Standards, Regulations & Compliance

Cybersecurity Standards: Meshing Different Requirements

Australia is increasingly emphasizing the importance of cybersecurity, both to enhance defenses and to create economic opportunities.

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Crafting and using standards plays an important role, says Jed Horner, strategic advocacy manager at Standards Australia, a non-governmental organization that aids adoption of standards.

"The reality is as an Australian business, you do want to grow," Horner says. "That requires, often times, that companies meet standards."

Last year, the state of New South Wales created a Cyber Security Standards Harmonization Taskforce. It recently released a report that prioritizes seven sectors for standards development and implementation.

Horner says the task force aims to map the range of standards and best practices with the goal of bringing more clarity to organizations and businesses about which ones to use. Eventually, the task force plans to create a resource that maps regulatory requirements, both local and global, and the standards that go with those requirements.

"The current reality is that people have to pay large amounts of money to get an advice just to make the choice or indeed understand the landscape, which is something we're trying to fix," Horner says.

In this video interview, Horner discusses:

• How standards contribute to robust products and services;
• The challenges around communicating standards strategies to executive boards;
• Why different baseline standards across regions don't necessarily mean more complexity.

Horner is strategic advocacy manager for Standards Australia, which helps in the development and adoption of standards. He works on projects related to infrastructure and the digital economy, including smart cities, artificial intelligence and data sharing.