Home Affairs tight-lipped on next cyber security coordinator

Home Affairs officials have refused to confirm a report that military intelligence veteran Major General Michelle McGuinness will be the next national cyber security coordinator.

Major General Michelle McGuinness

McGuinness, the deputy director for Commonwealth integration (DDCI) at the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) will reportedly take up the role, which has been vacant since November, according to a Capital Brief report last week, citing two Defence sources without authorisation to comment. 

Like the previous incumbent — Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Air Marshal Darren Goldie — McGuinness does not have experience or qualifications in cyber security.

However, she has been DDCI for three years; responsible for advising the US Defence Intelligence Agency’s director on strengthening collaboration and information-sharing between the Five Eyes nations - translatable skills in coordinating multi-agency responses to and preparedness for cyber incidents. 

Yesterday, Home Affairs secretary Stephanie Foster said that a permanent replacement for Goldie would be announced “in the coming weeks,” in response to a question by shadow cyber security minister James Paterson at senate estimates.

Deputy secretary of cyber and infrastructure security Hamish Hansford has been the acting national cyber security coordinator since Goldie went on leave four months into the inaugural role, citing a “workplace matter,” which Capital Brief reported pre-dated his time as coordinator.

During senate estimates yesterday, Foster would not confirm that McGuinness had been tapped to replace Goldie after Paterson asked her about the report. 

“The process is not yet complete,” Foster told the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee.

The national cyber security coordinator heads Home Affairs’ National Office of Cyber Security (NOCS), which the Albanese government launched in February last year as part of a seven-year plan to synchronise Commonwealth agencies’ cyber strategies; it managed the response to the HWL Ebsworth leak that impacted 65 government entities. 

NOCS builds on the remit of Home Affairs’ cyber security response coordination unit (CSRCU), which was set up in December 2022 in response to an internal review of the department’s handling of the Optus and Medibank data breaches.

Before she was appointed to the DIA, McGuinness was director general of counter-proliferation and terrorism at the Australian Defence Intelligence Organisation.