Case studies

Online safety awareness program to nurture safe and respectful digital citizens

The NSW Department of Education introduced the Cybermarvel program which aims to build staff and students’ cyber safety awareness and skills, inform parents and carers how to keep their family safe online, and encourage safe and positive online behaviours and experiences.

An app for emergency warnings and advice for floods, tsunamis and fires in NSW

The Hazards Near Me app shows current information about local emergencies, including flood, bushfires and tsunamis, and advice on what to do to stay safe. The app can send push notifications when there are new incidents or when information changes. The NSW Flood Inquiry identified the need for a consolidated approach and single app for hazard warnings.

An annual event to raise awareness of privacy issues

Privacy Awareness Week (PAW) is a campaign that highlights the importance of privacy issues and raises awareness for public sector agencies on how to protect the personal information of our citizens. Each year, the Information and Privacy Commission hosts a NSW campaign for NSW citizens and public sector agencies to raise awareness of privacy rights and obligations.

PAW encourages agencies to build strong privacy foundations and supports citizens to better understand and exercise their privacy rights.

Innovative technology protecting communities

New artificial intelligence (AI) technology is being developed as part of the Flood and Storm Intelligence Sensing project, which is part of the NSW Government’s efforts to protect communities during severe weather events. The project is funded through Transport for NSW’s Smart Places Acceleration Program, which has been funded by the Digital Restart Fund.

The NSW State Emergency Service (SES) has partnered with researchers from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and TPG Telecom to develop and test network sensing technology, which extracts localised weather information including rainfall, water levels and river flows using signals transmitted on the communications network.

The Network Sensing Lab will develop and trial solutions that can be readily deployed in commercial networks. These build on cutting-edge algorithms and techniques developed by UTS researchers to monitor and predict flooding by leveraging existing wireless networks.

Upskilling the NSW Government’s cyber security workforce​

The annual Cyber Security NSW Summit provides NSW Government cyber security staff with the opportunity to continue their professional development and network with colleagues from across the public sector in a face-to-face setting. Attendees hear insights from cyber leaders on emerging trends, challenges and initiatives impacting NSW’s cyber threat landscape. 

Guiding the ongoing uplift of cyber security across government​

The NSW Cyber Security Policy provides a framework to guide cyber security uplift across the NSW Government, outlining mandatory requirements, reporting obligations, threat-based cyber risk management principles, roles and responsibilities, and further support resources. Agencies are required to submit annual reporting on how they are meeting the policy.

Future proofing the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD)’s emergency response capability

The project was funded through the Digital Restart Fund (DRF) and enabled the development of a customer facing digital solution able to share and receive digital emergency information with rural and regional communities.​