Michael Willing was a counter-terrorism cop. He says cyber execs face the same stresses as first responders

Michael Willing spent 31 years in the NSW Police Force, beginning in 1990 as a constable, rising through the ranks to commander roles in homicide and counter-terrorism squads before ending his career as deputy police commissioner in 2021-22.

“When you leave an organisation like NSW Police or any first responder organisation, it’s challenging because your identity is wrapped up in a persona and what you’ve done for a long time,” he tells ADAPT.

Willing says he developed a high level of resilience working on high profile cases that attracted significant media attention and resulted in outcomes that he felt were unfair.

“There has been periods in my policing career that where it was tough in many ways and in hindsight, I’ve been able to reflect and pick up some lessons around resilience.”

Willing left policing in early 2022 and joined professional services giant, Accenture as Managing Director, National Security and Public Safety. He stayed at the firm for almost two years, during which time he was introduced to cyber executives across the public and private sectors.

“They’ve got a huge challenge on their hands as everyone is well aware…I take my hat off to them for what they are trying to do,” he says.

Willing is now CEO at Fortem Australia, a non-profit organisation that supports the mental wellbeing of Australia’s first responders and their families. At a time when cyber crime is on the rise, this also includes cyber security executives.

Willing sees similarities between the stresses that first responders –police officers, firefighters and emergency personnel – undergo and the daily burdens that are carried by cyber specialists who are also working within governance and legal structures. Cyber execs often can’t see the enemy and are fighting bad actors who are using the same tools to attack organisations that are also being used to defend against breaches.

“There are certainly challenges that are comparable in terms of being resistant to crime occurring….and when something does go wrong, responding to those incidents can cause a lot of stress.

“We’ve seen incidents of cyber hacks play out publicly and for large organisations [in particular], the toll that flows from that for executives can be absolutely harrowing. We’ve seen people lose their jobs in very high-profile situations as a result of their organisation being the subject of a cyber-attack.

“We’ve seen things play out in the first responder community where leadership really takes on a huge burden – and rightly – on behalf of organisations so there’s a direct correlation there…quite a strong comparison between the two.”

AI opportunities in law enforcement

Willing questions whether law enforcement is ready for the potential efficiencies that AI can bring to agencies.

“In fact, [saying law enforcement] is not ready for [AI] is probably the wrong term because it’s here and it’s [having an] impact. The efficiencies that can be created in organisations like the NSW Police Force are pretty self-evident.”

He says that finding better ways of addressing large information and data sets to identify criminals and to use intelligence better are benefits that absolutely need to be harnessed.

Willing adds that jobs may be at risk, which is something that society is “going to have to wrestle with moving forward” but he believes at the moment, the benefits of AI just outweigh the risks.

“But one thing that needs to be at the forefront of all these technologies is the human factor and human decision making – proper structures and frameworks to work within and ethics as well.”

Willing recalls the impact technology has had on policing and wishes it was available during his days in the homicide squad.

“We were looking at massive amounts of CCTV for particular homicides, trying to piece together movements of individuals and vehicles, those sorts of things. It’s not that long ago that detectives were having to spend hours and hours, if not days and months going through footage.

“This can now be run through a process now and answers spat out within minutes. So, yes I wish that we had the technology [when I was with NSW Police].”

Willing’s caveat is that these systems are only as good as the data that is fed into them. He says risks like data poisoning – where criminals add corrupted or misleading data into a machine learning model’s training dataset – need to be dealt with.

Borderless crimes a challenge

A big challenge for police in this high-tech era is dealing with borderless crimes, says Willing.

NSW Police operate within the boundaries of the state, but a lot of criminal activity is now occurring offshore in different locations. This means there are jurisdictional challenges around the presentation and preservation of evidence relating to cyber-crimes in a traditional jury system, he says.

“Police are having to present evidence in the same way they present evidence for [traditional] crimes in the same court system. Explaining technology and these crimes in a way that juries can understand is also an ongoing challenge not just for policing but for the whole criminal justice system. It’s not something that’s going away and more investment needs to be made in these areas.”

Willing agrees that building sovereign AI capabilities and infrastructure is important for our national security but we are yet to see some of the harms from this technology play out.

“Tentatively yes, I think there needs to be some regulation around the use of this technology but in saying that…regulatory frameworks will have to adapt and change over time as technology changes as well.”