NSW Police progress cyber security ops centre

A plan to give NSW Police Force a 24x7 cyber security operations centre has progressed with $25.3 million allocated that will allow 15 analysts and engineers to be hired.

Deputy premier and minister for police Paul Toole said in a statement that the operations centre is an “Australian-first” and would “strengthen the Force’s cyber security defences by identifying and blocking threats in real-time.”

The establishment of the facility is a joint project led by the NSW Police Force and Cyber Security NSW, and is being funded out of the NSW government’s digital restart fund.

Plans for the centre were first revealed by iTnews last year.

“The NSW Police Force holds a significant amount of sensitive data relating to local, national and international criminal investigations, and we know there are criminals who want to get their hands on this information,” Toole said in a statement.

“By protecting police systems, we are fundamentally protecting the people of NSW by allowing the Force to function securely and effectively, and ensure criminal investigations proceed unthwarted.”

Minister for customer service and digital government Victor Dominello added that since June 2020, the NSW government has invested $315 million through the digital restart fund “to bolster the government’s cyber security capability and grow the local cyber security industry.”