Increasing connectivity, increases risks – Dr Feakin
INCREASING connectivity by boosting internet availability and access is good for countries such as Fiji, but it also increases risks, says Australian Ambassador for Cyber Affairs and Critical Technology Dr Tobias Feakin.
“One thing that is happening in Fiji and across the region is the increased level of connectivity – whether it be through undersea cabling and increasingly through low orbiting satellite systems, so there is a revolution in connectivity going on across the Pacific,” he said in an interview with The Fiji Times on Wednesday.
“What we all understand as Pacific partners is that that’s fantastic and will enable socioeconomic development in a fantastic way but equally you need your risk mitigation strategy.
“Because the increased bandwidth will bring with it increased threats and increased data loads which is always a prime target of various cyber threat actors.”
Dr Feakin said in response to this, the Australian government was working across a whole range of different project areas with Fiji on cybersecurity issues.
“Whether it be incident response management to a significant cyber attack and being able to do work together on that, whether it be looking at cybersecurity policy and better policy approaches – we’ve been working together in that area.
“We’ve been supporting the work of the relatively new ESafety Commissioner in Fiji which covers that broader online space to the broader public.
“So those are significant ways we are collaborating together, but we also work through regional mechanisms like Pacific Island Forum where cybersecurity is being prioritised, where we’re working through not only PILON but also an organisation called PAXON which is an operational network of more technical information sharing between those in the Pacific who are either looking at what threats are out there, how to respond to them, and doing incident management responses and sharing information between each other so that they are equipped in responding to these significant threats.”