Gov appoints first Ambassador for Cyber Affairs

Dr Tobias Feakin has been appointed Australia’s inaugural Ambassador for Cyber Affairs.

Feakin’s role, established as part of the government’s $230 million Cyber Security Strategy, will be to “identify opportunities for practical international cooperation and ensure Australia has a coordinated, consistent and influential voice on international cyber issues”.

Feakin will sit within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and work alongside Special Adviser to the Prime Minister on Cyber Security, Alastair MacGibbon.

Dr Tobias Feakin

A statement from Minister of Foreign Affairs, Julie Bishop said that Feakin will “support cyber capacity building in the region, advocate against state censorship of the Internet and promote Australia’s view that opportunities provided by the Internet should be available to all people” and work with other countries to “strengthen the global response to cybercrime”.

The Brit was a member of the Independent Panel of Experts that supported the Australian Cyber Security Review to produce Australia’s Cyber Security Strategy. He has been the Director of National Security Programs at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute since 2012 and established the Institute’s International Cyber Policy Centre.

He has previously held research and advisory positions at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, the Oxford University Global Cyber Security Capacity Centre, the Global Commission on Internet Governance and the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace.

He is expected to take up the appointment in January 2017.