BLUF
Australian Signals Directorate head says some Australians need to be spied on and that there needs to be a balance between transparency and security to ensure ASD can carry out its mission.Summary
Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) head, Rachel Noble, explains that some Australians need to be spied on and without some secrecy ASD would be unable to do its job. ASD is tasked with ensuring that overseas foreign criminals and hackers are unable to launch a cyber attack against Australia. With the knowledge that some Australians are working for foreign powers as spies, while others travel overseas to join extremist groups or remain to plot attacks on our shores, ASD's mission to inform, protect and disrupt is vital to national security. The Government wants to give ASD the ability to access and protect private infrastructure from cyber attacks and have the authority to help Australian law enforcement agencies. Such powers are opposed by civil libertarians. Transparency, under-pinned by sound policy and guidelines, is important and so is ASD maintaining the capability to keep Australians safe.
