[LINK] Aussie Cyber Warfare

[Stephen Loosley]

Quoting: http://www.afr.com/p/technology/australia_launches_cyber_weapons_hR1B30qv3c6bYKJvquVzoO


Australian Cyber Offensive

Australia is no passive participant in cyber conflicts. 

Multiple intelligence sources have told The Australian Financial Review that for more than a decade we have been building an offensive "computer network attack" (CNA) capability inside the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), which openly advertises for hackers who are "passionate about breaking and securing computer systems" with "knowledge of offensive and defensive techniques to protect Australia's interests".

 http://www.asd.gov.au/publications/Cyber_Ops_Careers_Brochure_for_Industry.pdf

Sources say ASD has launched cyber-attacks on terrorists in the Middle East that were conspiring against Australia. 

ASD's small team of CNA specialists, which are a fraction of the people working in its "computer network exploitation" area (which steals foreign intelligence), develop their own malware and borrow payloads from the larger CNA resources residing inside America's NSA and Britain's GCHQ.

Australia has also allegedly harnessed its offensive cyber skills to hit back against a non-democratic state that was pilfering our public and private secrets, intelligence sources say.

This involved implanting malware on foreign servers that erased data and disabled the cooling systems such that they were ultimately "fried". (end quote)


[Then follows AFR rant regarding necessity for support of mandatory data retention policies. Eg quote, "Many of those who rail against metadata retention are the same "anarcho-libertarians" who dismiss the tsunami of evidence that the internet is being hijacked by individuals and state and non-state entities that want to undermine our way of life."]

Cheers,
Stephen