Once more unto the breach
This last quarter has seen some scary breaches affecting both Australian iconic brands, like the Australian National University (ANU) and many of the world’s largest and most respected ICT service providers. Interestingly, there is one common factor across all these hacks, and some of the lesser known ones, where the common enemy is alleged to be China.
ANU was targeted because of all the valuable personal information it contains on many of Australia’s most senior business and political leaders. Even those students who were affected, who are not yet in influential positions within our economy, are now at risk in the future. This is devastating for our national security and the ramifications won’t fully be understood for many years to come. It reminds me of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) hack in the US, where China (again) was believed to be behind the large-scale theft of all US Government’s employee clearance packs. The OPM breach will cause harm to individuals in position of influence or power, since a foreign intelligence service now has access to personal data that could be used against them.
The ANU hack, which happened despite the fact the Australian government helped the university bolster their cyber defences in 2018, and China is believed to have got away with the last 19 years’ worth of personal data for students past and present, including bank account details and tax records, along with academic transcripts for both students and staff…Click here to read full article.
