The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), the successor to the Cyber Security Operations Centre, is the

Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national executive government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The executive consists of the pr ...

's lead agency for

cyber security Computer security (also cybersecurity, digital security, or information technology (IT) security) is a subdiscipline within the field of information security. It consists of the protection of computer software, systems and networks from thr ...

. The ACSC is part of the

Australian Signals Directorate The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), formerly the Defence Signals Directorate, is a statutory agency of the Government of Australia responsible for signals intelligence, providing intelligence support to Australian military operations, con ...

and is based at the

Australian Security Intelligence Organisation The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO ) is the Intelligence agency, domestic intelligence and national security agency of the Australian Government, responsible for protection from espionage, sabotage, acts of foreign inte ...

headquarters in Brindabella Business Park in

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

. The Centre is overseen by the Cyber Security Operations Board and is the joint responsibility of the Minister for Defence.

History

The Australian Cyber Security Centre was established in 2014, replacing the Cyber Security Operations Centre, also housed by the Australian Signals Directorate. In line with the recommendations of the 2017 Independent Review of the

Australian Intelligence Community The Australian Intelligence Community (AIC) and the National Intelligence Community (NIC) or National Security Community of the Australian Government are the collectives of statutory intelligence agencies, policy departments, and other government ...

led by

Michael L'Estrange Michael Gerard L'Estrange (born 12 October 1952 in North Sydney, New South Wales) is an Australian academic and former public servant. He is the former Head of the National Security College at the Australian National University, in Canberra. L' ...

and Stephen Merchant, Prime Minister

Malcolm Turnbull Malcolm Bligh Turnbull (born 24 October 1954) is an Australian former politician and businessman who served as the 29th prime minister of Australia from 2015 to 2018. He held office as Liberal Party of Australia, leader of the Liberal Party an ...

announced that the role of the Australian Cyber Security Centre would be strengthened and that the Prime Minister's Special Adviser on Cyber Security, Alastair MacGibbon, would assume the responsibilities as the Head of the Centre within the Australian Signals Directorate, which was established as a

statutory agency A statutory body or statutory authority is a body set up by law (statute) that is authorised to implement certain legislation on behalf of the relevant country or state, sometimes by being Primary and secondary legislation, empowered or deleg ...

. The Special Adviser position was removed when MacGibbon left the public service in May 2019.

Role and responsibilities

The role of the Australian Cyber Security Centre is to: *lead the Australian Government’s operational response to cyber security incidents *organise national cyber security operations and resources *encourage and receive reporting of cyber attacks and cyber security incidents *raise awareness of the level of cyber threats to Australia *study and investigate cyber threats The ACSC integrates the national security cyber capabilities across the

cyber security mission, cyber security experts from the Digital Transformation Agency, the

Defence Intelligence Organisation The Defence Intelligence Organisation (DIO) is an Australian government military intelligence agency responsible for strategic intelligence and technical intelligence assessments, advising defence and government decision-making on national sec ...

strategic intelligence analysts, the Computer Emergency Response Team, the Cyber Security Policy Division of the Department of Home Affairs,

cyber and telecommunications specialists,

Australian Federal Police The Australian Federal Police (AFP) is the principal Federal police, federal law enforcement agency of the Australian Government responsible for investigating Crime in Australia, crime and protecting the national security of the Commonwealth ...

cyber crime investigators, and

Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) is a law enforcement agency established by the Australian federal government on 1 July 2016, following the merger of the Australian Crime Commission (ACC) and CrimTrac. It has specialist i ...

cybercrime threat intelligence specialists.
Australian Cyber Security Centre The Centre is also a hub for collaboration and information sharing with the private sector and critical infrastructure providers, state and territory governments, academia and international partners.

Governance

The Head of the Australian Cyber Security Centre is a concurrent Deputy Director-General of the

. The Special Adviser to the Prime Minister on Cyber Security within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (Australia), Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet previously served concurrently as the Head of the Centre. The Special Adviser then became the National Cyber Coordinator within the Department of Home Affairs.

Information Security Manual

The Information Security Manual (ISM) is a guideline written by the ACSC.

References

External links