Australia under state sponsored cyber attack

[Franco Cozzo]

'Sophisticated state-based' cyber attack hits Australian government, businesses in major breach

All levels of Australian government, critical infrastructure and the private sector are being targeted in a "sophisticated state-based" cyber attack, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has revealed.

Mr Morrison confirmed the intrusion was conducted by "a sophisticated state-based cyber actor".

"This activity is targeting Australian organisations across a range of sectors, including all levels of government, industry, political organisations, education, health, essential service providers, and operators of other critical infrastructure," Mr Morrison said.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/cy...1-3caa3b09f4dc

Gee, our Chinese 'friends' aren't really keen on being investigated over their involvement in the COVID-19 pandemic?

[marty351]

What next...

[Citroënbender]

Assuming it’s all true, as reported. Politicians once passionately averred as to the possession of “weapons of mass destruction” by a certain nation - when it seemed to be not the case, really.

[Bossxr8]

Typical China. Bully anyone who speaks out about them. They are as sly as sly can be.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

https://www.9news.com.au/national/cy...1-3caa3b09f4dc

Gee, our Chinese 'friends' aren't really keen on being investigated over their involvement in the COVID-19 pandemic?

Ah, do you have proof that it's them or are you just doing your usual fishing trip to see who bites!

[roKWiz]

Reel them in Franco, I think you may have a big one.

India will be next on the China hit list.

[Work Horse]

In before the lock!


Imagine doing that to a friend!

Should we clean up our yard a little?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aust...spying_scandal

Imagine the out rage if the government tried to cover it up?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-...laery/12355348

https://www.smh.com.au/national/secr...27-p52ldh.html

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by GasoLane

Ah, do you have proof that it's them or are you just doing your usual fishing trip to see who bites!

Are you serious? China is well known to be conducting cyber attacks against other countries. It's nothing new. Been doing it for years. How can you be surprised in any way that our government has copped one, after the CCP got all butthurt from our government calling for an investigation into the origins of covid 19.

It's what China does. Bullies anyone who speaks out about them.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

Are you serious? China is well known to be conducting cyber attacks against other countries. It's nothing new. Been doing it for years. How can you be surprised in any way that our government has copped one, after the CCP got all butthurt from our government calling for an investigation into the origins of covid 19.

It's what China does. Bullies anyone who speaks out about them.

Quite serious, until any country or organisation has been named it's all guesswork.

For all you, or anyone, knows it could be the USA so they can watch the rest of the world make wild guesses while they sit back and have a chuckle.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by GasoLane

Quite serious, until any country or organisation has been named it's all guesswork.

For all you, or anyone, knows it could be the USA so they can watch the rest of the world make wild guesses while they sit back and have a chuckle.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by GasoLane

Ah, do you have proof that it's them or are you just doing your usual fishing trip to see who bites!

I know of two countries who have anti Western views and also poses significant capabilities in this field, they are:

A) Russia
B) China

One of them has been upset by being called out for an investigation into it's handling of COVID-19 and has decided to play economic warfare in recent times through:

1) Banning certain Australian imports
2) Advising it's citizens to not come here as tourists or students for fear if racist attacks
3) Interferes significantly in Australian politics by influencing local politicians.

They both regularly try to influence international politics through social media bots.

Using my powers of deduction I reckon it's a safe bet.

[Trendseeker]

No country has been named in the news so it is open to speculation, however, the IT security and network admin teams usually have software such as Fireeye that can reveal the country that the attacks originate from, so they are likely to know.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

Reel them in Franco, I think you may have a big one.

India will be next on the China hit list.

Well they've killed 20 Indian soldiers in a border skirmish in the Himalayan mountains a few days ago so I'd say China and India are upset with each other

[Fordman1]

Originally Posted by Trendseeker

No country has been named in the news so it is open to speculation, however, the IT security and network admin teams usually have software such as Fireeye that can reveal the country that the attacks originate from, so they are likely to know.

The Government knows who is responsible (it won’t be Russia or North Korea if this is state sponsored, it could be some country we all suspect), so I guess we will wait for next steps.

Make no mistake, this will get serious and probably very ugly (and maybe that’ll be all in the Cyberworld and not “out there“ for us to hear about / see).

[five 7]

Make no mistake, this will get serious and probably very ugly (and maybe that’ll be all in the Cyberworld and not “out there“ for us to hear about / see).[/QUOTE]

Has already got serious and ugly NZ Lion Brewery was hit last week which has stuffed up production and delivery so some pubs not getting stock. Barst**ds...

[MITCHAY]

I don't think the TAB would even offer odds on who it was

Either way the list is short in who did it or perhaps tried to make it look like another actor.

They don't say publicly because it would obviously cause a diplomatic **** storm. Think we have enough of those at the moment.

[Fordman1]

Hopefully our current and future governments look for opportunities to get a lot of our economic independence back, including who is investing in our businesses and real estate, and who we can “export to” with “complete transparency” and “good will” from BOTH sides.

[T3rminator]

Hands up if you work in the cyber security sector.....

Newsflash. China, and ALL countries with the capabiilty, are constantly probing and trying to gain information from other countries. This includes allies. Having information gives you an advantage even when doing "friendly" negotiations.

This is what the ACSC has stated about today's briefing.

"The Australian Cyber Security Centre's (ACSC) advisory about the attack described so-called copy-paste compromises that could be addressed by running software updates and other typical security measures.
"We've got to recognise what this isn't: this is not the [Prime Minister] declaring cyber war on China, this is not the [Prime Minister] announcing Australia is suddenly under major cyber attack," said Rory Medcalf, head of the National Security College at the Australian National University.
Instead, in his view, it's "an extreme health check".
"He's basically saying to all Australians, you've got to help yourselves. You've got to help us protect you.""

To summarise that for you, there is NOTHING new today. That's why Scomo couldn't provide anything specific. He even stated that this is not new and has been ongoing for sometime. Is China probing and launching cyber attacks....most definitely yes....just like they have done the last 10 years. So is everyone else.

Secondly, "copy paste" attacks and ransomware are NOT sophisticated. It doesn't take a state backed actor to launch these attacks.....in fact, enough googling you could launch one yourself (not suggesting you do).

So now ask yourself...why did Scomo feel inclined to give the briefing this morning?
Here are a few cool real time attack maps to see who is attacking who.
https://threatmap.checkpoint.com/
https://www.fireeye.com/cyber-map/threat-map.html
https://www.digitalattackmap.com/

[MITCHAY]

I'm sure Scomo could provide specifics if he wanted to do that. But what purpose does it really serve when the suspect list is short at the best of times.

Despite being no official accusations thrown at China in public, they are already outraged because of our reporting. Might be because their press is considered from the mouth of the CCP so they are confused about it being the same thing

All governments do this to some extent, including us. No one wants to be publicly called out on it.

As far as I understand the vulnerabilities that were exploited were substantially known if nothing else and patches available for them.

Edit:

All exploits utilised by the actor in the course of this campaign were publicly known and had patches or mitigations
available

For the nerds like me https://www.cyber.gov.au/sites/defau...ompromises.pdf

[T3rminator]

No accusations? We wont name names but......China . Current headlines on the ABC website right now:

Cyber attacks are retaliation from China's spy agency for Huawei's 5G ban, insiders say

Why China is being blamed for cyber attacks on Australia, and what its hackers might be looking for

China denies being behind cyber attack on Australia, foreign ministry spokesman calls claims 'baseless'

If ABC went to US or UK officials and asked if it was them...how do you think they would react? "thanks for asking, but no. have a nice day?"

I didn't expect Scomo to reveal all the nittty gritty details, as that would be against national security interests. But I expect more than "this is not new", "this has been ongoing for sometime", "use of copy paste exploits". I'm grumpy because the b@stard disturbed my sleep in this morning. Wasted my morning on an "emergency" call with overseas counterparts to investigate if our data centre was being targeted as we are a prime target.....only to find out now it was pretty much just a bloody hoax!

The danger with doing these sorts of stunts is that, when a real serious situation does present itself, Australians will start to second guess whether it is actually real.

[MITCHAY]

Mate, neither Scomo or Marise Payne have made public accusations at all. Unless either of them say it from their mouth or in a press release it is not the official position of Australia.

It might be difficult for the Chinese to understand but our press are free to speculate, and the backbenchers to talk **** as much as they like. Citizens too.

Unlike theirs which might as well be the CCP.

[T3rminator]

They were upset when reporters were pointing the finger. They actually blamed ASPI.

And we haven't helped ourselves with ASPI. I'm astounded that we allow a foreign goverment entity to sponsor our think tank that was set up to provide independent strategic policies.

https://www.itwire.com/open-sauce/as...epartment.html

Don't forget this was the same think tank that started the "chinese spy" story that aired on 60 minutes. The spy sent to Australia but couldn't speak English and has now had his assets frozen by AFP on potential fraud charges .

[MITCHAY]

Are the ASPI, other think tanks, and all the media the Australia government?

No they are not, but they are free to offer up whatever opinion they like to. You know in a democracy.

But the Chinese get butt hurt over it all because they either don't know or think it represents the official Australian position.

If the statement doesn't come from the PM or FM it doesn't mean anything.

[Sprintey]

This was the worst attack in the cyber world ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEpv7YxnLCQ

maybe inspired by this sheer terrorism:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x_WLbjNDcg

[T3rminator]

https://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/...hers-for-hacks

Hmmmmm Things are not always straight forward when it comes to cyber security.

In theory, I can actually think of a few reasons why the CIA might want our intel.

1. They are in a major trade war with China. It would be beneficial to them to have Intel on how China is dealing with other countries. Why buy Australian beef when you can buy US beef?

2. They want to be first to market with the cv19 vaccine and intend to monopolise it. There is big big money at play for some private companies. It might also win the election for Trump. They have form, with Trump's earlier failed attempt at taking over the German vaccine company.

Ps. I haven't been able to find one industry insider who has seen any unusual cyber attack traffic in their organisation. LION reported a ransomware breach, but a state actor does not waste their time on ransomware.

[CyberWasp]

Is it just me or do we need to rethink our defense forces.
We have Army, Navy and Air Force but none of these can deal with recent threats which are just as crippling as a physical invasion.
It seems that in a modern world we need 2 more. One for infectious diseases and one for the cyber world. These two groups would also be relied upon to defend / protect our borders but in a different way.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by CyberWasp

Is it just me or do we need to rethink our defense forces.
We have Army, Navy and Air Force but none of these can deal with recent threats which are just as crippling as a physical invasion.
It seems that in a modern world we need 2 more. One for infectious diseases and one for the cyber world. These two groups would also be relied upon to defend / protect our borders but in a different way.

We have the Australian Signals Directorate which handles cyber operations.

https://www.asd.gov.au/

They advertised jobs last year that sounded like being a professional internet troll

I was very interested but the application process was a pain in the ***.

Imagine if I went professional

[PHANTMXR6]

Originally Posted by CyberWasp

Is it just me or do we need to rethink our defense forces.
We have Army, Navy and Air Force but none of these can deal with recent threats which are just as crippling as a physical invasion.
It seems that in a modern world we need 2 more. One for infectious diseases and one for the cyber world. These two groups would also be relied upon to defend / protect our borders but in a different way.

What makes you think they don’t already exist?
Just because you haven’t heard of them....

[zilo]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

I know of two countries who have anti Western views and also poses significant capabilities in this field, they are:

A) Russia
B) China

One of them has been upset by being called out for an investigation into it's handling of COVID-19 and has decided to play economic warfare in recent times through:

1) Banning certain Australian imports
2) Advising it's citizens to not come here as tourists or students for fear if racist attacks
3) Interferes significantly in Australian politics by influencing local politicians.

They both regularly try to influence international politics through social media bots.

Using my powers of deduction I reckon it's a safe bet.

I know of two countries that are responsible for the death of at least 500,000 infants due to medical embargoes over 10 years.
The first country reduced a 20th century sovereign state back into the stone age , to rubble....based on faked imminent nuclear threat propaganda.

The same country has dedicated misinformation and assassination departments to undermine any south American country that fails to embrace their economic systems or fails to make their natural resources such as oil, etc available to their corporations to exploit at any cost.

The second country with small dik syndrome is the best friend of the first (due to holding half the planets uranium reserves)...and needing "protection' by way of a military base in the mining region...just in case.

The second country was complicit with the first in outright murder of a population that was no threat, then the outright theft of their oil to pay for their "liberation"

My motto is never trust the first or the second and don't let them suck you into propaganda that demonizes another.

Some one supposedly hacking into a computer that is protected by overpriced blood sucking multinationals who havent done what they are paid to do is not justification for provoking a war.

[zilo]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

We have the Australian Signals Directorate which handles cyber operations.

https://www.asd.gov.au/

They advertised jobs last year that sounded like being a professional internet troll

I was very interested but the application process was a pain in the ***.

Imagine if I went professional

I can guarantee you that they have read your post and that you will never ever work for them now.

Betcha you re upset about that?