March 7, 2023
Media reports today that Australian universities are training foreign students from authoritarian regimes how to conduct offensive cyber attacks, including against civilian infrastructure, are deeply concerning and needs to be investigated.
If confirmed, this would pose a serious risk to Australia’s national security which needs to be countered.
The cyber security challenge is complex, evolving and escalating at an incredible pace, and our adversaries have already demonstrated a willingness to deploy offensive cyber campaigns against us.
Australian universities should not be helping them in this task.
The University Foreign Interference Taskforce was established to bring together the university sector and Australian government agencies to better protect universities from these very risks.
After years of awareness raising about the national security risks in higher education it is surprising and disappointing that our universities are not on top of this.
Clearly, there is more work to do to ensure they are.
While there are also risks from onshore education which need to be carefully considered, mass online education offshore is of much greater concern because of its potential scale and the inability of Australian universities and authorities to exercise any meaningful supervision or oversight of students overseas. This risk is particularly acute with partner institutions who lack institutional autonomy and are closely linked to authoritarian states.
The Albanese government should urgently launch a full and prompt investigation.
