Oxford Cybersecurity Capacity Experts Begin Work with New Oceania Cyber Security Centre

The collaboration between the Global Cyber Security Capacity Centre (GCSCC), based at the Oxford Martin School, and the Government of Victoria, Australia, is now officially underway, following the launch of the new Oceania Cyber Security Centre (OCSC) in Melbourne.

The new facility, the first international regional partnership for the GCSCC, will be the focal point for cybersecurity capacity building in the Oceania region. It is located at the headquarters of Data61, the digital research arm of Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Organisation (CSIRO).

The teams from GCSCC and the new centre will work closely together, using the GCSCC’s first-of-its-kind Cybersecurity Capacity Maturity Model (CMM), to assess the region’s cybersecurity capacity and develop an understanding of what good cybersecurity looks like. The work will also help to expand the GCSCC-led Cybersecurity Capacity Portal, a global resource for knowledge and good practice in cybersecurity capacity building. The collaboration was agreed in December 2015, when Hon Philip Dalidakis, Minister for Small Business, Innovation and Trade, Victoria, signed a memorandum of understanding at the Oxford Martin School, and work will begin in the coming months, subject to signature of a formal agreement.

The OCSC has been established with support from the Victorian Government and brings together eight Victorian universities, the Melbourne-based Defence Science Institute and major private sector partners. It draws on Victorian universities’ world-class capabilities in cybersecurity, and will partner with leading cybersecurity teams operating in the state’s extensive financial services, defence, and telecommunications sectors, and actors from the international community.

Mr Dalidakis said: “Oxford University is a world leader in cybersecurity policy, research and education. Their decision to collaborate with the Oceania Cyber Security Centre in Melbourne is a huge vote of confidence for Victoria’s tech sector."

Professor Sadie Creese, Director of the Global Cyber Security Capacity Centre, said: "Academic collaboration is crucial to all of us and we are very excited to start working with colleagues at the new OCSC to drive cybersecurity capacity building in the Oceania region. Through this collaboration we hope to leverage the extensive academic wealth in Victoria and beyond to complement and further the work we are doing in Oxford and across the world."