CeBIT Australia CIO Summary Report

CeBIT Australia CIO Summary Report

CeBIT CIO Summary Report If you attended CeBIT Australia 2016, you are no doubt suffering from a fairly severe case of information overload. And no wonder - there were so many excellent presentations and ideas, it was hard to take it all in! Cyber security was a major theme at this year s conference, as was the Internet of Things. Some of the highlights included: Timothy Pilgrim, of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), speaking about deidentification as a response to the privacy challenges of big data; Lynwen Connick, of the Cyber Policy and Intelligence section in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, speaking on the government initiative Australia s Cyber Security Strategy ; Tobias Feakin, of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, speaking on Australia s roles in shaping the international cyber environment; Shara Evans, of Market Clarity, speaking on the possible challenges cyber crime could present in the future; and Mark Sheppard, of GE Australia, speaking about the industrial internet revolution. 1. Cyber security presents great risks but also great opportunities Cyber security is a huge challenge in today s digital world according to Lynwen Connick, breaches in cyber security cost the Australian economy an estimated $17 billion a year, and Shara Evans noted the consequences of a cyber security breach also include reputational damage and sometimes even criminal charges. And as technology becomes ever more advanced, the cyber security implications become more profound the emergence of the Internet of Things makes even our household goods vulnerable to cyber attacks; identity theft becomes all the more frightening as things like biological 3D printing and facial recognition become possible and ever more precise; and surveillance technologies such as drones are becoming even more sophisticated and difficult to detect. These scenarios serve as a warning of what could happen if cyber security is not kept at the forefront of business processes. We ve distilled these talks into these main takeaways: 2

However, these increasing risks means there is also increasing opportunities in the area of cyber security, and Australia is very well situated to take advantage of these opportunities. As Tobias Feakin noted, the Asia-Pacific region has 1.4 billion internet users in a region of 4 billion people. This region is also the home of some very disparate connectivity: it contains some of the most connected countries in the world (South Korea and Japan) as well as some of the least (Myanmar and Cambodia). From an economic perspective, this region is the place to be. As of 2015/16, the Asian economy was still growing by 6.7% and constituted a third of total economic growth. Further underlining the importance of cyber security to the national agenda, the government has just released the Australia s Cyber Security Strategy initiative. The strategy includes these five themes of action: 1. A national cyber partnership: bringing together government, businesses and the research community to advance Australia s cyber security. 2. Strong cyber defences: making Australia s networks and systems harder to compromise and more resilient to cyber attacks. 3. Global responsibility and influence: actively promoting a free, open and secure internet. 4. Growth and innovation: ensuring Australian businesses grow and prosper through cyber security innovation. 5. A cyber-smart nation: giving Australians the cyber security skills and knowledge they need in order to thrive in the digital age. At the crux of this strategy is the aim of harnessing the economic opportunities of the internet while at the same time protecting those who use it. In order to be able to harness those opportunities, it s essential that users are able to trust that their data is safe. Timothy Pilgrim spoke of one such measure of data protection: deidentification. Deidentification is a smart and contemporary response to the privacy challenges of big data using the same computing technology that allows data analytics to strip data sets of their personal identification potential, while retaining the research utility of the data. When done correctly, deidentified information is no longer personal information and is therefore outside the scope of the Privacy Act. It therefore has the potential to solve the privacy dimensions of data analytics. 3

Australia has sent a message to the world that it means to be a new cyber ambassador, and with this announcement, we incur a large responsibility, not just for ourselves, but to the region as a whole. There are both tremendous opportunities and pitfalls that shape the cyber environment and Australia must carefully and skilfully navigate it if it is to achieve its aims. As Evans said in her closing words: We can no longer afford to have security or privacy as an afterthought or to have ethics missing in action. The future is not written; it s up to us to create the world we want to live in. Key action points: Assess your business current cyber security measures. Are there further measures, such as deidentification, that could be taken to protect your data? Consider whether your employees require further education and training in cyber security. Ensure cyber security is fully integrated into design processes for any digital products and services (and is not merely an afterthought). 4

2. The next industrial era is here Mark Sheppard says that one of the most common questions he gets in the course of his work is: is the industrial internet revolution actually real? His reply is that if you look beyond the hype, the industrial revolution is nascent, and while the potential is there, in his experience, clients are looking at how they can leverage what is currently available to procure quick wins and elegant solutions for their businesses. Therefore, GE have recognised that they need to disrupt their current business model by putting the value proposition at the core of their customer experience. In other words, it s not enough to build a great train the question instead needs to be: how does this train deliver iron ore as effectively as it can? It s this change of focus, according to Sheppard, that has given his clients some significant early wins. $150 million annually due to unplanned downtime, which led GE to ask: how do we create the most reliable pipeline? The answer was to put in hundreds of sensors along the pipeline, which would give data about the functionality of various sections. With that data, technicians could then anticipate problems that might arise and fix them before they became more significant. The result of these measures was 99.2% guaranteed uptime. This is just one small example, but Sheppard argues that the small things have the potential to be truly transformative. He also argues that if we want to lock into the possibilities that the industrial revolution could afford Australia, then we must address the fear and uncertainty that surrounds the concept, in addition to attracting and fostering talent in the industrial space. If we could do this, then the industrial revolution could be a real platform that will afford real opportunity. And this is where the Internet of Things can play such a crucial role, because its capabilities can be harnessed in order to optimise the operations of, well, just about anything. For example, in the oil and gas industry, a client was losing Key action point: Identify areas of loss or underperformance within your business: could the Internet of Things be employed to improve efficiencies? 5

Can t wait to find out what s on the CeBIT agenda? CeBIT is the largest gathering of technology-minded business people in the APAC region. If you want to discover the latest solutions and software at an enterprise, SME and start-up level, you need to be at CeBIT Australia! Register my interest today 6