DSD cyber-spooks wanted: must be good looking

James Riley
Tuesday, 14 July 2009 07:41

Business IT - Security

Australia's uber-Spook agency, the Defence Signals Directorate, has come out of the shadows in a major recruitment campaign to staff its Cyber Security Operations Centre. The agency says the nation faces an increased threat of online attacks across Defence, government and commercial networks.

DSD, traditionally the more secretive of the Australian intelligence community agencies, has just completed a round of open recruitment advertising in national newspapers and web sites as it staffs its the newly-created Cyber-Ops centre.

The Cyber Security Operation Centre was announced in May and is fully budgeted. The initiative was an important part of the recently released 2009 Defence White Paper.

Its creation coincides with the large-scale cyber attacks 10 days ago on US and South Korean web sites believed to have been orchestrated by North Korea. US agencies ranging from the Treasury Department and Secret Service and South Korea’s presidential office and defence department were all targeted.

DSD told iTWire that Defence’s increased reliance on networked operations meant an increased risk of attack through networks – and that the Cyber Ops centre would provide better “situational awareness and the ability to facilitate responses.”

The agency’s role as online spook extends well beyond protecting Defence assets. Its national security brief includes locking down and monitoring Government systems, and ensuring the safety of commercial network infrastructure that is important to Australia’s commercial interests.

The DSD already works closely with ASIO and the Federal Police on a full range of online threats, from terrorism to espionage – including assistance in intelligence gathering in industrial espionage threats. It also works with critical infrastructure providers (like Telstra) and commercial pillars (like banks.)

“Australia’s national security could potentially be compromised by cyber attacks on our defence, government, commercial or infrastructure-related information networks. The potential impacts of such attacks have grown with Defence’s increasing reliance on networked operations,” a DSD spokeswoman told iTWire.
 
“Defence must focus on developing capabilities that allow us to gain an edge in the cyberspace domain and protect ourselves and our national interests.”

DSD said it had been advertising openly, where required, for staff (through the media, rather than a nod and wink) for some years. In the case of ICT skills and its need to “contemporary experience” in the sector, open advertising was considered the best way to go.

The agency would not confirm how many people it needs to staff the cyber operations centre. It is not clear where the jobs are based.

But it want everything – from programming skills, to incident response specialists, computer forensic experts, penetration testers, reverse engineering skills, vulnerability testers and risk management gurus.

Unlike the BBC series Spooks, it is not clear whether all staff be impeccably dressed and fabulously good-looking.