We are creating some awesome events for you. Kindly bear with us.

Australian digital identity assets and how they can be protected

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) has released a new report concerning the country’s national records and the important role the records play as the collective digital identity of the nation.

As reported, the author of the ASPI report explains how an attack on these records could disrupt the day-to-day functioning of society and why more should be done to protect them.

These records are accurate, confidential and not to be tampered with. Living in the digital era means having these digital identity records transformed into electric data and stored virtually in cloud servers.

These servers act as the memory centre of the nation, preserving Australia’s unaltered history. All this digital information may be referred to as “digital identity assets”.

Since these are important for the government to function and are a legacy for future generations, the records are worth protecting.

They collectively embody who and what Australia is as a nation, its journey, as well as its time and place in history.

Any form of theft, manipulation, destruction, or deletion of digital identity can be problematic as courts may not function without the relevant digital records.

Moreover, manipulated property deeds can create legal challenges. Problems in verifying and issuing of passports and visas may also be encountered.

Plus, historic records might be tampered with or forged.

In the worst-case scenario, such an attack could interfere with the proper functioning of government, and shatter public trust and confidence in government institutions.

Critical infrastructures are not the only target of cyberattacks. Servers hosting the digital assets are also at risk.

With the use of email communications, nation states and individual hackers can gain access to these databases.

Despite this risk, there is still no clear and specific cybersecurity governance framework directed towards detecting and preventing attacks against these assets.

Several suggestions were made to protect Australia’s digital heritage. These are:

  1. Assessing cyber vulnerabilities alongside social ones

Online disinformation campaigns and malicious cyber activities are all referred to as hybrid threats while cyber situational awareness is the understanding of the complex nature of a hybrid threat.

The ability to effectively resist and recover from malicious hybrid activities depends on the capacity to detect, analyse and understand the nature of the threat, in near real time.

Improvement on cyber situational awareness calls for retention of access logs.

Metadata from government departments should be collected by the computer emergency response team and analysed in near real-time. Metadata can show who accessed a server and from what location.

  1. Store copies of historical records offline

Simulations should be done on how digital identity assets can be used against the country in order to prepare ways to counter the propaganda.

Moreover, schools and universities, for instance, can store multiple offline historic records, which can be used to verify accuracy when conflicting stories arise.

Using National Archives as a central repository for digital identity assets is a single point of failure. Redundancy work-arounds must be created.

  1. Engage the private sector

The responsibility of protecting the national records is too big and too important for the government to do alone.

Historical societies and charitable organisations may need to store hard and soft copies of the same records all over the country.

Relevant laws must mandate cybersecurity situational awareness for telecommunications companies, ISPs, computer emergency response teams, law enforcement and security agencies, but in clear and responsible fashion.

A legal mandate that is largely based on past incidents may not be an effective strategy to prevent dynamic hybrid threats.

PARTNER

Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. A private company, Qlik offers real-time data integration and analytics solutions, powered by Qlik Cloud, to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships. Qlik serves more than 38,000 active customers in over 100 countries.

PARTNER

CTC Global Singapore, a premier end-to-end IT solutions provider, is a fully owned subsidiary of ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) and ITOCHU Corporation.

Since 1972, CTC has established itself as one of the country’s top IT solutions providers. With 50 years of experience, headed by an experienced management team and staffed by over 200 qualified IT professionals, we support organizations with integrated IT solutions expertise in Autonomous IT, Cyber Security, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure, Workplace Modernization and Professional Services.

Well-known for our strengths in system integration and consultation, CTC Global proves to be the preferred IT outsourcing destination for organizations all over Singapore today.

PARTNER

Planview has one mission: to build the future of connected work. Our solutions enable organizations to connect the business from ideas to impact, empowering companies to accelerate the achievement of what matters most. Planview’s full spectrum of Portfolio Management and Work Management solutions creates an organizational focus on the strategic outcomes that matter and empowers teams to deliver their best work, no matter how they work. The comprehensive Planview platform and enterprise success model enables customers to deliver innovative, competitive products, services, and customer experiences. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with locations around the world, Planview has more than 1,300 employees supporting 4,500 customers and 2.6 million users worldwide. For more information, visit www.planview.com.

SUPPORTING ORGANISATION

SIRIM is a premier industrial research and technology organisation in Malaysia, wholly-owned by the Minister​ of Finance Incorporated. With over forty years of experience and expertise, SIRIM is mandated as the machinery for research and technology development, and the national champion of quality. SIRIM has always played a major role in the development of the country’s private sector. By tapping into our expertise and knowledge base, we focus on developing new technologies and improvements in the manufacturing, technology and services sectors. We nurture Small Medium Enterprises (SME) growth with solutions for technology penetration and upgrading, making it an ideal technology partner for SMEs.

PARTNER

HashiCorp provides infrastructure automation software for multi-cloud environments, enabling enterprises to unlock a common cloud operating model to provision, secure, connect, and run any application on any infrastructure. HashiCorp tools allow organizations to deliver applications faster by helping enterprises transition from manual processes and ITIL practices to self-service automation and DevOps practices. 

PARTNER

IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

Send this to a friend