Cybersecurity overview reports available

By Sapeer Mayron 30 November 2018, 12:00AM

Countries can have their cybersecurity assessed by an Oceania organisation from Australia, and the reports can be useful for funding.

The Oceania Cyber Security Centre presented at the Asia Pacific Telecommunity forum this week, on how several different dimensions of cybersecurity can be measured to see how prepared a country really is. 

James Boorman is the project lead for Cybersecurity Capacity Maturity Model (CMM), and said a major benefit of the reporting is that it can be used to help pay for any improvements to cybersecurity.

"If there is an activity from that report they [the country] would like to invest in because they see it as an investment for than country, then they can approach funding bodies to get money to do that,” he said.

“By having us conduct an independent assessment it may help prepare their documentation.”

The CMM measures all elements of society when it comes to cybersecurity – from culture, to policy and regulatory frameworks. It is able to rank a country’s cybersecurity from ‘start up’, to ‘dynamic’, which should help countries decide how to move forward. 

That usually means strengthening data security around infrastructure essential to that country’s development.

"Critical infrastructure is really important to define because it’s really about what’s important for each country, and different countries have different things that are important to them,” said Mr Boorman.

For Samoa, critical infrastructure won’t look the same as it does in the United Kingdom, or Australia, he said.

Every country needs to take a look at its own priorities and avoid taking a “textbook” approach as it may not be relevant. Typically, cybersecurity training focuses on energy production or transport, says Mr Boorman, which isn’t necessarily the backbone of every economy.

By Sapeer Mayron 30 November 2018, 12:00AM

Trending Stories

Samoa Observer

Upgrade to Premium

Subscribe to
Samoa Observer Online

Enjoy unlimited access to all our articles on any device + free trial to e-Edition. You can cancel anytime.

>