Sector leading cyber centre opens at Lot Fourteen

A3C at Lot Fourteen brings together education, industry and business to strengthen Australia’s cyber security capability.

South Australia’s leadership in a critical and high demand sector has been enhanced with the opening this week of the Australian Cyber Collaboration Centre (A3C) at Lot Fourteen.

Speaking at the official opening, Premier Steven Marshall said A3C was the first centre of its kind in Australia, bringing together education, industry and business sectors.

AC3 a cornerstone of the state government’s vision to make SA the nation’s leader in cyber security and it has provided a $10 million investment in the centre.

Cyber security is one of the high-value, high-growth focus sectors at Lot Fourteen innovation precinct.

A3C is now operational as an independent not-for-profit entity housing the Cyber Training Academy and a Cyber Test Range, physical spaces for collaboration and cyber infrastructure to support product testing and training.

Premier of South Australia, Steven Marshall, launches A3C with the Minister for Industry and Skills, David Pisoni.

“South Australia is now driving the growth of Australia’s cyber industry, creating high-tech jobs and generating significant interest from interstate and overseas,” Premier Marshall said.

“Cyber security and resilience are increasingly becoming front of mind for the business community and COVID-19 has created further awareness due to working off-site arrangements, which are likely to continue in unprecedented numbers.

“A3C will support the development of a cyber workforce for global businesses that can establish cyber teams in South Australia to take advantage of our world class research, education, market reach and lower cost environment.”

“As the recent Australia-wide cyber attacks have shown, threats to businesses, governments and essential systems are not theoretical – they are here, they are already happening, and we must ensure we have the right people, skills and infrastructure to head them off.

Premier Marshall said cyber security was an integral part of doing business.

“The A3C is set up as a place where businesses can come to get advice and build their skills and workforce capability,” he said.

Minister for Innovation and Skills David Pisoni said A3C would engage internationally to bridge capability gaps, bring world class cyber capabilities to Australia, and champion collaboration, innovation, entrepreneurship and enterprise.

“Cyber security is a high demand industry,” he said. “Modelling by South Australia’s Training and Skills Commission shows between 5,000 and 7,500 new job openings for the state’s ICT workers over the next five years, with up to 1500 requiring training in cyber security.”

“Additionally, around 3,800 current ICT workers will need continued cyber security training to increase and maintain their skill base.

“Critical to this is upskilling and training people through the Cyber Training Academy, which will bring in world-class training capability from around Australia and around the globe.”

A3C Chief Executive Hai Tran said the Cyber Test Range would be used to carry out security testing of equipment or network configurations in an environment where networks were safe from interference.

A3C Chief Executive Hai Train speaks at the centre’s launch.

“The range will also provide capabilities for SMEs, researchers and government to collaborate. It will allow cyber security devices, software and techniques to be introduced into the environment for certification, or standards-based testing to be performed, to help get products to market,” Mr Tran said.

BAE Systems Australia Chief Executive Gabby Costigan said cyber security for the defence industry supply chain was critically important on two fronts.

“The first is the cyber security of a SME’s business systems and the second is the cyber security of their products before being incorporated into our platforms,” she said.

“Our participation in A3C aims to develop strong relationships with key industry, academia and researchers to help us find solutions to complex problems.

“We will support the ASC Shipbuilding Hunter Class Program with a focus on developing cyber capability within Indigenous owned businesses.

“A3C will also develop a strong talent pool of cyber professionals that we will need to draw upon in the future for our nationally important defence programs.”

A3C has been established in collaboration with industry, academia, and federal and state governments, including BAE Systems Australia, Optus, Dtex Systems, UniSA, Flinders University, TAFE SA, South Australia’s Office for Cyber Security, AustCyber, the Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre, The University of Adelaide and the Defence Science and Technology Group.

More: www.a3c.co