SecurePod: Cyber as national security, from critical infrastructure to cyber wardens

The ninth episode of SecurePod features Hamish Hansford, Head of National Security at Australia's Department of Home Affairs, whose remit spans cybersecurity, critical infrastructure, countering foreign interference and terrorism. Recorded in person in Canberra, he speaks with host Nick Kelly about what Australia's cyber policy looks like in practice, including the 2023-2030 Australian Cyber Security Strategy and how his work on the National Broadband Network led him into cybersecurity.

They explore how to reach small businesses through trusted voices like accountants, and why the Cyber Wardens program borrows from the fire warden model. They also cover how the government coordinated a single national response within hours of the CrowdStrike outage. Hamish closes on the challenge of measuring whether a whole economy is becoming more secure, and asks listeners to explain what they know about cyber in a way the people around them can act on.