Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cyber security cooperation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit for the commemoration of the Battle of Beersheba on October 31 1917.
PM Turnbull said during a press conference in Tel Aviv that Minister Assisting the PM for Cyber Security Dan Tehan was with him in Israel leading a delegation attending a cyber security dialogue.
"We are going to take that further to have a closer collaboration on cyber security and we’ll be having another dialogue with government, industry, and academia in Canberra next year."
PM Turnbull stressed the importance of the MoU, citing the national enterprise to create a sovereign defence industry in Australia on a scale that would match the nation's defence spend.
The Prime Minister also mentioned that 16 Israeli companies were already listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and said it was a sign of how much closer the relationship between two countries has become.
Israel has displayed technological prowess in the both the cyber security and offensive cyber warfare domains and the two leaders spoke extensively on the Islamist terror threat and the role of technology in both enabling and fighting against it. PM Turnbull said a particular problem was the encrypted apps terrorists used to communicate in secret.
On 1st November Minister Tehan released a communique outlining the joint outcomes.
The statement revealed the two nations had discussed the development of their respective cyber strategies as well as frameworks and processes to best support innovation; they had also shared best practice on how governments could support and develop the local cyber security ecosystem.
"Both countries exchanged views on the challenges posed by the ‘Internet of Things’ and the level of risk across industry sectors."
The need to encourage students to strive for careers in cyber and STEM was also discussed and AustCyber and the Israeli Cyber Technology Unit also agreed to work together to cross map each other’s development priorities.
The Israeli delegation was led by Dr. Eviatar Matania, Director-General of the Israeli National Cyber Directorate (INCD), supported by Yigal Unna, chief executive director of the Cyber Technology Unit at INCD.
The Australian delegation was led by Minister Tehan supported by Cyber Security Special Adviser Alastair MacGibbon and the Ambassador for Cyber Affairs Tobias Feakin. The dialogue included representatives from different Israeli ministries, Australian government, academia and industry.