Cybercrime threatens digital economy progress, warns ACS

Peter Dinham
Tuesday, 07 July 2009 14:52

Business IT - Security

The Australian Computer Society has warned that cyber crime poses a major threat to the progress of Australia’s digital economy, as it calls on the federal government to consider developing vendor agreements & investing in R&D in security technologies.

The ACS wants these issues to be looked at by the government as part of the current parliamentary inquiry into cyber crime, with chairman Kumar Parakala suggesting that an increase in cyber crime has been the “unfortunate by-product of high speed, always on, internet services.”

“It is also a major impediment to our further growth in this area, and requires a corresponding investment by Government and commercial interests to help Australians increase and maintain confidence in online transactions.”

According to Parakala the outbreak of increasingly sophisticated online phishing attacks on banking and Australian Taxation Office customers in recent months has the potential to turn Australians away from online commerce.
 
“This would be an enormous backwards step, and we need to identify solutions to ensure our momentum in the digital area is maintained.”

Parakala cited a recent CSO report that Australia has comparatively high rates of cyber crime and that Australians are now more likely to experience cyber crime than burglary, assault or robbery.
 
“The phenomenal developments in technology, implementation of ultra-fast broadband the introduction of IPv6 are going to facilitate a quantum acceleration in Australia’s (and the global) digital economy. The digital economy has the potential to be Australia’s new engine room, however research has shown that security is the primary barrier for SMEs moving to online business models.”
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