About

The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) is a vital member of Australia’s national security community, working across the full spectrum of operations required of contemporary signals intelligence and security agencies: intelligence, cyber security and offensive operations in support of the Australian Government and Australian Defence Force (ADF).

ASD's purpose is to defend Australia from global threats and help advance Australia's national interests. We do this by mastering technology to inform, protect and disrupt.

  • Informing - by the covert acquisition of foreign information not publicly available (signals intelligence)
  • Protecting - by comprehensively understanding the cyber threat, providing proactive advice and assistance to improve the management of cyber risk by government, business and the community
  • Disrupting - by applying our offensive cyber capabilities offshore, to support military operations, counter-terrorism, counter cyber espionage and serious cyber-enabled crime.

ASD operates in the slim area between the difficult and the impossible.

How we do it

Details of our signals intelligence and cyber capabilities (protective and disruptive) are necessarily secret. What is not secret are the roles we offer to complete our work:

As an analyst, you may be involved in:

  • analysis of communication systems
  • analysis of foreign signals intelligence
  • developing capabilities to perform your analysis using software development skills
  • developing new methods of analysing and exploiting data for intelligence or information security purposes
  • investigating large and complex data sets
  • offensive cyber operations
  • preparation of short-term or long-term information reports to government
  • protecting Australia from cyber adversaries as part of ASD’s Australian Cyber Security Centre
  • solving cryptological problems using advanced mathematical concepts
  • translating foreign language material.

As a member of our corporate services, you may be involved in:

  • managing budgets on behalf of the Australian Government
  • managing ASD’s external relationships
  • preparing advice for the Australian Government and Ministers
  • shaping and developing a continually-evolving workforce, including policy, security, governance, finance, communications, people management and recruitment.

As a technologist, you may be involved in:

  • forensic analysis and intrusion detection
  • offensive cyber operations
  • reverse engineering
  • software development
  • system administration and maintenance
  • system design, architecture and testing
Acknowledgement of Country icon

Acknowledgement of Country

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians of Country throughout Australia and their continuing connections to land, sea and communities. We pay our respects to them, their cultures and their Elders; past, present and emerging. We also recognise Australia's First Peoples' enduring contribution to Australia's national security.

Authorised by the Australian Government, Canberra