Details

As the Australian Security Amendment (Critical Infrastructure) of 2020 states: ‘Critical infrastructure is increasingly interconnected and interdependent, delivering efficiencies and economic benefits to operations. However, connectivity without proper safeguards creates vulnerabilities that can deliberately or inadvertently cause disruption and result in cascading consequences across economy, security and sovereignty’.

Threats such as interference and cyber attacks (conducted by state-and non-state actors), espionage and trusted insiders, have the potential to significantly disrupt Australian and German/European critical infrastructure. For the purpose of this dialogue, the focus will be on foreign interference, be it state-sponsored or by non-state actors.

In light of growing regional geopolitical tensions and in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the threats and risks to Australia’s and Germany/Europe’s critical infrastructure are continuously evolving. We must therefore adapt our approach to the new threat environment if we want to ensure the ongoing security and resilience of these critical assets and the essential services they provide.

Incidents like the compromises of the Australian parliamentary network, key corporate entities and other essential assets during the last two years, as well as cyber-related incidents in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, highlight that threats to critical infrastructure assets continue to be significant. Further, as stated in the Security Amendment (Critical Infrastructure) of 2020, ‘the interconnected nature of critical infrastructure means that compromise of one essential function can have a domino effect that degrades or disrupts others’.

While Australia has not suffered a catastrophic attack on critical infrastructure yet, it has seen an increase in cyber attacks in the last few years that have targeted the federal parliamentary network, health organisations and medical research facilities as well as key supply chain businesses related to the food and medical supplies sectors.

The dialogue aims to bring together policy-makers and experts from the two regions to discuss common threats and respective government measures as well as develop ideas and potential solutions for how to adapt the respective strategies to the fast evolving threat environment. It further aims to establish actionable policy recommendations, providing a base for future Australian-German/European cooperation.