The Weekly Cybers #25
Amazon scores $2 billion for a top secret data cloud, online child safety gets more attention (yet again), and much more.
Welcome
The big tech news this week was Amazon Web Services scoring a $2 billion contract to build a top secret data cloud for Australia’s defence and intelligence customers. It represents more than just a tech project.
Of course there’s more news about protecting the kiddies on social media, and the usual plethora of smaller items.
And once again, sorry for being a day late this week.
Amazon to build $2B top secret defence cloud
A local subsidiary of Amazon Web Services (AWS) has won the contract to build a $2 billion “top secret” data cloud for Australian military and intelligence data — and that’s just the initial build. The operating costs will also be in the billions.
The massive new project is expected to harness cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) technology and scheduled to be in operation by 2027, with the government insisting Australia will have complete sovereignty over the cloud.
According to the prime minister’s press release, the cloud will indeed be cleared to handle TOP SECRET (TS) classified data, and create “up to 2,000 local Australian jobs”.
This significant investment is part of the $15‑20 billion to 2033-34 to enhance Defence’s cyber capabilities and the $8.5-11 billion to 2033-34 to bolster Defence’s enterprise data and ICT announced in the 2024 Integrated Investment Program.
Similar data clouds have already been built for the US and UK.
The project will be managed by the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD). According to ASD director-general Rachel Noble, “This capability is a vital part of our REDSPICE program which is lifting our intelligence and offensive and defensive cyber capabilities”.
Over at The Strategist Mike Bareja, deputy director of ASPI’s cyber, technology, and security program, wrote an interesting analysis of what it all means in the context of what he calls defence’s “AI loomerism”.
In our quest to utilise AI technology to give our decision makers faster and more actionable insights, we must embark on a transformative odyssey, not merely tinkering with analytical tools or tradecraft. The intelligence community stands at a threshold. We are called upon to not just reassess the processes of spying and warfighting, but the very foundations of them.
He argues that this represents “a complete restructuring, a rewiring of the very fabric of Australia’s intelligence and defence agencies”, he says, including their legal frameworks.
Social media age assurance trials expanded
The Australian government continued its battle against the social media giants this week, and it feels like they’re not going to stop any time soon.
Last Saturday the prime minister Anthony Albanese called the tech companies “arrogant”.
“Meta are showing how out of touch they are and how arrogant they are. Every parent knows that social media can have a damaging impact on the mental health of young people, on social exclusion, on the bullying that can occur online, on grooming that can occur in a dangerous way online as well. What we need is for social media to acknowledge that it has a social responsibility to look after the people who are, after all, its customers. If you don’t acknowledge that there’s a problem, you have no chance of finding a solution. My Government is undertaking a study, a trial, to make sure that we put in protections, but we make sure that we get it right as well. We don’t want to close off one avenue only to open up another dangerous road. So, these are important issues. And quite frankly, parents will be alarmed at the arrogance that Meta showed in their submission [PDF] to this inquiry, for refusing not only to accept any responsibility that they have, but refusing to acknowledge that there’s even a problem.”
Indeed, as Guardian Australia reported, Meta’s head of global safety Antigone Davis said exactly that.
“I don’t think social media has done harm to our children,” she said. “Issues of teen mental health are complex and multifactorial.”
She said age restrictions should instead be handled by app stores and operating systems rather than social networks.
Meanwhile, the government has expanded its trial of age assurance technology to look at blocking children from accessing social media platforms as well as porn sites.
The internet industry has been given six months to sort out its child safety rules.
Meanwhile this piece at The Conversation looks at the whole idea of making big tech “protect kids from porn” and asks, What can they actually do?.
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Also in the news
Australian National University has signed an agreement with Fujitsu to establish a new quantum research facility in Canberra “with ambitions to build an onsite quantum computer”.
Following a soft launch last week, more than 20,000 myGov users have set up passkeys to log into their accounts, making Australia one of the world’s first governments to use this technology.
A parliamentary inquiry has recommended that the the Australian Securities and Investments Commission be split in two after “comprehensively” failing its role as a regulator.
The Financial Review’s Tom Burton reckons Canberra’s $1B digital identity play could be the next white elephant ($). “The failure of open banking and the poor uptake of My Health Record offer a salutary warning for the government’s Digital ID system.”
On the other hand, over at The Mandarin, Julian Bajkowski says small steps see decent progress on Australia’s digital ID journey. Indeed, there’s quite a lot to be said about Australia’s work here, so perhaps I might be persuaded to do a feature on it all some time.
I mentioned last week that the inquiry into supporting the development of sovereign capability in the Australian tech sector has issued its report. Bajkowski has an amusing commentary explaining that no one seems to know what “sovereign tech capability” actually means.
Australia shouldn’t pursue sovereign AI, according to Susan Aaronson, a visiting fellow with the Emerging Technology Program at the US Studies Centre.
The Department of Defence is holding a pitch day on 18 September. You’ll have three minutes to explain your ideas to the Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator.
Finance minister Katy Gallagher says older people who felt intimidated into paying back robotax debts so old they’re impossible to verify will not get their money back. I smell an appeal approaching.
New FOI review rules came into force on Monday. As The Mandarin reports, “Reflecting recently appointed FOI commissioner Elizabeth Tydd’s zeal for open government and proactive information release, the onus will now be on respondents — departments and ministers — to demonstrate why information access should be refused. Additionally, failure to provide supporting documents within five days may now result in a finding against the respondent”.
The government has set up an information-sharing network for cybersecurity in the health sector, with $6.4 million in funding.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) released its compliance priorities 2024–25. In their words: protecting telco customers experiencing financial hardship; supporting telco customers experiencing domestic and family violence; continuing our focus on interactive gambling safeguards; disrupting SMS impersonation scams; targeting misleading spam messages; tackling the online supply of dodgy devices; combating misinformation and disinformation on digital platforms; safeguarding Triple Zero emergency call services. So many priorities!
Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie introduced the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Ban on Gambling Advertisements) Bill 2024.
Data breaches and hacks of note
Seventh Day Adventist outreach organisation Steps to Life was hit with a data breach.
The Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research suffered a data breach of 4.6TB of internal building camera recordings, according to the Medusa ransomware gang. They’re after US$500,000.
Elsewhere
Turns out the was a deal between Google and both Telstra and Optus to ensure that Google Search was pre-installed as the default on the Android devices they sold in return for a cut of the advertising revenue. The ACCC was not impressed, and the telcos have agreed to “allow alternative search engines to be able to compete to be a default search engine”.
Australia’s first Indigenous sovereign cloud operated by Indigenous-owned IT company Dickerson Digital will be secured by Netskope. Indigenous-owned data centre builder Gambarra Kaha is leading the development of over 22 data centres nationwide.
Australian online retailer Booktopia has entered voluntary administration after struggling with an $12 million project to transition their warehouse to using robots.
Australian Federal Police commissioner Reece Kershaw says they’re investigating whether diversionary tactics were used when “false phone calls” diverted the feds from the Gaza war protest at Parliament House.
What’s next?
Parliament is now taking a break until Monday 12 August, and the coming week is particularly quiet.
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The Weekly Cybers is a personal look at what the Australian government has been saying and doing in the digital and cyber realms, on various adjacent topics, and whatever else interests me, Stilgherrian, published every Friday afternoon (nearly).
If I’ve missed anything, or if there’s any specific items you’d like me to follow, please let me know.
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This is not specifically a cyber security newsletter. For that that I recommend Risky Biz News.