Three global cyber hacks in the past year have prompted the federal government to make cyber security a higher priority, with a new task force formed to combat future threats.

Following Australia’s census failure in August, the revelation the US presidential elections were allegedly interfered with by Russia and the WannaCry ransomware hack that took down the UK health system, the Turnbull government has called for a task force to combat cyber crime in Australia.

“The prime minister spoke on Tuesday a week ago about cyber security and as a result of the WannaCry near miss, asked to accelerate our cyber resilience ambition and as a result we formed a task force do that,” the prime minister’s cyber security special advisor, Alastair MacGibbon, said in Sydney on Friday.

The Cyber Security Taskforce will drive fast action to improve Australia’s capability and response to cyber security and cybercrime threats, especially after the recent WannaCry attack infected more than 300,000 computers worldwide including 18 small Australian businesses, Mr MacGibbon says.

“To any politician, state or federal, to any large business that operates infrastructure, to start seeing things like hospitals closing their doors, that strikes fear, and it should.

“We dodged a bullet.”

The attack was a learning curve for Australia especially in the way it was managed, with Mr MacGibbon saying the government didn’t “do as a good as a job as we should have” in terms of sharing information and helping those affected.

The August census fail is also being treated as a learning experience as it started a conversation about cyber security that previously didn’t exist.

“There was a shift in conversation in the corridors of Canberra where secretary and agency heads were suddenly having a discussion,” Mr MacGibbon said.

“There is no debate in Canberra anymore on whether or not cyber is important.”

The new task force, which Mr MacGibbon will lead, will engage with commonwealth agencies, the private sector, as well as state and territory governments.

It’ll bring forward ideas to build the nation’s cyber capacity and capability.

-AAP