Australia's Cyber Surge: The Motivations

In March 2022, Australia announced the largest expansion and upgrade of its cyber capabilities for national security and intelligence since the creation of its national-level signals intelligence organisation in 1947. In 2024, the government announced a superseding capital investment program in cyber and space platforms that appeared to be more than double the 2022 commitments in that budget category.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 provided a political opportunity to announce the initial radical surge in spending, but that war was not the main cause of the expansion. Government announcements on the purposes of the surge have been quite apolitical and have focused heavily on what advancing technologies might dictate in intelligence and military affairs. The implied message was that Australia needed to do more to keep up with its major allies in cyber capability.

In political terms, there were likely three main geopolitical motivations or drivers for the Australian cyber surge: containing foreign interference in Australia, the need to deliver new levels of cyber operations as part of the AUKUS reorientation and strategic uplift, and the government’s exaggerated view of deteriorating strategic circumstances in the Indo-Pacific. The scale alone of Australia’s cyber surge dictates a corresponding doubling of effort in parliament's and the public's oversight of ASD activities, especially in light of the agency’s apparent intent to expand operations inside Australia.

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