Online Candid Conversation with LTGEN Michelle McGuinness

𝗔𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗮’𝘀 𝗡𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝘆𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗖𝗼𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿, Lieutenant General Michelle McGuinness CSC led Melbourne Forum members and guests in a very generous, informative and insightful 𝗖𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗱 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 on how the 𝗡𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗖𝘆𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 (NOCS) is building Australia’s Cyber Resilience. It was a very timely session exploring how so many of our critical infrastructure areas are under constant and aggressive attack. It was sobering to consider how many of us have been impacted by one or more of major breaches such as those impacting clients of Qantas, Medibank, Optus, Latitude Financial, many Australian Super Funds and, most recently, by the 2200 Australian clients of the learning management system CANVAS.

At the same time, it was enormously re-assuring to understand the pro-active, business friendly and rapid way in which NOCS can and does works. Our participants were very impressed with how Michelle and the NOCS have built great 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙨𝙩 across so many stakeholders – businesses, universities, governments at all levels, major infrastructure and security providers – both in Australia and globally. That level of trust enables the NOCS to bring key stakeholders together very quickly when there is a major breach. The NOCS is now the model that other countries are seeking to emulate. We all also learnt the three things we should each do a personal level to ensure we maximised our own resilience – and that of organisations - to potential cyber-attacks – as they will not diminish but only increase!