According to Australia’s first ever advisor to the Prime Minister on Cyber Security Alastair MacGibbon (ON 1985), the gap in our capacity to deal with cyber-crime is increasing exponentially. Cyber criminals are developing ways to commit crimes directly against computers and computer systems, or to use technology to commit or facilitate traditional crimes, far more rapidly than before.

Mr MacGibbon is an internationally-respected authority on cybercrime, including internet fraud, security and safety issues, and was the guest this August at the Centre for Ethics.  He spoke about the increasing need for Australia to have an advanced cyber security strategy where police, intelligence agencies and the government work together to investigate and prevent the unlawful use of technology and its systems. As a Federal Agent with the Australian Federal Police for 15 years, he was adamant that despite changes in crime, the way we deal with it falls under the same national and international obligations of law.
 
“Government is changing. There are huge wake up calls for governments in this area. We cannot function the way we used to. And we will be held accountable if we do things badly”, he said.

Mr MacGibbon drew our attention to the fundamentally unrecognisable landscape of a cyber war that wages an attack on systems. He said, “on the internet where there are no boarders”, and where, “we face, the ‘defender’s dilemma’, we, as the defenders, must be vigilant and successful all of the time, but the intruder only has to be successful once.”

Mr MacGibbon said that he knows these topics are controversial because they encroach on personal liberties and pose the question – how much of our digital footprint is tracked by the authories? And with this, the audience joined in with questions regarding allegations of Russian involvement in the US Presidential elections to encryption and the role of ‘hacktivism’.

Here Mr MacGibbon took the view that “impassioned people are led down a path of malicious behaviour, unwitting or unwilling to see the consequences”. 

While ideally we would like, “an open and free yet secure internet where democratising forces are the rules we follow, and the internet is largely self-governing”, in reality, with piracy and trolls taking advantage of a new and largely ungoverned landscape, there is increasing confusion over our behaviors online. Meanwhile, online disputes relating to defamation, freedom of speech, and piracy become the bread and butter of opportunistic lawyers and law enforcers.

It was a challenging evening of disparate socio-political views, future ‘glooming’ and at times what felt like science fiction. That is what we enjoy so much about the Ethics Centre Lectures. The conversation lasts so much longer than the brief one hour of thought-provoking presentation.

NEXT LECTURE:  

Sebastian Smee  Art Critic for the Boston Globe.
Artistic License: Why do so many great artists defy conventional morality?

WHEN: Wednesday 6 September 2017, 6:30 PM
WHERE: Old Boys Lecture Theatre, Newington College