Federal agencies to front cyber crime inquiry

The House of Representatives standing committee on communications will question the agencies at the forefront of the Government's cyber security efforts as part of its inquiry into cyber crime and its impact on consumers.

As part of the inquiry, federal departments involved in improving e-security – the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE), and the Attorney-General's Department – will front a public hearing to be held in Canberra tomorrow (November 25).

The move comes a day after the Federal Government announced a new Cyber Security Strategy and the formation of a new emergency response team previously called CERT Australia.

In a statement communications committee chair, Belinda Neal, said "we need to ensure that our legal regimes are fit for purpose and able to respond to the ingenuity of online thieves".

"Cyber criminals are no longer teenage hackers wanting to prove their IT prowess, the combination of organized crime and people with sophisticated IT skills determined to exploit insecure IT technologies is putting us all at risk," she said.

The move also comes as academics and information security analysts call for greater transparency around the operations of the Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC) set up as part of the Defence White Paper earlier in the year. The CSOC is working in the Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) umbrella and will be helping the new CERT Australia team.

More information on the Cyber Crime inquiry can be found on the committee's website.

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