Morrison reveals malicious 'state-based' cyber attack on governments, industry - The Age

Asked whether the attack came from China, Mr Morrison did not name the foreign state but emphasised the level of sophistication of the intrusion.

"What I can confirm, with confidence, based on the advice, the technical advice that we have received, is that this is the action of a state-based actor with significant capabilities," he said.

"There aren't too many state-based actors who have those capabilities."

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has revealed details of a major cyber attack. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Mr Morrison raised the attack with United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday night and also sought co-operation from Australia's Five Eyes intelligence partners, the United States, Canada, New Zealand as well as the UK.

Others who were aware of the attack named China as a likely source.

The Australian Signals Directorate said it was aware of the "sustained targeting of Australian governments and companies by a sophisticated state-based actor".

It said links to fake websites designed to steal users' details, links to malicious files, and use of email tracking services to identify when users were opening emails were being used by the sophisticated actor.

"The actor has been identified leveraging a number of initial access vectors, with the most prevalent being the exploitation of public-facing infrastructure," the intelligence organisation said.

The Australian Cyber Security Centre was working with the organisations subject to the malicious cyber attack.

The ACSC named "copy-paste compromises" as part of the state-based actor's "heavy use of proof-of-concept exploit code, web shells and other tools" to enable the attacks.

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Defence Minister Linda Reynolds said companies should "patch" their internet-facing devices promptly to make sure any web or email servers are fully updated with the latest software and ensure they used multi-factor authentication to secure any internet access.

The government has seen an increased in threat activity in recent months in a trend that has overlapped with Australia's tensions with the Chinese government over an investigation into the source of the COVID-19 virus in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

Former National Cyber Security Adviser Alastair MacGibbon said the threat was "likely a campaign by a sophisticated state-based actor" and part of a wider trend.

"It is an affront to our national interest and sovereignty that such events occur," said Mr MacGibbon, who is now chief strategy officer at CyberCX after a long career in public policy including as head of the ACSC.

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"And that's why the Prime Minister has stood up to make a statement."

The US Department of Homeland Security and the FBI warned last month that hackers based in China were using cyber attacks and "cyberthefts" to steal intellectual property in the field of vaccines and healthcare.

The US warning was followed by an Australian alert from the ACSC within days telling critical infrastructure providers to do more to protect themselves from cyber attack when key staff were working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiiwFodHRwczovL3d3dy50aGVhZ2UuY29tLmF1L3BvbGl0aWNzL2ZlZGVyYWwvbW9ycmlzb24tcmV2ZWFscy1tYWxpY2lvdXMtc3RhdGUtYmFzZWQtY3liZXItYXR0YWNrLWhpdHRpbmctc2V2ZXJhbC1zZWN0b3JzLTIwMjAwNjE5LXA1NTQ1ei5odG1s0gGLAWh0dHBzOi8vYW1wLnRoZWFnZS5jb20uYXUvcG9saXRpY3MvZmVkZXJhbC9tb3JyaXNvbi1yZXZlYWxzLW1hbGljaW91cy1zdGF0ZS1iYXNlZC1jeWJlci1hdHRhY2staGl0dGluZy1zZXZlcmFsLXNlY3RvcnMtMjAyMDA2MTktcDU1NDV6Lmh0bWw?oc=5

2020-06-18 23:39:00Z
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