The Australian Cyber Collaboration Centre (A3C) is a not-for-profit organisation funded largely by

South Australian Government The Government of South Australia, also referred to as the South Australian Government, SA Government or more formally, His Majesty’s Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of South Australia. It is modelled o ...

grants and based on collaboration of its member organisations, which focuses on

cyber security Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, the ...

. It is connected to the

Department for Innovation and Skills Government in South Australia is delivered by a number of agencies, grouped under areas of portfolio responsibility. Each portfolio is led by a government minister who is a member of the Parliament of South Australia, appointed by the Governo ...

and located at Lot Fourteen in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

History

The former Chief Information Security Officer of

Western Australia Police The Western Australia Police Force, colloquially WAPOL, provides police services throughout the state of Western Australia, an area of 2.5 million square kilometres, the world's largest non-federated area of jurisdiction, with a population ...

, Hai Tran, was appointed as the inaugural CEO in June 2020, ahead of its official launch on 6 July 2020. at Lot Fourteen on North Terrace in Adelaide. The centre was established in collaboration with the federal and

, as well as industry partners including

BAE Systems Australia BAE Systems Australia, a subsidiary of BAE Systems plc, is one of the largest defence contractors in Australia. It was formed by the merger of British Aerospace Australia and GEC-Marconi Systems and expanded by the acquisitions of Armor Holding ...

and

Optus Singtel Optus Pty Limited (commonly referred to as Optus) is an Australian telecommunications company headquartered in Macquarie Park, New South Wales, Australia. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Singaporean telecommunications company Singte ...

; academic institutions including

UniSA The University of South Australia (UniSA) is a public research university in the Australian state of South Australia. It is a founding member of the Australian Technology Network of universities, and is the largest university in South Australi ...

, Flinders University,

The University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...

and

TAFE SA TAFE South Australia (TAFE SA) provides vocational education and training in South Australia. The acronym TAFE stands for Technical and Further Education and is used and recognised nationally throughout Australia. TAFE SA is a Registered trai ...

; South Australia's Office for Cyber Security; Commonwealth's Defence Science and Technology Group; and the independent (partly government-funded) organisations AustCyber and the Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre. Before its opening, A3C had already launched a six-day pilot training course in collaboration with University of Adelaide and aizoOn Australia, focused on digital forensic and incident response. In November 2021, A3C extended its partnerships to include

Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...

. An invite only panel discussion was organised by the Australian Cyber Collaboration Centre in November 2022 with the topic of Australia's Security of Critical Infrastructure Act. Participants at the panel included DTEX Systems,

Department of Home Affairs (Australia) The Department of Home Affairs is the Australian Government interior ministry with responsibilities for national security, law enforcement, emergency management, border control, immigration, refugees, citizenship, transport security and ...

NBN Co NBN Co Limited, known as simply nbn, is a publicly owned corporation of the Australian Government, tasked to design, build and operate Australia's National Broadband Network as the nation's wholesale broadband provider. The corporation reports ...

, Providence Consulting Group, MITRE Corporation and the

Commonwealth Bank of Australia The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), or CommBank, is an Australian multinational bank with businesses across New Zealand, Asia, the United States and the United Kingdom. It provides a variety of financial services including retail, busine ...

Role and responsibilities

The A3C's function is "to make cyberspace a better, and safer, place for organisations, corporations, agencies and institutions to do business". Its work includes identifying vulnerabilities to

cyber attack A cyberattack is any offensive maneuver that targets computer information systems, computer networks, infrastructures, or personal computer devices. An attacker is a person or process that attempts to access data, functions, or other restricted ...

s; providing testing of all hardware and

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. ...

components of IT systems (the Cyber Test Range); providing training in cyber security (the Cyber Training Academy); creating strategic and practical plans for implementing cyber security; and following progress and assessing the value of investments afterwards. Training is an essential component of its work, as cyber crime affects about 25 per cent of businesses, South Australia is developing its defence,

space Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually cons ...

and other technology industries, and there is a shortage of skilled workers in cyber security. In 2019 Minister of Innovation and Skills, David Pisoni forecasted up to 7500 job opportunities in the ICT sector in the state in the next five years, of which 1500 would need cyber security skills. A3C also focuses on small businesses which may not have large resources to protect themselves from

s, aiming to help them foster collaborations with other organisations which can help.

Governance, funding and membership

The centre is under the ministerial responsibility of the Minister of Innovation and Skills, David Pisoni, and overseen by a board. The inaugural chair is Kim Scott, director of TAO Consulting. While most funding comes from government sources, the Commonwealth Bank is a major sponsor, and the Global Cyber Alliance is a partner to A3C. The previous Chief Executive of the Australian Cyber Collaboration Centre was Mike Barber. Its approximately 40 members are drawn from academia, industry, cyber security and

defence industry The arms industry, also known as the arms trade, is a global industry which manufactures and sells weapons and military technology. It consists of a commercial industry involved in the research and development, engineering, production, and s ...

companies, government departments, equipment vendors and other membership bodies. Effective 7 November 2022, the Australian Cyber Collaboration Centre appointed a new CEO, Matthew Salier. Matthew joined the Australian Cyber Collaboration Centre from RMIT University where he was the Director of the RMIT Cyber Ready Cloud Innovation Centre.

References

External links

*{{official, https://www.cybercollaboration.org.au/ Australian intelligence agencies Government departments of South Australia Computer security organizations Cyberwarfare 2020 establishments in Australia