The Australian Government has launched Australia's International Cyber and Critical Technology Engagement Strategy, with the aim of delivering a safer, more secure and prosperous cyberspace across Australia, the Indo-Pacific and the world.
In line with this plan, La Trobe University, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur and the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar received a grant from the Department of Foreign Affairs and trade, which will fund new research aiming to identify and improve current practices and associated loopholes in data protection policies in different industry sectors across supply chains.
The project will provide Australian and India business with improved ethical policy and practice when outsourcing their technology to Indian providers. It will also improve the understanding of how they translate being signatories of Ethical Codes to their actual practice.
“In terms of Australia’s Cyber Engagement Strategy, it’s important that this project focuses on how multinational companies outsource their digital practices to companies in India, and which frameworks are operationalised in their business practice,” says Professor Suzanne Young, Associate Provost and College Pro Vice-Chancellor for the College of Arts, Social Sciences and Commerce at La Trobe University.
From July 2019 to June 2020, the Australian Cyber Security Centre responded to 2,266 cyber security incidents involving malicious cyber activity and ransomware. Professor Young says such incidents may “prevent users from embracing cyber technologies”, and it is therefore necessary to identify the gaps in current practices to ensure user data remains safe and secure.
Professor Young will work alongside Professor Naveen Chilamkurti and Professor Damminda Alahakoon from La Trobe University, Professor Murali Prasad Panta from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur and Dr Sameer G Kulkarni from IIT Gandhinagar.
“Cyberspace technologies in core industries such as health, energy, finance, entertainment all generate personal data, and custodians of the data may exploit the vulnerable sections,” says Professor Murali Prasad Panta from the Department of Economic Sciences at IIT Kampur. “These gaps in cyber security can become the breeding grounds for cyber crimes. Our present study on ethics and critical technologies of the core industries will minimise transaction costs of the parties involved and promote overall well being of the nations, and we look forward to collaborating with our Australian colleagues.”
As director of the Research Centre for Data Analytics and Cognition (CDAC), Professor Alahakoon is very excited to be working on this project which will provide a platform to demonstrate the cutting-edge technologies developed at CDAC and La Trobe.
“The grant has opened up a very valuable opportunity to demonstrate and validate Australian Artificial Intelligence innovations, which are of immense importance to Australia’s Cyber Engagement Strategy” says Professor Alahakoon.
This research will occur over a 12 month period and is expected to be completed by June 2022.
