Warning over Australia's cybersecurity

The opposition's cybersecurity spokesman Tim Watts and Home Affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally have launched a discussion paper examining Australia's cyber resilience.

They say the coronavirus crisis has put into stark relief the interconnected nature of the modern world.

"It is timely to ask, 'Would Australia be prepared for a global malware pandemic? A computer COVID-19?'" they write in the paper launched at strategy think tank ASPI on Friday.

"There's reason to be concerned with the status quo."

They liken it to the lessons being learned in the coronavirus pandemic, saying just as there are collective benefits from improving a population's overall health, there are also benefits in lifting the nation's baseline cybersecurity capability.

They highlight the persistent shortage of people with cybersecurity skills.

Mr Watts said this was a particular problem for small businesses.

"People just don't have the time and money to spend on cybersecurity when they're trying to manage a business," he told AAP.

"Government's position shouldn't just be issuing warnings and then blaming the victim, government should get involved here and try to increase the overall safety of the internet for Australia."

Research suggests Australia will need an extra 17,000 people with relevant skills by 2026 to cope with demand.

Any global cyber pandemic would create intense competition for hardware and "cybersecurity incident responders".

"In such a contest, Australia would start from a position of acute disadvantage," Mr Watts and Senator Keneally write.

They canvass possible solutions used overseas, including the establishment of a Defence reservist squad of cybersecurity experts and moving to a model of active cyber defence.

Mr Watts said this was similar to the way vaccination programs are used in public health to protect people from the most common illnesses.

Australian Associated Press