There will also be a massive broadening of what is considered"critical infrastructure"under laws passed in 2018,allowing the Home Affairs Minister to step in and compel the operators to improve their defences against sabotage and spying - with banking,finance,health,food and grocery added to the list.

Small and medium-sized businesses will also be given more support to upgrade their cyber security systems,and the government will work with large companies and service providers to provide small businesses with better information and"secure services"such as threat blocking and antivirus training.

For a number of years the federal government has been considering the best way to give law enforcement"offensive capabilities"to go after serious criminals using the"dark web"on domestic servers. The dark web is a part of the internet which allows users to interact anonymously and therefore can more easily evade traditional law enforcement or investigation methods.

Under a previous proposal floated within government,the Australian Signals Directorate - Australia's premier foreign cyber intelligence agency - was to be enlisted by the security agencies such as the AFP to help track down serious criminals using domestic servers.

Instead,under this plan the AFP and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission will be given the tools and enhanced powers to go after individuals and networks engaging in serious criminal activity.

The new laws,which will require warrants and oversight,would give law enforcement agencies the tools to more easily identify perpetrators during the initial stages of investigation.

Information collected under this new power would then help lead to police making more targeted requests for information under existing laws,such as interception and computer access warrants.

The Sydney Morning Herald andThe Age last monthrevealed the new laws being worked on will be broad enough to be used on social media platforms such as Facebook,which the government believes are"going dark"by using anonymising technologies such as end-to-end encryption and secret browsing.

The new cyber strategy comes afterAustralia was earlier this year hit with an escalating wave of cyber attacks from a state actor,believed to be China.

Mr Morrison said the government would protect the nation's vital infrastructure and services from cyber attacks,but it wanted to support businesses to protect themselves so they can succeed in the digital economy.

"We want to enlist all Australians in the fight to create a more cyber safe Australia – you are our secret weapon in our cyber security strategy. And we want to give you the tools to protect your family and your business,"Mr Morrison said.

The $1.66 billion is substantially more than what was put into the 2016 cyber security strategy,representing the growing threat of criminal networks and state actors looking to launch large-scale cyber attacks,as well as the use of the dark web obstructing law enforcement agencies.

The moneyincludes $1.35 billion,announced in June,to recruit 500 cyber spies and build on the ASD's offensive capabilities to disrupt foreign cyber criminals and better identify malicious hacks.