Australian Signals Directorate unveils re-developed OnSecure website

10-year old ASD portal gets a design, security makeover

The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) has rolled out a re-developed version of its OnSecure website for state, territory and federal government IT professionals.

The website was first launched in 2004 as a community where government ICT professionals can discuss cyber security in secure forums.

A Department of Defence spokesperson said the site was re-developed to introduce additional features including increased website security and a secure malware upload tool. Registered users can use this tool to upload malware samples for analysis by other members.

Users also get access to forums, information security news, activities/training, ASD tools, Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC) and CERT Australia incident alerts.

According to the spokesperson, there are currently 2,000 active users from state and federal government agencies on the site.

“OnSecure is an example of the commitment to ASD’s information security mission by providing advice and assistance to Australian government agencies,” the spokesperson added.

A cyber security audit of seven Australian federal government agencies in June 2014 by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) found that none of them had achieved full compliance with the top four mitigation strategies mandated by the Department of Defence in 2013.

These strategies are: application whitelisting, patching systems, restricting administrative privileges and creating a defence-in-depth system.

According to the ANAO report, there were more than 1,790 cyber security incidents against Australian government agencies during 2012.

Follow Hamish Barwick on Twitter: @HamishBarwick

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Tags malwaredepartment of defenceAustralian Signals DirectorateOnSecure

More about Australian National Audit OfficeCERT AustraliaDepartment of DefenceNational Audit Office

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