Cybersecurity

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (16:06): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier advise the house when he was first advised about the major cyber attack on the state government's IT systems? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: On Saturday, The Advertiser's Editor at Large, Paul Starick, reported that there was a major cyber attack on government computer networks in November last year requiring the activation of the State Crisis Centre.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (16:07): I thank the member for his question. As he would be aware, and as I think all members in this parliament are aware, there is an increased cyber incident activity going on around the world. This is nothing new. In fact, on coming to government I was informed, as the chair of the Emergency Management Council, of the sheer volume and the increasing volume of cyber incidents that are occurring here in South Australia and more specifically those that are occurring against government agencies. That is one of the reasons why in the most recent budget we made a very significant investment of $24.7 million into strengthening our cyber resilience and preparedness here in South Australia.

We also made a very significant additional investment into developing our workforce because, as members may or may not be aware, there is a very significant global shortage of suitably trained cyber qualified personnel. This is an issue that we recognised very early on on coming to government. I want to commend the Minister for Innovation and Skills for working with my department on creating a cyber traineeship for South Australia. We have committed an additional $2.6 million for that.

At the moment, I can inform the house that in 2020 there were approximately 1,600 cybersecurity incidents that were reported to the Office for Cyber Security by various SA government agencies. We don't routinely comment on any of those incidents unless it is in the public interest to do so. We take this matter extraordinarily seriously.

In recent years, we as a state have appointed a Chief Information Security Officer in this state. We have very significantly invested in our own preparedness. But, more than that, as a government we recognise that this is not problem peculiar to government: it's a problem for every business, every individual, and that's one of the reasons why at Lot Fourteen we have established the Australian Cyber Collaboration Centre, which is independent of the government. We have funded the capital and also the operating budgets for the first three years of that organisation, but that is designed to improve the overall cyber preparedness and resilience of South Australian businesses.

I've got to say, the interest in this area is only increasing. Pretty much on a daily basis now we are hearing about organisations who are experiencing cyber incidents. Some of those can be absolutely damaging and catastrophic on their business. We haven't had that situation in South Australia, but we have had cyber incidents and, as I said, we don't respond or make public any specific information on those unless it's in the public interest to do so.