The emergence of the Australian Intelligence Community

Greetings from the Australian National University in Canberra, where Dr John Blaxland is speaking on "The emergence of the Australian Intelligence Community". In this talk he is looking at the Australian Intelligence Community up to WW2. He will be covering later periods at the annual confeence of the AIPIO (Australian Institute of Professional Intelligence Officers), next week

Dr Blaxland pointed out that Australia has a divide between intelligence and police forces, unlike Canada and the USA. Much of this is familiar from history books (and the Wikipedia). One aspect I was not aware of is that University of Sydney provided code-breaking during WW2. This function was transferred to what became the Defence Signals Directorate (DSD), which has recently been renamed the Australian Signals Directorate.

One point which needs to be corrected in Dr Blaxlan's talk was when he said the Australian WW2 intelligence units were doing things "Ian Flemming could only dream of", it appears he is only familiar with Flemming as the author of James Bond books. But Flemming worked for the British Naval Intelligence during WW2.

This presentation is held in conjunction with the . Dr John Blaxland provides a century-spanning reflection on how the Australian Intelligence Community emerged and how it works. The talk covers the origins of intelligence and security in the early parts of the twentieth century and traces the rapid expansion of intelligence and security organisations during the Second World War -- all of which set the scene for the post war intelligence arrangements. Those post-war arrangements saw a number of organisations working in separate locations, answerable to different authorities and working to different priorities. It wasn’t until the momentum for reform gathered pace in the mid 1970s that they underwent a metamorphosis into what emerged as the Australian Intelligence Community. If you want to have a clear understanding of how the Australian Intelligence Community functions and how it came to be that way, this is the talk for you.

Social Networking and Policing

I was just interviewed by Win News Canberra, about the use of social networking by the police. I said how police need to be online, with the electronic equivalent of the bobby walking the beat, getting to know people and recommit a familiar face they can turn to in times of need.

However, online literacy needs to be incorporate into courses for students and teachers. At primary school I was trained in how to make an emergency phone call to Triple-Zero, as telephones at home were relatively new. Similarly children need to be formally trained in how to communicate online, and how to avoid dangerous situations. ACMA have a curriculum for teachers on this, which the AFP should join in.

Also some of this will be discussed at Meta 2011, next week.

ACS Political Manifesto

Greetings from the Australian Computer Society Canberra Branch conference at the Canberra Hyatt. Brice Lakin, ACS CEO, presented the "ACS Political Manifesto" which included having an ICT cabinet portfolio, the use of broadband for boosting the economy, promotion of skills with work integrated learning. In answer to a question Bruce pointed that ACS hosts the Australian Council of Deans of ICT to help promote education.

The next speaker was Detective Superintendent Brad Marden, Australian Federal Police, talking about cyber security. He asked who in the audience had contact with the AFP or other cyber security services. Several of the audience related their experiences. Superintendent Marden pointed out that in past decades most cases investigated were about insiders in organisations misusing their organisation's systems. Today the major issue is intrusion from the outside. The AFP cyber staff are a mixture of computer security experts and traditional police. One team concentrates on banking and financial cyber crime. He made the point that those attacking financial systems are professional criminals motivated by greed, not teenagers out for thrills. Other teams infiltrate online criminal groups. He is up-skilling the organisation to cope with new developments, such as smart phones.

The AFP investigates crimes under Criminal code Part 10-7. This prohibits unauthorised access and destruction of data on government computers and telecommunications networks. When Australia adopts the European Convention on Cyber-crime this will help sharing data on crime.

Apart from catching criminals, the AFP also helps the community prevent crime. Superintendent Marden claimed that the major threat to computer security is staff in an organisation inadvertently giving out sensitive information. He gave the example of social engineering, where the criminal induces the staff member to give away their password without realising they are doing it.

Some "botnets" now have multi-gigabit per second traffic flows. This allows an attacker to flood a target system and disable access to it. Rather than wait for this to happen, the AFP would prefer to find out who has this capability beforehand and prevent it happening.

Superintendent Marden mentioned the group "anonymous" which is effectively leaderless. Interestingly the group was selling masks (like the mask Hugo Weaving wore in the movie "V for Vendetta"). He commented that such groups are something society has to come to terms with. People have the right to peaceful protest, but not throw rocks through windows.

Superintendent Marden mentioned that 4G smart phones will present a threat to computer networks as they have considerable processing capacity and bandwidth.

"Think You Know" is an information program online to educate the public.

Superintendent Marden mentioned that there was work under way to provide one place to report cyber-crime and the matter would be referred to the relevant agency.

ps: I missed the conference opening address. This is usually made by a senior politician from the governing party. Interesting this year it was from Senator Scott Ludlam, from the Australian Greens.

Hybrid Police Car

While at the Belconnen Mall in Canberra yesterday, I noticed a Toyota Prius hybrid car in Australian Federal Police markings. I assume this is not used for pursuit, but it was equipped with lights.