National Cyber Security Coordinator

The importance of public-private partnerships in safeguarding our cyber security has never been more apparent. Last week, I had the privilege of co-chairing an insightful roundtable discussion with nbn® Australia CSO Darren Kane at CyberCX We heard diverse perspectives from industry attendees about the cyber security threat landscape and discussed views on how to mitigate vulnerabilities and minimise harms. Collaboration is crucial to our collective efforts to enhance Australia’s cyber security—across the community and the economy.

Do you tick all the security boxes? Don't risk your data - protect your cyber security with these three actions: ✅ create strong, unique passphrases for every account ✅ set up multi-factor authentication ✅ install software updates regularly

Recently, I had the pleasure of attending Canberra Cyber Hub Sovereign Cyber Capability Unlocked. It was great to hear from Canberra-based small and medium businesses, visit their booths, and learn more about their businesses. The event also provided an excellent opportunity to discuss our cyber Strategy and how we are building on public-private partnerships to strengthen our cyber response.

❗ UPDATED ALERT ❗ CrowdStrike has released further technical advice to support customers who may be experiencing remediation difficulties due to Bitlocker implementations. Affected customers are advised to follow CrowdStrike guidance. Read the full alert 👉 https://lnkd.in/gackpyuK

❗ UPDATED ALERT ❗ CrowdStrike has released further technical advice to support customers who may be experiencing remediation difficulties due to Bitlocker implementations. Affected customers are advised to follow CrowdStrike guidance. Read the full alert 👉 https://lnkd.in/gackpyuK

There are increasing reports of scammers attempting to exploit the recovery efforts to the widespread outages caused by the CrowdStrike technical incident.   As systems are being restored, I urge Australian businesses and members of the community to be vigilant. Do not engage with suspicious websites, emails, texts and phone calls.   Follow the advice of Scamwatch: STOP, THINK, PROTECT, REPORT. More advice is available here: https://lnkd.in/gqcZK7Js   Only source technical information and updates from official CrowdStrike sources:   Further information about protecting yourself online is available at https://lnkd.in/gqhmfF-A

❗ ALERT ❗A CrowdStrike software update leading to outages impacting Windows systems. Crowdstrike have released remediation guidance for customers, available via their CrowdStrike Customer Portal. Affected customers are advised to follow CrowdStrike guidance. 👉 https://lnkd.in/gVbrCQ7k

This afternoon MediSecure and its administrators have publicly advised that the company has ceased its investigation into the cyber incident that impacted the company earlier this year. MediSecure advised that the personal and sensitive information, including contact and health information, of approximately 12.9 million Australians was contained within MediSecure data stolen by a malicious third-party actor and the incident remains under investigation by the Australian Federal Police. Importantly, there continues to be no impact to the current national prescription delivery service, and people should keep accessing their medications and filling their prescriptions. MediSecure has issued a public statement on the data breach, which includes an outline of the types of information impacted. This statement can be accessed at https://lnkd.in/g_KuAt6K The Australian Government has refreshed its advice to Australians on what they need to do to protect themselves. This advice can be found at https://lnkd.in/g8D9_8Xk. At this time, the Australian Government is not aware of publication of the full data set. No one should go looking for or access stolen sensitive or personal information from the dark web. This activity only feeds the business model of cyber criminals and can be a criminal offence. I understand many Australians will be concerned about the scale of this breach. I encourage everyone, whether impacted in this incident or not, to be alert to being targeted in scams. Be on the lookout for scams referencing the MediSecure data breach, and do not respond to unsolicited contact that references the data breach experienced by MediSecure. If contacted by someone claiming to be a medical or other service provider, including financial service provider, seeking personal, payment or banking information you should hang up and call back on a phone number you have sourced independently. We can all take simple steps to protect ourselves online, including setting up multi-factor authentication, creating strong and unique passphrases and installing software updates regularly. More advice on protecting yourself online is available at cyber.gov.au.

Are you STILL putting off your Software Update? Updates are one of the best defences in your cyber security arsenal. Updating your device and applications can fix known weaknesses and security concerns, making it harder for cyber criminals to break in. Make sure you regularly install software updates on all your devices to support a secure system.

Today the Australian Signals Directorate, together with international partners, has released a cybersecurity advisory regarding a People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-sponsored cyber group, and the threat they pose to cyber security on Australian networks.   For more details on the advisory, visit https://lnkd.in/gfb9HNjP.