Keynote
Topic: “Hardening the National Information Infrastructure: Possible or Not?”
Speaker: Professor William J Caelli, AO, Assistant Dean - Strategy and Innovation, Faculty of Information Technology, Queensland University of Technology

March 29, 10.25 – 10.55

Abstract:
The microprocessor/microcomputer revolution of the 1970s led to the commoditisation of the products of the ICT industry. This occurred just as the USA proposed a set of security evaluation standards for computer based systems, the famous "Rainbow Series" of standards, that largely addressed the earlier mainframe/minicomputer industry. The result has been that national information infrastructures have been established based on these low to no security products and systems while the Internet provided connectivity on a global scale. Is it now possible to "harden" that infrastructure so that e-commerce, e-government and like transaction based systems, critical to efficient and versatile operation of national commerce, industry and government, can operate in a more trusted environment? Moreover, other critical infrastructures themselves make use of that very information infrastructure in areas of transport, energy, etc. That "hardening" to meet new challenges may take the form of both technological and policy/legal initiatives but the timing, financing, deployment and allied factors are yet to be determined.

Biography:
Prof Caelli is the Assistant Dean – Strategy and Innovation in the Faculty of Information Technology at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. He co-leads the cyber law and policy research group in the Information Security Institute (ISI) at QUT which incorporated the Information Security Research Centre (ISRC), a research centre of which he was the Founding Director in 1988. He is a member of the “IT Security” and chairs the “Futures” Expert Advisory Groups (EAG) to Australia’s Critical Infrastructure Advisory Council (CIAC) established under its Federal Government sponsored Trusted Information Sharing Network (TISN). He also serves on the advisory board to Australia’s AISEP (Australian Information Security Evaluation Program) which involves accreditation under the international “Common Criteria”.

He has over 42 years of experience in the IT industry, with over 30 years involvement in information security and cryptography. He founded ERACOM Pty Ltd in 1979 (now ERACOM Technologies Pty Ltd), a company that develops and markets advanced, integrated cryptographic systems and information security products around the world. These products and systems particularly address the needs of the banking and finance industries worldwide. He received his PhD from the Australian National University (ANU) in Nuclear Physics in 1972. He is a Fellow of the Australian Computer Society (ACS) and the Institute for Combinatorics as well as being a Senior Member of the IEEE. In 2002 he was presented with the Kristian Beckman Award by Technical Committee 11 of IFIP, the International Federation for Information Processing based in Vienna, Austria, for his international work in information security. He received the Pearcey Medal in September 2002 for his lifelong work in and contributions to the IT industry. He is a Board Member of the USA’s Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education (CISSE). Computerworld Australia has designated him as a “Computer Pioneer”. He was made an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) in the January 2003 Australia Day honours list. Professor Caelli’s research and education interests lie in trusted computer systems and networks, cryptography and its integration into systems as well as in the legal, social and political implications of information security and related matters.