Australia’s Digital Trust Report 2020

FOREWORD

Australia’s digitally geared economy relies on trusted infrastructure and data.

Australia’s digital infrastructure and the data it carries are core to the value and growth of the nation’s economy. The growing economic dependency on the digital domain has an intrinsic relationship with the trust users and consumers have in it and therefore the security, privacy and resilience of the infrastructure and data.

Australia’s Digital Trust Report 2020 highlights the role ‘digital trust’ plays in attracting investment and driving jobs growth. It draws on data modelled by Synergy’s Advanced Modelling Group to quantify the value of digital activity to the Australian economy and model the impact of a major cyber security incident creating a digital interruption to the Australian economy.

Together with AustCyber’s other key advisories on cyber security sector growth in Australia – Australia’s Cyber Security Sector Competitiveness Plan and the Australian Cyber Security Industry Roadmap – this report demonstrates the role that cyber security plays as a ‘horizontal sector’ in enabling growth opportunities across other sectors of the economy.

The timing of the release of this report is both critical and deliberate. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a rapid move to remote working and education, renewed focus on online business delivery and fast adaptation of supply chains using digital technologies.

The quality of digitisation and its trustworthiness is now under immense pressure as the economy recovers from the pandemic. Focus is needed to ensure the digital environment is secure, resilient and effective.

This report argues that not only are key sections of Australia’s economy undergoing a step-change because of the transition to a digital environment, but that Australia’s economic future is founded in large part on the security of this digital step-change going forward.

For this transformation to be fully realised, Australia must invest in the means to secure digital infrastructure and data to assure trust and sustain efforts to reboot growth. This will ensure all parts of the Australian economy that are becoming increasingly reliant on digital technologies have a solid a base for market confidence and guidance for successful investment. It will create the conditions for Australia to improve its global competitiveness through the necessary digital governance that provides the foundation for minimising disruptive incidences of digital intrusions that undermine our economic security.

A globally competitive Australian cyber security sector will ultimately underpin the future success of every industry in the national economy. AustCyber is a critical point of coordination for industry creation and sustainment, forming a key part of the nation’s approach to better managing cyber risk and supporting the economy to become cyber resilient.

Federal, state and territory government leadership is vital. AustCyber has calculated that for every procurement dollar spent on a local cyber company, it returns at least $4.70 in direct revenue and a further $5.00 in spillover benefits including job creation.

A consolidated effort between government and industry is needed to preserve, but also evolve, Australia’s vital digital activities while ensuring it can scale.

Michelle Price
Chief Executive Officer, AustCyber