The Korean Peninsula has become a “peace time” test bed for offensive cyber operations targeting civil society, critical infrastructure (nuclear power stations) and military forces (ballistic missiles). This is an alarming development given that the peninsula is the location of the single most dangerous strategic confrontation in the world, in terms of the forces concentrated in a single area, associated high states of alert, and almost weekly threats of war from one side. At the same time, South Korea has taken a leading role in international diplomacy for a free and open internet and has set some useful benchmarks for national cyber security policy that other countries might emulate. Professor Greg Austin will give an overview of these developments, including reflections on how the actual use of cyber weapons (“force short of war”) and diplomatic imperatives of cyber space are transforming the character of the military and strategic confrontation. The seminar is an event of the Research Group on Cyber War and Peace at UNSW Canberra.
Dr Austinisa Professor in the Australian Centre for Cyber Security at the University of New South Wales (Canberra). He concurrently serves as a Professorial Fellow with the EastWest Institute (EWI) in New York. He has published six books on Asian security affairs (five are on China, one on Russia), each with a strong interdisciplinary focus; and one additional edited volume on energy security. His current research interests include cyber strategy and diplomacy, security policies of China and Russia, countering violent extremism, and national security ethics. He has held posts in Australian security policy as Ministerial adviser, parliamentary committee secretary, international intelligence liaison officer and intelligence analyst. He led UNSW efforts to set up Australia’s first Master’s degree in cyber war and peace. He teaches courses in “Cyber Security in Asia”, “Australian Cyber Diplomacy”, “Australian Cyber Forces” and “Cyber Policy in China”. He is currently writing a book on cyber security in China with Springer publishers.
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