ACS Victoria presents Cyber Security Position Paper

This week, ACS Victoria Chair, Craig Horne, presented the government with a position paper on cyber security in Victoria. The paper calls for additional government and industry investment, to position Melbourne as the global hub of significant cyber security expertise – creating jobs, new businesses and value, in the local and national economy.

Supporting this, the Digital Pulse report for 2016 shows the growing demand for cyber security professionals that Australia has not yet met. LinkedIn statistics included in the report used data about labour market pressures to highlight the cyber security skills gap in Australia’s workforce.

"I firmly believe that this is an important issue for businesses and organisations,” says Craig. “ It is vital that companies engaging cyber security professionals, can have confidence that their skills, services and products will be effective and relevant against unique, dynamic, targeted cyber security attacks.”

The Digital Pulse reports that the wider ICT industry underpins innovation and competitiveness across Victoria's economy and accounts for approximately 31 per cent of Australia's ICT workforce. ACS Victoria believes that it’s important that ICT workers in our State have a skills mix that includes both technical and “soft” skills in order to fuel our economy. The strong demand for ICT professionals who have more generalist skills opens up huge opportunities for the wider workforce in the region.

At the end of his address, Craig urged the Victorian Government to consider the recommendations in the position paper to ensure that Victoria is seen to be the leader in cyber security in Australia. ACS Victoria has clear intentions: we want to work with the government to progress this tech and digital sector and to make cyber security a priority.

To view the Position Paper, please click on the link below.

Cyber Security Position Paper