The Australian High Commissioner, Jon Philp, presented the certificates Australian government being the enabling partner of the program. This course was made possible by an MOU between Australia-PNG Government partnerships, which was executed in 2018.

Department of Information and Communication Technology Secretary, Steven Matainaho said under the MoU for Cyber Security signed by the two governments almost five years ago, further assistance was given by the Australian government to operationalize the National Cyber Security Shelter project.

That project offered awareness and training primarily to IT Managers and IT officers within the Public Sector.

“Quite a lot of recipients passed through but today was just a day to acknowledge those that actually completed the programme. The programme consist of Tier 1 & Tier 2 in Cyber Security. That is analyst training and basics of not only IT only, but Cyber Security Functions and its role within the IT space,” Mr Matainaho said.

Key stakeholders involved in the Cyber Security include the Office of Security and Coordination Assessment under the Department of PM, with support from National ICT Authority as the regulator and of course the ICT Department. It was an event also to recognize the partnership between Australia and PNG.

Australian High Commissioner, Jon Philp emphasized on the relevance and importance of cyber security in the country and the world.

“It’s a really important partnership for us in cyber security. It’s important to remember why it’s important, not just in your careers and your jobs but the lives of our country and in fact the lives of millions of people.” Philp said.

High Commissioner Philp emphasized the practicality of Cyber Security by using the current situation in Ukraine on the other side of the world where Cyber security is making big impact on the lives of the people and nations.

He said Russian government as well as criminal elements are using Cyber-attack on Ukraine.

“So what does that mean for us in our part of the world and our secure part of the Pacific. Well it’s a reminder that Cyber Security is not a small unimportant highly technical domain, which I think many people think that it’s bad. It’s integral to know how our society functions in the world these days,” Philp added.

The department’s Executive Manager, Cyber Security & Digital Government Standards, Georgina Kiele, was in the first batch to take the Cyber Security training.

She said six batches already went and the next lot will include training of girls in ICT for Tier 1 training.

“It’s very important training. It builds our understanding on Cyber Security so from this training I am able to take the job that I got.” She said.

Though some of participants didn’t make it to the event, the others who were present did receive their certificates.