More need to stay cyber secure

A leading computer security provider says the government has not done enough to keep major infrastructure safe from the threat of cyber attack.

"We found accelerating threats and vulnerabilities," the report from McAfee and the Centre for Strategic and International Studies said.

Federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland has routinely spoken of the need for cyber protection of facilities like major banks, electricity networks and water providers.

But the report says much more must be done.

"For the second year in a row, IT executives in the critical infrastructure sector told us that they perceive a real and growing cyber threat," it says.

"Denial-of-service attacks on energy networks increased and hostile government infiltration of their networks achieved staggering levels of success."

While the McAfee research was global, it was later broken down to reveal Australia is well behind the likes of Japan and Britain in efforts to improve IT security.

The research also revealed that almost 30 per cent of corporate IT chiefs say they have never been contacted by government as part of national work.

Globally, 25 per cent of critical infrastructure companies do not interact with their government on cyber security and network defence matters.

"In the case of Australia, 40 per cent of respondents viewed Russia as the main concern," the report said.

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