{"id":37384,"date":"2018-02-19T11:00:54","date_gmt":"2018-02-19T00:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=37384"},"modified":"2018-03-07T11:08:09","modified_gmt":"2018-03-07T00:08:09","slug":"security-not-dirty-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/security-not-dirty-word\/","title":{"rendered":"Security is not a dirty word"},"content":{"rendered":"

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For over a decade, both of our major political parties, in the face of uncertain times, have been going forth \u2018getting tough on security\u2019. It would seem that General Melchett, Stephen Fry\u2019s character from the 1980s comedy classic Black Adder Goes Forth<\/em>, must\u2019ve been right when he declared, \u2018Security is not a dirty word<\/a>\u2019. However, security became a really dirty word for government last month when we had one of Australia\u2019s biggest breaches of cabinet security. Thousands of documents<\/a> spanning nearly a decade\u2014nearly all classified\u2014were sold off in two old filing cabinets at a Canberra second-hand shop.<\/p>\n

You could be forgiven for chuckling over the irony that at the same time that our government was talking up new legislation to protect the country from foreign interference, one department was giving the secrets away. All jokes aside, the real problem is that the \u2018The Cabinet files<\/a>\u2019 may not be a \u2018one-off\u2019 breach<\/a>, but rather a symptom of the Commonwealth\u2019s declining investment in one of the less interesting but crucial elements of national security: protective security policy.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s not forget that as bad as the Cabinet files breach was, it also revealed other security problems:<\/p>\n