EXCLUSIVE: Broad collaboration the key to cybersecurity success

Australia faces a 17% shortfall in cybersecurity skills by 2020, a situation the NSW government is determined to help resolve.

In the fourth of our exclusive series of articles this week on Australia’s cybersecurity skills shortage, Niall Blair, NSW Minister for Trade and Industry, outlines his state’s actions and priorities.

If you aren’t online in today’s business environment, you don’t exist. That’s true regardless of whether you are a farmer or a financier, in big or small business. This also brings its challenges, with cyber fraud now a critical business risk no matter who you are. The rising rate of cyber attacks only confirms this.

But efforts to tackle the cyber menace also present enormous commercial opportunities, and for me as Minister for Industry it’s a top priority.

The global market for cyber protection is forecast to be worth $170 billion by 2020, with investment in the sector now increasing at extraordinary rates. We’re well placed to tap into that market in NSW, with our well-educated workforce and a strong IT sector. I want us to be a world leader in this market.

We’re already home to 60% of Australia’s information and communications technology business headquarters and 80% of mature Australian businesses in the cybersecurity industry.

This means we have a strong capability platform to build on — but our immediate challenge is to ensure we have enough professionals with the right skills and experience.

The rapid rise of the digital economy has seen demand for jobs in STEM professions — science, technology, engineering and maths — grow 1.5 times faster than other professions, and all at a time when STEM student numbers have been falling.

Too many of the talented professionals we do produce seek careers beyond our shores, in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. As a result, according to a study by Intel, Australia faces a 17% shortfall in cybersecurity skills by 2020.

I am determined to address this, and to help ensure that NSW has the cyber skills base we need.

One way our government is tackling this problem is through the creation of a foundation to support the development of critical STEM skills. Through this foundation we’ll provide scholarships, study incentives and professional development to attract as many high-potential candidates as possible and to keep them here.

We know the young talent we need is here — I saw it first-hand at a student-employer matchmaking event we held in May to engage students with cybersecurity opportunities.

More than 120 of the best STEM and ICT university students from around the state took part in CyberPitch@Parliament, impressing executives from 24 leading companies including IBM Australia, Google, Telstra, Microsoft, Westpac and Deloitte.

The event was a great success and it underlined to me the benefits that come from improved collaboration and engagement between government, business and our research and education sector. This is vital if we are to lift investment and build our skills base and provide new opportunities for our cyber exports.

We’re also currently engaged with local industry in drafting a NSW Cyber Security Industry Development Strategy that will coordinate this effort, so watch this space.

A Cyber Security Knowledge Hub is being developed to coordinate industry-wide strategy and research, to enable a more agile response to new challenges and opportunities.

We are also working closely with the CSIRO’s research unit, Data61, and developing partnerships with a number of universities. I look forward to seeing more initiatives such as the University of Newcastle’s new research centre in cybersecurity engineering.

An important part of our work will be to extend those research networks to businesses and industry bodies.

It’s important we align with the national effort, too, particularly the federal government’s Cyber Security Strategy, and we are committed to playing a leading role in the Australian Cyber Security Growth Network.

Finally, I’m particularly excited by the cyber opportunities we can create for businesses in regional NSW, through the innovation and start-up hotspots we’re developing.

This state has all the ingredients for a successful cyber protection industry, and the NSW Government is determined to secure the cooperative effort required to deliver it statewide.

Niall Blair is the NSW Minister for Primary Industries, Regional Water, and Trade and Industry. Before entering politics he was a horticulturalist and then a work safety consultant at Integral Energy Australia, before starting his own safety consultancy. Niall has a Bachelor of Horticultural Science and a Masters in Occupational Health and Safety.

Pictured: Niall Blair, NSW Minister for Trade and Industry.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? Do you agree that Australia faces a cybersecurity skills shortfall? Do you think governments are doing enough to help? Join the conversation by leaving your comments below.

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