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The shadow minister for cyber security has called out China as a provider of “authoritarian technology” and, in turn, called for the federal Labor government to stand up a new agency responsible for assessing security risks when it comes to the software and hardware used by the government.
Senator James Paterson — who is also the shadow minister for countering foreign interference and the shadow minister for home affairs, as well as the chair of the select committee on foreign interference through social media — made his comments today (1 June) during a presentation at the inaugural Australian Cyber Security Summit in Canberra.
“A particular concern of mine is our exposure to high-risk authoritarian technology, particularly from China,” Paterson said early in his speech. “In a more benign security environment, perhaps this would not be such a problem.”
“But the Defence Strategic Review tells us the 10-year warning time for conflict in our region has evaporated.”
He went on to add that the Australian Signals Directorate had reported a state of “near-constant attacks” on government infrastructure and that the Director-General of ASIO has said that foreign interference and espionage are now more of a threat to Australia than terrorism.
“The dominant source of all of the threats in these domains is the People’s Republic of China,” Paterson said. “Unfortunately, it is also a dominant source of much of the software and hardware Australians rely on — including in the federal government.”
According to Paterson, while many of the Chinese companies that government, businesses, and individuals use may seem private, they are all “effectively arms of the Chinese state”. This is why he is on a self-described “campaign to rid the Commonwealth government of as much high-risk authoritarian tech as quickly as possible”.
Paterson has been one of the key drivers of the government’s TikTok ban, as well as the decision to remove Chinese-made security cameras from government buildings and agencies. What he laments, however, is that — in his opinion — it took an opposition Senator to call the government out on the use of such technology.
To that end, he also called for the government to set up a National Technology Security Office to oversee the acquisition of such technology and to assess the risk involved.
“A National Technology Security Office should bring together the policy nous of departments like Home Affairs and the Attorney-General’s Department with the technical expertise and intelligence access of agencies like the Australian Signals Directorate and the Office of National Intelligence,” Paterson said.
“Failure to do so will see Australia stuck in a perpetual game of catch-up, forever two steps behind our adversaries as technology continues to evolve at breakneck speed.
“Conversely, if we get this right, government can show real leadership in uplifting Australia’s cyber security.”
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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