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SCI RESEARCH

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Australian Cyber Policy Reform: Urgency, Coherence, and Depth

The Australian government is preparing a new cyber security strategy to cover the period 2023 to 2030. As part of the deliberations, it called for submissions on key issues, including an evaluation framework for the new strategy. This paper responds to that call. It offers reflections on a system of benchmarking and assessment by which the strategy and its implementation can be judged. In doing so, the paper offers a critique of existing approaches as the country wakes from what the government has called a ‘cyber slumber’. Three factors will be central to the success of the new commitments—a sense of urgency, a commitment to coherence between policy pillars, and investment of political capital for deep reform in individual pillars. All three factors (which we can also take as indicators of performance) depend on shared leadership by governments, industry, and community actors (especially educators).

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Valuation of Reputation Damage
for Transport Cyber Attack: Methods and Findings

This paper analyses the issue of reputation damage for transport cyber-attacks. Cyber-security attack has become an increasing focus for much business and government planning. Transport infrastructure networks are of special concern. A challenge in responding is to determine the level and allocation of cyber-security budgets. Extensive public sector involvement means that market measures of net benefit may be insufficient for government decision-makers. For example, government reputation effects will also be regarded as important, and so this paper uses focus group methods to demonstrate how project evaluation can incorporate public reputation damage measures. So called "contingent valuation" methodology is applied for this purpose in the paper, generating illustrative "willingness to pay" estimates for public reputation.

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Valuation of Reputation Damage
for Transport Cyber Attack

Cyber-security attack has become an increasing focus for business and government planning. Infrastructure networks are of special concern. However, a less understood dimension of such problems is the effect of cyber-attacks on organizational reputation, especially for public services that are not listed on stock-markets. This Report reviews this issue of reputation damage for the case of transport cyber-attacks. It does so in the context of transport operations in the state of New South Wales, Australia.

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Disaster Resilience Commission

Three senior researchers have recommended creation of a National Resilience Advisory Commission (NRAC) to prepare better the economy for the next disaster. The proposal is part of their submission to the Senate Select Committee on Covid-19.  One author of the submission is Professor Glenn Withers AO, immediate Past President of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. “A new Commission could bring together peak bodies from business, worker organisations, social welfare advocacy, and conservation. It would replace present ad hoc approaches, especially for broader planning and for when response moves into recovery and renewal.”, noted Professor Glenn Withers, Distinguished Professor of Economics at ANU. “We need to be able to be ahead of disasters in social, economic and environmental planning, as well as in core emergency prevention and response.”
 
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Creating Social Cyber Value

In the initial research paper of the SCI, Professors Greg Austin and Glenn Withers argue for the centrality of social science in cyber space management at all levels of national policy, enterprise development and human welfare. They introduce a novel concept to help achieve this reorientation: “creating social cyber value”. This refers to optimised information ecosystem performance: maximizing benefit while minimising insecurity and incompetence. Moreover, it argues that this can only be attained when the human use and misuse of relevant technology is recognised as central. They call for a shake-up in organisational structures to place CSOs and CISOs under a new post responsible for all aspects of information technology, especially human capital and social aspects..
 
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