Tuesday’s industry advisory panel input into Australia’s long overdue 2020 Cyber Security Strategy is a grab-bag of ideas, but what jumps out at your correspondent is its support for active cyber defence (ACD).

ACD has been at the centre of the UK government’s cyber defences since 2016. It aims to raise the cost and risk of mounting commodity cyber attacks while reducing the return on investment for criminals.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has deployed anti-spam defences across the .gov.uk domains and is monitoring internet routing to stop DDoS attacks and route hijacks.

It’s been remarkably transparent about its progress, and it’s also led to some big wins.

While the NCSC is concerned primarily with government networks, telcos and private-sector organisations are able to plug in.

The UK’s program is “a best practice model for Australia to emulate”, according to Australia’s cyber industry advisory panel.

“The panel strongly supports the increased use of threat blocking for low-sophistication threats,” they wrote.

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