[LINK] Australia the victim of 'massive' cyber espionagefrom Sabrina

Kim Holburn kim at holburn.net
Fri Aug 19 09:01:45 AEST 2011


Not more of this waffle.  there is a good xkcd on this:

https://www.xkcd.com/932/

Unless Australia's secrecy is better than our cyberdefence it's the US that has been the soft underbelly of allies of the US.  wikileaks, US police: 
http://boingboing.net/2011/08/17/bart-police-officers-website-hacked-database-released.html
Lockeed Martin:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/security/229700151




On 2011/Aug/19, at 12:57 AM, Sabrina Friedman wrote:

> Australia the victim of 'massive' cyber espionage
> Dylan Welch
> July 31, 2011
> http://www.watoday.com.au/technology/security/australia-the-victim-of-massive-cyber-espionage-20110731-1i6hc.html
> 
> Canberra is seen as the soft underbelly of the Western intelligence club.
> 
> Cyber espionage is being used against Australia on a ''massive scale''
> and some foreign spies are using Australian government networks to
> penetrate the cyber defences of allies such as the US, ASIO chief David
> Irvine has told business leaders.
> 
> Mr Irvine's speech is one of the strongest indications yet of the
> seriousness with which the government is treating the cyber threat.
> 
> ''Electronic intelligence gathering is now a huge industry,'' Mr Irvine
> said. ''It is being used against Australia on a massive scale to extract
> confidential information from governments, the private sector and
> ordinary individuals.''
> 
> He hinted that Australia is often targeted by foreign spies as an easy
> access point into the intelligence holdings of the US and Britain.
> 
> Describing the security threat posed by cyber as ''pervasive and
> insidious'' he continued: ''Worse, our own territory can be used to
> surreptitiously penetrate the cyber defences of our friends and allies.''
> 
> Canberra has long been seen as the soft underbelly of the Western
> intelligence club - the alliance of Australia, Canada, New Zealand,
> Britain and the US - and foreign nations are known to target Australia
> in order to steal our allies' intelligence.
> 
> With the rise of cyber espionage, foreign states now target Australia's
> relatively less protected government systems to access secret material
> held by the US and Britain.
> 
> The growth of the cyber threat has risen in parallel with global
> internet usage, which has soared from about 360 million in 2000 to over
> 2 billion people last year. Considered to be the greatest content
> provision system the world has ever seen, the internet has left
> governments and industry struggling to deal with the myriad of security
> concerns it has left in its wake.
> 
> ''From our perspective, I can say that it seems the more rocks we turn
> over in cyber space, the more we find,'' Mr Irvine said. ''Internet and
> increased connectivity has expanded infinitely the opportunities for the
> covert acquisition of information by state-sponsored and non-state
> sponsored actors.''
> 
> There is a general recognition that the fast pace of online development
> means the advantage currently lies with those who seek to intrude upon,
> rather than those who try to protect, online systems.
> 
> Last week Graham Ingram, the general manager of Australia independent
> cyber emergency unit AusCERT, told a security conference that Australia
> was as much as five years behind regarding the issue of cyber security.
> 
> Earlier this year it was revealed that foreign spies, likely Chinese,
> hacked into Parliament House's email system and stole thousands of
> messages from at least 10 government ministers including the Prime
> Minister and the ministers for foreign affairs and defence.
> 
> Mr Irvine's speech, on July 5, came only days before the US Department
> of Defence (DoD) released its latest response to the cyber threat, a
> strategy designed to protect its 7 million computers and other devices.
> 
> In doing so, it revealed that ''some foreign intelligence organisations
> have already acquired the capacity to disrupt elements of DoD's
> information infrastructure'.
> 
> The US has previously revealed that every year an amount of intellectual
> property larger than the entire contents of the Library of Congress -
> some 22 million books - is stolen from US networks run by businesses,
> universities and government.
> 
> -- 
> 
> Regards
> brd
> 
> Bernard Robertson-Dunn
> Canberra Australia
> email:	brd at iimetro.com.au
> website:	www.drbrd.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Sabrina Friedman
> Billige Flüge Marketing GmbH
> Emanuelstr. 3,
> 10317 Berlin
> Deutschland
> Telefon: +49 (33) 5310967
> Email: utebachmeier at gmail.com
> Site: http://flug.airego.de - Billige Flüge vergleichen
> 
> _______________________________________________
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-- 
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
T: +61 2 61402408  M: +61 404072753
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