The Australian Bureau of Meteorology claims that the hacking of their network in 2015 was brought about by foreign powers. The hackers had managed to install malware and steal sensitive information from their site. This is according to report filed to the federal government which is said to be released by Wednesday.
Blatant attacks on high – profile targets imply a readiness in the disposition of the alleged terrorists to use disruptive and destructive measures that would seriously impede or embarrass organizations and governments. Common security controls are not enough to handle these hacking attacks. The Australian Cyber Security Center (ACSC) reported.
Dan Tehan is the minister for cyber security. He agrees that the threat was real and developing but refused to comment on which countries were suspected to be involved with the attacks. In an interview with ABC News 24, he said, “We don’t narrow it down to specific countries. And we do that deliberately. But what we do have indicated is that cyberespionage is alive and well.”
Cybersecurity is no laughing matter for the nation. Every government must take note of the necessary precautions to protect their country from these attacks. They must take all the steps necessary to keep their nation safe and their people secure.
According to a previous report from ABC, China is the alleged leader of the BoM attack. This is indeed critical information to several other government departments in Australia including its Defense ministry.
Since January 2015 until June 2016, an overwhelming 1,095 occurrences of cybersecurity attacks were registered in the Australian Signals Directorate. All these instances were serious enough to stipulate operational response. The figure is expected to rise in the 2016 Threat Report. This is a warning to the entire nation as well as the world over that terrorists may be able to access and compromise our government’s computer networks within the next three years.
