Australian Cyber Security Expert Simon Smith calls for Government reform

  MELBOURNE VIC AUSTRALIA - 06/11/2018 (PRESS RELEASE JET)

THIS Government could and should save millions of wasted taxpayer dollars a year. However, every year pointless funding goes out to courses that do not meet industry expectations, hackathons and ‘new initiatives’ that demonstrate the Government does not understand ‘cyber security’. This spending appears to do nothing to help risk reduction in cyber security, it in fact does the opposite. The Government have recently announced yet another attempt at tightening up national cyber security, however the ideas continue to be nonsensical as the spending is focussed on areas that are not related to the cause. 

In a meeting between Simon Smith and colleagues concerned for the future of Australia’s security, many topics arose. Simon Smith, a Computer Forensic Investigator, Certified Fraud and IT Expert, and Expert Witness who specialises in tracking down cyber-criminals, cyber-stalkers and cyber-defamers, said, “I made recommendations to the Department of the Prime Minister in Cabinet last year and have not noticed any implementations.”

Mr. Smith is often called upon to cyber crisis calls for businesses, the public, lawyers (as an expert witness) and has even assisted the media and external police forces. He is a highly qualified “first responder” who has solved many cyber-security and cyber-crime breaches. He sees cases through all the way (and is not just a ‘short course expert’) and has solved cyber-crimes for many that Australia had given up on. He has seen the devastation that a breach can do to a business, or stalking can do to a family or individual/teenager and says that, “the Government are focussing their energies in the wrong area.

“Almost every single Corporate case relates to insiders misusing their trust.” Mr. Smith goes on to say that the Government have a ‘Hollywood view’ of hacking. 

Mr. Smith is a Certified Ethical Hacker and Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator as well as an expert in IT and software engineering with over two decades of industry experience, and says, “the Government need to tighten up on their own Governance.”

ASKING THE GOVERNMENT TO INVESTIGATE THEMSELVES

“The prospect of asking the Government to strongly scrutinise their internal operations and staff policies, especially their most senior staff, should not be so hard”, Mr. Smith said. “It seems to be that the true public servants and high level ‘independent’ appointed Politicians, Ombudsman, Commissioner’s, Anti-corruption bodies, Regulator’s and other public servants are in fact the ‘insider threats’ just as in the corporate world, but the difference is – the Government refuses to listen and consult with the public.” 

Mr. Smith shared his concerns with a former client and now highly respected colleague who attended the meeting and shares first-hand experience in attempting to consult with high-level Government. 

Helen Edwards is the ‘Secretary General’ of a newly forming ‘International Governance Prosecution Agency (IGPA)’. Ms. Edwards has been lobbying for change and better communications and has been met with what she calls the “brick wall” approach. She had the following to say in respect of her experiences.

“I had to seek external help to have my own international cyber fraud case investigated due to non-action by the Australia Federal Police, and then ACORN, Queensland Police since December 2014, reaching out to all Regulators – ASIC, AUSTRAC, ACCC, FOS, APRA, AG in etc, and the long list goes well on into 2015.

“Even the former PM Tony Abbott, Treasurer Joe Hocky or current PM Malcolm Turnbull, Treasurer Scott Morrison –all acknowledged my recommendations, but still took no action to date.

“Since then I too see the failure from top to bottom ‘could not care less’ unsupportive taxpayer funded employee attitude.

“SO, I was forced to reach out to my wide network and go public on LinkedIn to share some of the responses of our Government.

“The entire world now is watching the incompetence of those who have failed its citizens.

“As this negligence does impact the rest of the world, other international anti-fraud groups have reached out to me where I will be sharing my findings of over 3.5 years of complete non-action.”
 

SOLVING THE ISSUE FROM WITHIN - STARTS WITH INTERNAL CHANGES

Understanding the problem is the first step. Admitting there is a problem is the second step. Only then can the Australian public have greater faith in the nation’s online security capability, and it is fair to say not many hold high confidence there. There was a general consensus amongst the group that there is a fundamental misunderstanding of the culture of cyber security, and until the Government can understand that it works from the top down, history will repeat itself.

"As a citizen myself, every person I need to be assured that my personal details are not going to be “accidentally leaked” out into the public. I have no confidence at all given past events and the lack of industry cyber knowledge within the Australian Government (which includes the Police force) and this is a major issue that affects every person in this country. I express gravel concerns at how fragile and unprepared Australia is to cyber attacks, and how real stakeholders have and continue to be ignored, and it is simply not good enough!”, Mr. Smith said.

To learn more about Simon Smith and the work that he does, feel free to email the media contact below.

media@evestigator.com.au
https://www.cybersecurity.com.au
https://www.evestigatormedia.com.au
https://www.evestigatorreviews.com.au
https://www.cyberblog.com.au