Outgoing Telstra chief executive Andy Penn has called it the “biggest lever” Australia can make in its efforts to fight cyber-attacks.
Mr Penn, who chairs the cyber industry committee that advises the federal government, said educating people about ransomware and other digital threats was the best way to prevent them.
“We’re never going to be able to take it all in,” he told the National Press Club in Canberra on Tuesday.
“So the one area where we’re asking where we think the government could invest more, in the context of the overall scale of this strategy is in community awareness.”
Last year, Penn urged the government to take a stronger stance on ransomware and other types of malware as cyberattacks increase in frequency and intensity.
He said on Tuesday that the federal government needed to take a national approach to dealing with cyber attacks, including investing in its defences.
“The way I always describe it, you know if we wanted to rob a bank 100 years ago, you’d go down Main Street and knock on the door and the money would be in the safe in the back,” Penn said. .
“Unfortunately, now you can rob a bank from anywhere in the world and that’s metaphorically what’s happening and that’s the challenge.”
Mr Penn threw his support behind new Home Affairs and Cybersecurity Minister Clare O’Neil’s plans to overhaul Australia’s cyber security strategy.
Ms O’Neil will reshape the strategy from 2020, which Mr Penn advised the Morrison government.
Mr Penn said the confluence of technological advances and a more fractured geopolitical environment had led to a “significant increase” in cyber threats.
“Make no mistake, Australia is an attractive and active target for malicious actors and cybercriminals,” Penn said.
“The bottom line is that, at a time when we’ve become more dependent than ever on doing things digitally, and this dynamic is only going to increase, the digital platforms and digital infrastructure we rely on are at risk.”
In the past 12 months, Telstra has intercepted more than 1 million malicious emails and 200 million scam calls, Penn said.
And the telecom giant blocks more than 1500 text scams every minute.