TRANSCRIPT
In the wake of the Medicare and Optus cyber hacks, the message for the public has been a consistent one.
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles told Channel 7 in November last year the scale of online threats was growing.
"Cybercrime is now big business. There's a lot of pickpockets out there in cyberspace and sometimes this is happening on a grand scale."
Cyber Security Minister Claire O'Neil has spent plenty of time warning people of the dangers that lurk online.
Earlier this year, during the official announcement of a national cyber security coordinator to combat online safety, the minister was clear this was an area of national security that couldn't be left to the government alone.
"There’s a big conceptual shift we’ve got to make with cyber security. In the past, we’ve seen national security matters as principally the concern of government. One of the reasons that cyber is such a really significant and different challenge is that it has to be a partnership approach. The national security that we face as a country is dispersed amongst citizens and businesses."
That's a message education experts are increasingly saying should be imparted as early as possible.
New South Wales has made a start, introducing a program in 2022 called Cyber City, which Digital Government Minister Victor Dominello said would help keep high school students safe - and prepare them for a digital future.
The Alannah & Madeline Foundation has also helped to roll out a tool called the eSmart Digital Licence with Singapore's Digital Intelligence Institute and Accenture Australia, to help students from 10 to 14 years of age.
The foundation's policy director Ariana Kurzeme spoke to SBS at the launch last year.
She says their initial focus has been on students unable to access high quality digital resources and are therefore at higher risk of exploitation.
"Our national rollout is focused initially on schools that are in areas where there is low digital inclusion. So those are communities that might be experiencing the digital divide for various reasons. The focus is really kind of upskilling those students in low digital inclusion areas first. It is accessible to all schools across Australia, but those schools in low digital areas at the moment are offered for free."
But Associate Professor Nicola Johnson from Edith Cowan University's School of Education says the disadvantage of these kinds of programs is that they're often electives, or programs schools have to pay for.
She wants to see consistent cyber education in school curriculums.
"Interestingly, in the health education curriculum, that's where a lot of the safety and good choices and that sort of thing, that's where that is emphasised. But what we found is that the kind of really important concepts of phishing and malware and scams are taught not until like year 7 or 8, or maybe even years 9 and 10. And so we identified that there's a real risk that a lot of students who don't choose the elective of technology - or digital technologies - they can miss out on the content that they need."
Edith Cowan University has now developed a cyber security licence program for Australian students and teachers, and has called for a national awareness campaign.
The idea of the licence program is for students to move up to different levels based on their evidence of achievement - just like they would in a swimming class.
Nicola Johnson says it would give students the tools to cope in a world where smart devices are ubiquitous, and not everyone online has the best intentions.
"Criminals are becoming increasingly clever, developing more complicated and sophisticated schemes. And they're con artists, aren't they? They are trying to dupe you. So we have to increase the sense of awareness and vigilance surrounding these tactics."
In the meantime, the federal government is looking ahead to who else might need digital education.
They've already set aside $6 million over three years in funding to complete development of a junior digital licence which will be aimed at students aged 5 to 9 years old.
Meanwhile Nicola Johnson says there are still things that students - and their families - can do to be safe online.
"Having a passcode that's not just 11111 - you know something that's a bit more complicated. Using multifactor authentication so that can be a combination of things to log into whatever program or device... The other thing to use is a password manager, because one of the ways that hackers predominantly get in is by using leaked passwords."
