In this podcast we’ll be hearing from an Australian politician, Tim Watts. He’s a member of our federal parliament and serves as our shadow minister for communications and cybersecurity. For our overseas listeners, the “shadow” part of his title is there because he’s a member of the opposition party, so he’s not in government. But, of course, if the Labor party wins the next election he’ll be our communications and cybersecurity minister.

Anyway, Tim is a bit of an anomaly in politics because he has a genuine, nerd-like interest in the field we so love. Tim and I chat pretty regularly, and I can say that yes, 100%, his interest in this field is genuine and he has a firm grasp on the issues that matter.

I thought now would be a great time to run an interview on the politics of infosec. While it’s true that policymakers spend time thinking about this stuff, cybersecurity hasn’t yet crossed over into being what they call a “retail politics” issue. But thanks to the Colonial pipeline ransomware incident, that might be about to change.