Mr. Pat Larkin:

I thank the Deputy. There is a need for collaboration and for not reinventing the wheel. We need to have indigenous capability. We may use tools, resources, etc., from collaborative alliances, allegiances or whatever one wants to term them. We are not going to fight this on our own, but we need indigenous capability, first and foremost. I do not think we could depend on others because alliances will change. We need indigenous capability. However, in order to be successful, we will have to partner and have alliances. Those alliances may not necessarily compromise our neutrality. It is collaboration that will happen between police forces, defence agencies, intelligence agencies, peer-to-peer, the National Cyber Security Centre, industry and academia.

In terms of staying current and the Deputy’s point about the investment we are making, it is a very agile approach. Something like the National Cyber Research Centre and the drawing together of the research and development strands is absolutely critical to leading and to staying current. Integrating that into the whole approach is very important.