The Australian Government has announced the appointment of Lieutenant General Michelle McGuinness, CSC, as National Cyber Security Coordinator.

Lieutenant General McGuinness will commence as the National Cyber Security Coordinator on Monday 26 February 2024. 

Lieutenant General McGuinness has served in the Australian Defence Force for 30 years in a range of tactical, operational, and strategic roles in Australia and internationally.

Most recently, since January 2021, she has served as Deputy Director Commonwealth Integration in the United States Defense Intelligence Agency. 

In this role, Lieutenant General McGuinness led policy and cultural reform, and technological integration, including interoperability across information technology, systems and data.

Previously, while serving in the Defence Intelligence Organisation, she led interagency intelligence efforts supporting whole-of-government counter proliferation initiatives, as well as Australia’s Strategic Health Intelligence capability during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the National Office of Cyber Security, the Coordinator drives forward the necessary work to ensure Australia is best positioned to respond to the opportunities and challenges of the digital age.

The Coordinator leads national cyber security policy, the coordination of responses to major cyber incidents, whole of government cyber incident preparedness efforts and strengthening of Commonwealth cyber security capability.

She will lead this work in collaboration with the Government’s key policy, operational and security agencies.

This builds on the Government’s delivery of the 2023-2030 Australian Cyber Security Strategy in November 2023 and the Government’s mission to make Australia one of the most cyber secure nations in the world by 2030.