Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announces the new cyber security policy. Credit:Fairfax Media "Those organisations have worked hard with the experts at the Australian Cyber Security Centre to understand and fix the vulnerabilities," he said. What the Prime Minister would not confirm was the suspected origins of those attacks. In Defence and wider security circles, it is accepted that the cyber attacks on the weather bureau, which spread through its entire computer network, came from China. The PM is prudent not to admit that.

The new headquarters of ASIO. Credit:Katherine Griffiths But in fact China, North Korea, Russia and Iran are all high up on the list of nations suspected of launching the most cyber attacks on Australia. These are cyber intrusions into government departments and agencies, big and small businesses, and private individuals. And all with the aim of stealing identities, intellectual property, corporate knowledge, customer details, financial data, money and even national secrets. With this week's launch of Australia's Cyber Security Strategy, the first update since 2009, the term "malicious actors" takes centre stage.

Australia and its people, the PM insists, are targets for such organised criminal syndicates and foreign adversaries. These malicious actors are using the internet to further their aims and attack Australian interests. "The scale and reach of malicious cyber activity affecting Australian and private sector organisations and individuals is unprecedented," he said. "The rate of compromise is increasing and the methods used by malicious actors are rapidly evolving." Cyberspace is quite possibly the final frontier and although the Prime Minister pledged his desire for Australia to lead the world in cyber security, the fact remains that we haven't explored it near enough.

This strategy is somewhat playing catch-up with other nations, even some in our own region. As the PM noted, internet users in Asia now account for half of all users worldwide. But as research fellow at Australian National University's National Security College Dr Adam Henschke​ points out, catch-up is the cyber game. "Almost everyone is playing catch-up," he said. "Everything moves so fast in this area and Australia is really no further behind or farther ahead than many other countries.

"The launch of this strategy is definitely timely and necessary. Our biggest state threat would probably be China, but the biggest threat overall are cyber criminals in general. "And the nature of cyber is an attack might seem like it is coming from China – the attacker might even identify themselves as coming from China – when in fact it could actually be from North Korea or elsewhere. "There is no real jurisdiction and that's what makes it fun and hard." Jurisdiction is an issue when it comes to being on the offence in the cyber security realm. When releasing the strategy, the Prime Minister revealed Australia had the capacity to launch its own cyber attacks.

An offensive cyber capability housed in the Australian Signals Directorate provides another option for the government to respond, he said. This is a warning shot, letting would-be attackers know Australia can hit back. By acknowledging our ability to be on the offensive, a level of deterrence is added. Henschke​ says sending that signal is important, but any cyber attacks from Australia must be ethical. "It is called the notion of deterrence. If we can't respond why wouldn't someone attack?" he said.

"So we let potential offenders know we have the capability. But what is known as the 'just war theory' comes into play here. "Any responses from us must be discriminate and proportional. That means no attacks against innocent parties and no over-the-top massive attacks. "I believe and would hope that those principles would underpin any action Australia takes in its cyber strategy." The strategy pours an extra $230 million into 33 new initiatives over a five-tiered plan aimed at improving the nation's cyber security. The initiatives include building partnerships between government, researchers and business; beefing up defences to better detect and respond to threats; appointing an assistant minister for cyber security; a special adviser to the PM; and a cyber ambassador to lead international engagement.

More than 100 new jobs will be created and, if implemented well, the strategy could save governments, businesses and individuals in Australia as much as $17 billion a year. The Australian Crime Commission estimates put the annual cost of cyber crime to Australia at $1 billion a year. But the strategy's report factors worldwide losses from such attacks to be at 1 per cent of GDP. With that reckoning, the real impact on Australia is more likely $17 billion annually. The strategy will receive bipartisan support. The PM looks like he is doing something. There is nothing overtly political about its release this week – except for a looming election perhaps.

As Henschke​ points out, the review has been in the works for more than a year and rightly needs a collaborative approach from the political, business, academic and public arms of society. "But in these current times we're in, I guess everything is political," he said.