The agency responsible for combating cyber security threats to Australia, the Defence Signals Directorate (DSD), has taken charge of a Cray Inc supercomputer.
The supercomputer is expected to support DSD intelligence and cyber security missions, including those undertaken by the Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC).
Minister for defence personnel, material and science, Greg Combet, described the work as “fundamental to the security of our deployed forces and to wider government in protecting Australia against external threats such as terrorism”.
“This new supercomputer represents a cutting edge capability and was delivered in close collaboration with industry,” he said in a statement.
“The Government has made a commitment under the Defence White Paper 2009 to significantly upgrade intelligence and cyber security capabilities.”
No additional information on the supercomputer was provided.
In other supercomputer news, up to 10,000 scientists will team up with computer experts and a supercomputer at the University of Melbourne to study human diseases.
The research will involve Victorian medical and life science researchers working alongside IBM computer technicians to study areas including neuroscience, clinical genomics, and structural biology.
The Victorian Life Sciences Computational Initiative aims to improve medical diagnostics, drug discovery and design by pairing computer biology experts with researchers from universities, government, or commercial organisations.
IBM's Blue Gene/P, the latest in the vendor's supercomputer series, will be based on the University of Melbourne campus and will support the lion's share of the research work.