IGIS to arm inspectors with improved IT skills

The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) is hoping to soon have its own IT expertise to interrogate systems run by Australia’s intelligence agencies, instead of relying on the agencies under review to assist.

Inspector-General Christopher Jessup told a senate estimates hearing on Friday that the IGIS - which, over the years, has investigated intelligence agencies’ use of CovidSafe data as well as the impact of using legacy systems - had faced questions in recent years on “the extent of our inbuilt technological expertise.”

This technological expertise relates to IGIS inspectors’ ability to understand and interrogate IT systems used by the intelligence agencies they were reviewing.

“Like just about every area of public and private activity, life is becoming much more technological, and intelligence work and intelligence oversight is no exception,” Jessup said.

“In an ideal world, we would have our inspectors fully capable of interrogating the technological operations of all the agencies and understanding it. 

“But especially when the agencies themselves are really working at the very high end of technology, and they themselves have an insatiable appetite for people with these kinds of skills, that is an area in which we still, I would say, have some ground to make up.”

Jessup said that IGIS relied on technology expertise from the intelligence agencies themselves to aid it to fufill its oversight role.

“There’s a merging of our understanding of what’s done in these agencies at the technological level with the cooperation we get from the agencies themselves,” he said.

“As a general rule, the feedback that I get from our inspection teams is that 98 percent of the time they have no difficulty in interrogating the details of agency operations with such a level of understanding of the technological aspect of it as they are able to gather from the assistance they get from the agencies themselves.

“That may sound a little bit the reverse of the way it should be, but the agencies are very keen to make sure that nothing that would be of interest to our inspectors is withheld.”

Jessup indicated that action is afoot that could help IGIS build or otherwise improve independent access to the required technology skills.

“There are irons in that particular fire,” he said.

“I don’t want to say more about that on the open record than to use that metaphor, and we would hope that when we meet again [with senators], I will have some better news for you on that score.”

The IGIS also said in its most recent annual report that it was also finding it challenging to recruit and retain “subject matter experts” in its corporate ICT operation, which is separate from ICT skills in the oversight space.