[LINK] ABC Four Corners on Cyber-attacks in Australia

[Tom Worthington]

ABC Four Corners report "Hacked!" (27th May at 8.30pm on ABC1), alleged 
that Chinese military hackers were targeting Australian Government 
departments and corporations to steal secrets and business information: 
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2013/05/27/3766576.htm

The program contained little hard evidence or new information. One 
allegation, that the plans to the new ASIO headquarters had been stolen 
to assist penetration of the building was new, but not particularly 
significant. However, the program will be useful if it prompts the 
Australian Government to restart its dormant work on public cyber 
security policy.

One curious segment of the program had a private security consultant 
asked if the Australia was preparing for offensive cyber-warfare, that 
is preparing to attack, not just defend. The consultant hedged around 
the question, hinting but not answering clearly.

This reluctance to answer the question is at odds with a media release 
from Northrop Grumman in 2012 which announced it was building a cyber 
test range at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) in Canberra, 
to train defence force personnel: 
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/17/idUS206468+17-Oct-2012+PRN20121017

A cyber range is analogous to a test range for conventional weapons: the 
cyber range is used to test cyber warfare techniques, which can be both 
defensive and offensive. I attended a presentation to the Australian 
Computer Society, 13 March 2013, where one of the staff from Northrop 
Grumman gave a presentation on the cyber range: 
http://blog.tomw.net.au/2013/03/cloud-computing-at-northrop-grumman.html


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
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Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Research School of Computer Science,
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/