Building a Cyber Resilient Australia: Forescout’s Vision for Horizon 2

The Australian Government is planning the next stage to step up cybersecurity across Australia. As more agencies and organizations adopt a cloud-first strategy and begin embracing AI capabilities, their attack surface expands, making it more crucial than ever to have a robust cybersecurity strategy.

Australia recognizes the need to mature its cybersecurity program across its entire government. And it’s with good reason. Governments are major targets.

Today, the government sector globally has the highest number of cyber attacks in the first half of 2025, according to a mid-year report from Forescout’s research team, Vedere Labs:

• Government leads all sectors with 79 attacks (Jan. to June 2025)
• 46% increase in Zero Day exploit attacks from 2024
• 36% increase in ransomware attacks

In Australia, the government has reported its own data (“Annual Cyber Threat Report 2023-2024”):

• Over 36,700 calls to its Australian Cyber Security hotline —an increase of 12%
• The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) responded to over 1,100 cyber security incidents
• Over 11% of cyber security incidents ASD responded to related to critical infrastructure

“In FY2023-24, business email compromise and fraud were among the top self-reported cybercrimes for businesses and individuals in Australia. Ransomware and data theft extortion also remained a pervasive and costly threat,” says the authors of the ASD “Annual Cyber Threat Report 2023-2024.”

In light of this environment, Forescout Technologies has submitted a comprehensive response to the Cyber Security Strategy for 2023 – 2030, Horizon 2 Policy Consultation. Drawing on over two decades of operational experience supporting governments, defence, and critical infrastructure, Forescout outlines practical recommendations to strengthen national cyber resilience.

Bridging the Gaps from Horizon 1

The 2024 Commonwealth Cyber Security Posture report showed that many government agencies needed to implement strategies to advance to Cybersecurity Maturity Level 2, so that the services they offer to the community are safe and not at risk of going offline.

Here are few key data points the report indicated:

• The proportion of government entities that reached overall Maturity Level 2 across the Essential Eight mitigation strategies has declined. In 2024, 15 per cent of all entities reached overall Maturity Level 2, decreasing from 25 per cent in 2023.
• In 2024, 75 per cent of entities had a cyber security strategy, an increase from 73 per cent in 2023. Furthermore, 86 per cent of entities addressed cyber security disruptions in their business continuity and disaster recovery planning, an increase from 83 per cent in 2023.

Here is the criteria the government uses to accelerate widespread maturity:

• Cyber security hardening: An entity’s implementation of cyber security technical mitigations, primarily the Essential Eight mitigation strategies, to reduce the likelihood of an information and communications technology (ICT) system being compromised.4
• Incident preparedness and response: An entity’s readiness to respond to a cyber security incident, and actions when a cyber security incident occurs.
• Leadership and planning: An entity’s leadership engagement with cyber security and broader cyber security culture.

There is more to do. Despite growing awareness of cyber threats, many government agencies remain stalled in their cybersecurity journey. The challenge is not resistance to change. Agencies are being asked to lead without a map. Forescout sees key barriers first-hand. Agencies are willing but uncertain how to move forward. To address this, Forescout calls for:

• Transparent tools that assess cybersecurity maturity, weaknesses, and network vulnerabilities in near or real-time.
• Targeted investments that can be quickly replicated.
• Proven best practice approaches that are production hardened.
• Showcasing high-performing high maturity agencies using independent data.

Accelerating Zero Trust Adoption

Zero Trust, which assumes networks are always at risk of malicious attack, is a cornerstone of Australia’s cybersecurity strategy. More consistent implementation addressing the vulnerabilities of legacy systems and stronger identity management is necessary. Forescout recommends:

• Formal adoption of NIST SP 1800-35 Zero Trust standard as the guiding framework.
• New funding to support whole-of-government Zero Trust rollout.
• Investment in exemplar agencies to model scalable Zero Trust deployments.

Preparing for the Quantum Era

Quantum computing is fast approaching operational reality, threatening current encryption standards. Forescout urges immediate action:

• Establish a National Quantum Risk Framework and Roadmap.
• Accelerate adoption of Post-Quantum Cryptography.
• Invest in sovereign quantum-safe technologies.
• Launch a national awareness and transition program.

Forescout’s research, including insights from Vedere Labs, highlights the urgency of preparing for quantum threats right now.

Securing Operational Technology (OT)

While Horizon 1 addressed IoT, Horizon 2 rightly must focus on OT devices that are critical to infrastructure and safety. Forescout outlines a seven-step strategy:

• Automated asset visibility across OT environments.
• Risk prioritisation using dual cybersecurity and operational scores.
• Passive threat detection to avoid operational disruption.
• Automated response orchestration across IT and OT.
• Support for hybrid deployments across air-gapped and cloud environments.
• Alignment with global frameworks like IEC 62443 and NIST CSF.
• Workforce development with cross-team collaboration and insider threat awareness.

Forescout emphasises that visibility is the foundation of resilience: you can’t secure what you can’t see.

A Call to Action

Forescout’s submission is more than a policy response. It’s a call to action. Australia is moving from ambition to action, from frameworks to implementation, demonstrating outcomes. By funding foundational capabilities, showcasing success, and embracing emerging technologies, the nation can build a cyber-resilient future.