Australian Government Networks Hacked

Sensitive Australian Government and corporate computer networks, including those holding highly confidential plans for a privately financed geostationary communications satellite, have been penetrated by sophisticated cyber-attacks, an ABC TV Four Corners investigation has established.

Austrade and the Defence Department's elite research division, now named the Defence Science Technology Group, both suffered significant cyber infiltrations in the past five years by hackers based in China.

Intelligence sources say they suspect the attackers in these cases were sponsored by Beijing.

Four Corners has also confirmed Newsat Ltd, an Australian satellite company whose assets were sold off last year after the company went into administration, was so comprehensively infiltrated three years ago that its entire network had to be rebuilt in secret.

But these incidents, revealed for the first time, are only a fraction of the cyber-attacks being waged against Australian governments and companies.

The Prime Minister's cyber security adviser, Alastair MacGibbon, told the program the Australian Government was "attacked on a daily basis".

"We don't talk about all the breaches that occur," he said.

Former Central Intelligence Agency boss Michael Hayden, who also served for six years as the head of the US electronic spying division, the National Security Agency (NSA), said both Australia and the US had to harden up their defences and "protect their data" from foreign cyber-attacks.

A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Canberra denied China had conducted any cyber espionage against Australian interests, calling such allegations "totally groundless" and "false clichés".

"Like other countries, China suffers from serious cyber-attacks and is one of the major victims of hacking attacks in the world," he said.

ABC: 

« UAE Using Israeli Spy Technology
Canadian Companies Vulnerable To Cyber-Attacks »

CyberSecurity Jobsite
Perimeter 81

Directory of Suppliers

IT Governance

IT Governance

IT Governance is a leading global provider of information security solutions. Download our free guide and find out how ISO 27001 can help protect your organisation's information.

Cyber Security Supplier Directory

Cyber Security Supplier Directory

Our Supplier Directory lists 6,000+ specialist cyber security service providers in 128 countries worldwide. IS YOUR ORGANISATION LISTED?

CSI Consulting Services

CSI Consulting Services

Get Advice From The Experts: * Training * Penetration Testing * Data Governance * GDPR Compliance. Connecting you to the best in the business.

DigitalStakeout

DigitalStakeout

DigitalStakeout enables cyber security professionals to reduce cyber risk to their organization with proactive security solutions, providing immediate improvement in security posture and ROI.

Authentic8

Authentic8

Authentic8 transforms how organizations secure and control the use of the web with Silo, its patented cloud browser.

Imperva

Imperva

Imperva is a leading provider of data and application security solutions including DDoS protection, Web application security, Data security and Cloud security.

Logicalis

Logicalis

Logicalis are a leading provider of global IT solutions and managed services.

Surrey Centre for Cyber Security (SCCS)

Surrey Centre for Cyber Security (SCCS)

The Centre focuses on three main research directions - Privacy and Data Protection, Secure Communications, and Human-Centred Security.

Zettaset

Zettaset

Zettaset’s XCrypt Data Encryption Platform delivers proven protection for Object, Relational/SQL, NoSQL, and Hadoop data stores…in the cloud and on-premises.

Cyverse

Cyverse

Cyverse is a cyber-security firm which provides corporations with state-of-the-art cyber-security service-based and technological solutions made in Israel.

ThreatAdvice

ThreatAdvice

ThreatAdvice is a provider of cybersecurity education, awareness and threat intelligence.

Valire Software

Valire Software

Valire provide a solution for the automated detection of internal fraud.

Sweepatic

Sweepatic

The Sweepatic reconnaissance platform discovers and analyses all internet facing assets and their exposure to risk.

Crypto Quantique

Crypto Quantique

Crypto Quantique's ground-breaking technology radically simplifies the process of generating a hardware root of trust in an IoT device.

Cyberstarts

Cyberstarts

Cyberstarts’ vision is to become the leading platform for amazing teams of entrepreneurs to solve the next big problems of the cybersecurity world.

Cyturus Technologies

Cyturus Technologies

Cyturus Technologies delivers cybersecurity business risk quantification services using our proprietary Adaptive Risk Model (ARM).

Netenrich

Netenrich

The Netenrich operations intelligence platform is built from the ground up to help enterprises resolve everyday and futuristic problems for stable, secure environments and infrastructures.

Xmirror Security

Xmirror Security

Xmirror Security focuses on integrated detection and defense of the continuous threat to the DevSecops software supply-chain with artificial intelligence technology as the core.

Bright Data

Bright Data

Bright Data Inc is the world’s #1 web data platform, enabling organizations to research, monitor, analyze data, and make better decisions.

Anchor Technologies Inc (ATI)

Anchor Technologies Inc (ATI)

Anchor provides a full spectrum of cybersecurity services assisting our clients with all aspects of cybersecurity risk planning, identification, management, and monitoring.

Cyber & Data Protection

Cyber & Data Protection

Cyber & Data Protection Limited supports Charities, Educational Trusts and Private Schools, Hospitality and Legal organisations by keeping their data secure and usable.