The Department of Defence has advertised for a sizable clutch of senior IT security staff to be part of its Australian Defence Force Computer Security Incident Response Team based in Canberra.

The roles have titles ranging from cyber security incident manager, cyber security analyst, cyber network operations manager, tactical cyber intelligence manager and more, all sitting within the CSIRT, itself a part of Defence’s chief information officer group led by Greg Farr.

The CSIRT is responsible for the protection of Defence’s complex technology systems — what the department refers to as its Information environment. The roles range in pay level from a minimum of $68,000 for a cyber security analyst, all the way up to a maximum of $97,000 for a level 1 public service executive — a senior technology advisor or incident manager, for example.

The department has not yet responded to a request for comment, but the news comes shortly after Defence Minister John Faulkner opened its new Cyber Security Operations Centre in Canberra in mid-January, describing the move as a major step in meeting Defence’s commitment to understand online threats.

“The Cyber Security Operations Centre will employ around 130 highly-skilled information technology experts, engineers and analysts drawn from the DSD. There will also be representatives from the Defence Intelligence Organisation and the ADF and scientists from the Defence Science and Technology Organisation as well as representation from the Attorney-General’s Department, ASIO and the AFP,” Senator Faulkner said at the time.

It is not clear whether the new staff will fit into that centre, which formally sits under the Defence Signals Directorate — the national agency responsible for collecting foreign signals, and historically a key Government authority in terms of technology security.

It was the Cyber Security Operations Centre, for example, that worked with Government agencies recently to mitigate the distributed denial of service attack launched against them by the loose collective of individuals known as Anonymous.

The Federal Government also operates its own computer emergency response team — CERT Australia.

Image credit: Department of Defence

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1. David Banes
   Posted 03/03/2010 at 2:29 pm | Permalink | Reply

   They’ll be struggling to get people worth having on that money!

2. Renai LeMay
   Posted 03/03/2010 at 11:51 pm | Permalink | Reply

   Really David? I kinda thought those weren’t bad salaries, and obviously these would be pretty prestigious positions. And of course the public sector doesn’t fire people that often.

   But then journos don’t get paid very well ;)

3. Rick
   Posted 07/05/2010 at 12:16 am | Permalink | Reply

   Dave – the guys on the front line in intrusion analysis are already world-class, or better. The money is good for bright young people, it’s secure and training budgets and opportunities (overseas training, travel) exceed those anywhere in private industry….. Not to mention the unmentionable toys and infrastructure that you will never find anywhere else. Renai has it right – can you compete with living in a Bond film ;-)

4. David Banes
   Posted 04/03/2010 at 8:43 am | Permalink | Reply

   I suppose it depends if they’re looking for ‘foot soldiers’ to stare at screens of data or people that can make critical decision in real time about issues which may impact critical infrastructure.

   If it’s the latter then I’d expect to be paying $100-150k. This based on my experience running Symantec Security Response from ’97-’03.

5. Renai LeMay
   Posted 04/03/2010 at 9:18 am | Permalink | Reply

   Hmm but getting that sort of wage in the APS is a bit hard ;)

6. By Delimiter – Defence cyber-security hiring just the start on 08/03/2010 at 9:07 am

   [...] Department of Defence’s recent move to start hiring cyber-security staff in bulk appears to be just the start of its plans to secure its own electronic borders, and those of other [...]