There's an alarming knowledge gap on cybersecurity in Parliament
Australian parliamentarians openly admit they don't know enough about cyber policy. As hacking incidents become more prevalent and damaging, this is a problem.
The benches of Australia’s federal parliament have long been dominated by lawyers, bankers, unionists and former political staffers.
While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it doesn’t lend itself to a deep technical knowledge in the complicated area of cybersecurity and how to regulate critical infrastructure and technologies.
Now, a new report has laid bare the knowledge gap in federal parliament in the wake of the major cyber attack on port operator DP World.
The report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute interviewed 24 parliamentarians—10.6% of the 46th Australian Parliament— for a qualitative study, and eighteen for quantitative study.
