the Australian cybersecurity ecosystem, supporting the export of Australian products overseas and ensuring Australia takes the lead in cybersecurity education.

This year’s update also includes a deep dive into the underlying structural challenges involved with getting an accurate measurement of the sector’s development, and its impact and contribution to the Australian economy.

“A clear view of the maturity and size of Australia’s cybersecurity sector is essential for strategic growth. Good policy and future investments are contingent upon policymakers, entrepreneurs and investors having a strong picture of the sector on which to make informed decisions,” AustCyber CEO Michelle Price said.

“The measurement of fundamental economic metrics such as the size of the sector and its value added to the economy can serve as a foundation to more sophisticated analysis, such as the broader impacts of cyber innovation across the economy, including its role as an enabler of growth and its contribution to overall prosperity.”

Since the first version of the plan was published in 2017, the sector has grown significantly, with external spending on cybersecurity products and services growing by 8% to $3.9 billion in 2018 alone.

“The aim of the Cyber Security Sector Competitiveness Plan is to provide the economic evidence base for the cybersecurity industry across business, research and consumer segments to drive growth in the ecosystem, increase exports of Australian solutions and support Australia to become the leading global centre for cyber security education,” Price said.

The report has been released in conjunction with the CISO Lens Benchmark 2019, which includes topics such as cyber resilience across the Australian and New Zealand economies, and how CISOs should use the Benchmark to ensure their organisations are putting forward a cybersecurity posture commensurate to the value they deliver to their organisations and the economy more broadly.

Cyber Security Innovation Node events will now also be held in Darwin, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Launceston, Canberra and Brisbane in March and April.

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