The Federal Government has established a cyber team dedicated to identifying online terrorism-financing activities, money laundering and financial fraud.

The move is part of a $230 million cyber-security strategy announced by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in April.

Established through the primary financial intelligence agency – the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre – the team will investigate online payment platforms.

It will also work closely with national identity support service iDcare to target job scams that recruit innocent people as money mules. iDcare has identified 197 clients that have experienced job scams, and 41 cases in which innocent people were duped into laundering funds.

The investigators will work with the Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network Joint Management Group to identify patterns indicating large-scale financial scams or their methodology.

“We know the national security threat to our nation and globally is unprecedented, and modern technologies are presenting new and evolving threats – none more so than from malicious cyber activity,” Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Counter-Terrorism Michael Keenan said.

Last week’s online census was subject to four denial-of-service attacks. The first three caused minor disruption, but after the fourth the Australian Bureau of Statistics closed down the system to protect data integrity.

In May an Australian Centre for Cyber Security discussion paper found the Government’s cyber strategy lacks adequate vision and funding. 

The US Government recently committed $US19 billion ($24.67 billion) to combat cyber crime – 400 times Australia’s funding. The UK Government is spending about 10 times more than Australia.