Matt Thistlethwaite, Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade: Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us. I’m Matt Thistlethwaite, Australia’s Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, and I’m joined by Australia’s Cyber Security Ambassador, Jessica Hunter. Congratulations to Vietnam for hosting this very important United Nations signing ceremony regarding the cyber security protocol. This is an important moment for Vietnam and for the world to come together to tackle what is an increasing problem of cyber security and ensuring that our populations and our people remain safe and secure. This isn’t my first visit to Vietnam, I came 20 years ago with my wife, and we backpacked around your beautiful country. So, I have an appreciation for the beautiful Vietnamese people, your lovely country, and its beautiful natural beauty. And I’m really pleased with the friendly welcome that we’ve received, and I’m really struck by just how much Vietnam has developed in the last 20 years, particularly a city like Hanoi. And I think that that’s one of the reasons why Vietnam has been chosen to host this very important signing ceremony and a demonstration of Vietnam’s commitment to tackling cyber security not only within this region but throughout the world and, indeed, your commitment to multilateralism. And for that, Australia thanks you. I think it’s also a great symbol of Vietnam’s economic and social development. It’s now one of the leading economies in the Asian region and an economy that Australia hopes to continue to partner with into the future. There are about 380,000 Vietnamese diaspora living in Australia, making a wonderful contribution to our economy, including 35,000 Vietnamese students who study very hard and make a wonderful contribution to the Australian economy and to our education system. So, thank you to Vietnam. Thank you to your government for your commitment to multilateralism, for your commitment to combating cyber security and strengthening cyber security within our region. And thank you for hosting this very important ceremony. I’m happy to take some questions if you have any.
Journalist: Welcome, Minister. I’m [indistinct] Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs. [Indistinct] today, and Vietnam media [indistinct]. So first of all, Australia has been an active participant in the development [indistinct] of the UN Convention on combating cybercrimes. How does Australia view the significance of the Hanoi Convention for global [indistinct] to combat cybercrime [indistinct] transparent and just what is cyber [indistinct]?
Assistant Minister: This is a critical moment for the globe and for the world to come together to combat cybercrime. For the first time, the international community now has a convention specifically dedicated to the prevention of, the investigation and the prosecution of crimes related to cyber security, both cyber-enabled, like hacking, and cyber-dependent, like child trafficking, like the sharing of intimate images. Finally, the world has come together and said that these should be crimes, and we need to work together to put together a framework so that we can investigate and prosecute these crimes. The convention also contains details about how we can share evidence for those prosecutions, to protect that evidence and to ensure that it has integrity, and it holds up in our respective legal systems. So, this is a pivotal moment for the world in tackling cybercrime, and Vietnam is at the forefront of that. And it’s something that your nation should be very proud of today.
Journalist: So, any cyber security coverage has become a key pillar in Australia and Vietnam partnership. How do you assess Vietnam’s growth in hosting this signing ceremony?
Assistant Minister: Well, earlier this year, Australia was very proud to join with Vietnam through our respective governments in signing an MOU on cyber-critical technology to ensure that our governments work together. And as part of that MOU, we share information. We upskilled both of our populations, and we work together in multilateral fora, such as this, to ensure that the highest standards of protection for our citizens and prosecution of crimes related to cybersecurity occur. So that’s a great example of the partnership between Australia and Vietnam to protect our citizens, our businesses and our economies from the threat of cybercrime. Australia has also been involved in ensuring that we act at a regional level through the SEA-PAC policy that Australia has – the South East Asia and Pacific policy – to tackle cybercrime, through which we’re devoting $85 million in uplifting capacity in our neighbourhood with important partners like Vietnam to combat cybercrime and to make sure that our populations and our businesses and our economies are safe.
Journalist: Okay. So, following the signing ceremony, what specific steps will Australia take to work with Vietnam and as member states to effectively implement the convention?
Assistant Minister: Well, this afternoon I’m looking forward to going to see RMIT University, an Australian university, that’s operating here in Hanoi, and the students, the Vietnamese students, who’ll be competing in a hack-a-thon, where they’ll be simulating hacking into computer systems and working together to combat that and to use the protections that are outlined in the convention that’s being signed here today to ensure that people are kept safe into the future. And that is a perfect example of the work that Australia is doing with Vietnam to uplift capacity and to protect our citizens from cybercrime. So, we’re very, very pleased that Australian institutions that are operating here in Vietnam have that relationship with the Vietnamese people to improve capacity, to improve skills, to share information and to combat cybercrime and keep people safe.
Journalist: So, from the perspective, what are the emerging cybercrime challenges in the Asia Pacific region, and how will the convention contribute to addressing these challenges?
Assistant Minister: Well, cybercrime doesn’t respect borders. It’s something that all of our economies and our nations are facing. And in Australia, we’ve had some horrific attacks by actors on our telcos, our insurance companies, even on our national carrier, our national airline; we’ve had cyber-attacks. And most of those cyber-attacks emanate from overseas. So, it’s not a problem that’s confined to any one country or particular borders. And that underscores the importance of us working together. And that’s why this convention and this signing ceremony is so important. It represents the world realising that there is a problem, realising that we need to work together and acting together to put in place the architecture to deal with it. And I know that Vietnam has had quite a few incidents of cyber-attacks here within your economy. And that has the potential to damage your economic development, to damage the businesses that operate here and, importantly, it affects the lives of Vietnamese people. So, we want to work with Vietnam through that architecture to ensure that both of our nations can share intelligence and that we can work together to combat cybercrime in both of our nations.
Journalist: [Indistinct] Last, given the vulnerable groups such as [indistinct] and children [indistinct] are often exploited online, so what is initiatives [indistinct] from Australia could be [indistinct] on to strengthen the protection of these groups in cyberspace?
Assistant Minister: Yeah, cyberspace not only allows for people to hack directly into computer systems and to harm businesses and economies, but it also enables crimes to be committed across borders. And there are some insidious crimes such as the sharing of child pornography, the sharing unauthorised of intimate images of people. And unfortunately, this is increasing throughout the globe. And that’s why the governments of the world have come together to say enough is enough. We need to do more collectively to protect our citizens from these terrible crimes, and that’s why we’ve put this architecture together through this ceremony today and the document that we’re signing. This convention provides that opportunity for us to work together to share information, to combat not only the direct cybercrimes but the cyber-enabled crimes like that sharing of intimate images, child pornography and the like that the world wants to see stamped out as quickly as possible. Thank you very much, everyone. I appreciate you being here.