Defence, ANU launch cyber partnership

The secretive Australian Signals Directorate has embarked on an unusual partnership with the Australian National University to train the next generation of cybersecurity experts.

Defence Minister Marise Payne said Australia needed to prepare for the challenges of cybersecurity and that meant a skilled workforce.

She said the ASD's cybersecurity work matched well with the work at ANU.

"It's not a usual collaboration. It's something very new for us," she told reporters.

Under this plan, ASD will invest $12 million in a new facility in the ANU's research school of computer science and mathematical sciences to strengthen collaboration on data analytics and cybersecurity.

ASD is defence's top secret foreign signals monitoring body and also the government's peak adviser on information security.

Senator Payne said the work at ANU will be unclassified and there will be no restrictions on who can participate.

ANU vice-chancellor Professor Brian Schmidt said this was a big step towards improving cybersecurity.

"We are delighted to partner with the ASD on the new centre, which will help build on the university's strength in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects and Australia's expertise and capacity to meet future challenges," he said.