9 News: The "smartest and toughest" cybersecurity experts in Australia have been tasked with hunting down hackers in an overhaul of the nation's law enforcement methods.

The federal government today announced a new .. team of 100 officers will seek to "hack the hackers", Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil said.

Why there wasn't such a taskforce long ago is a mystery, but it's a positive step. What makes me worried is the public presentation of it - it's like we've got a brand new Enemy to latch onto/vilify/manipulate/blame - when in reality the problem has been around for decades.

Makes me wonder is Cyber-crime the new Bio-terrorism Industry? It has excellent potential to be used as a trigger for the Next Crisis. As with Bio-terrorism researchers, it's workers work in secrecy, so it's an unaccountable, closed society. Also the same is the vested financial interest in heightening fear - the more it's a crisis, the more funding we get. Finally, it's an ideal model for justifying increased internet surveillance/data accumulation. As it did with Bio-terrorism, it can end up causing the very thing it's meant to prevent.

Another worrying aspect is the language being used:

Clare O'Neil, minister: The criminals we are up against have adapted their ways, and so have we. The Australian government .. will day in, day out, hunt down the scumbags who are responsible for these malicious crimes against innocent people.

Not unlike the language deployed against the Vaccine-hesitant &/or Pangolin Deniers who were all scumbags spreading Covid + disinformation to innocent people.

Unlike those scumbags though - who were rounded up, segregated, banned/fined/maced/tasered/jailed - not a single cyber-hacker has ever been caught. We'll follow it, see if the combined power of AusGovCorp.con results in either the Optus or Medibank hackers being brought to justice. They will be the first ones ever if they are. Or will it amount to one more bureaucratic secret empire/money-sink-hole that doesn't catch or stop anyone, but enriches/empowers itself ...

Don't get me wrong - i'm all for cyber-security/privacy - but it's a case of prevention is the best cure. How did they hack Optus & Medibank? We're not allowed to know that. Why not? Due to Security. Actually Insecurity. We so insecure about our security that we need to invoke Security to cover-up our fuck-up - to avoid public panic.

No, it's all about the scumbags. So let's create one more opaque govt body with carte blanche powers ... to keep us safe...?

Yeah, no. I had enough secret Govt safety with Covid, thanks.