Welcome to the latest issue of the Australian Cyber Security Magazine (ACSM). It’s been an interesting few months in cyber both here in Australia and the rest of the world. The biggest breach in terms of sheer numbers affected Facebook, when attackers gained access to over 50 million user accounts via a software vulnerability. Facebook reacted quickly, erring on the side of caution when they logged approximately 100 million users off their platform, forcing users to log back in to refresh their access token. This got a lot of media attention, for sure, but there were a few local Australian breaches that raised a few eyebrows in the security community, albeit not as exciting for mainstream news to cover. Take, for example, the report of Chinese-based hackers infiltrating the Australian National University (ANU) network. This was worrisome, given ANU plays host to Australia’s national security college and partakes in a variety of defence research projects. It has been alleged that the Chinese government was behind this attack, which makes sense given the importance of ANU in our national security machinery, but guaranteed attribution is always difficult, so we’ll likely never know exactly who the perpetrators were. What has been confirmed is that the attack was definitely launched from within China, and the scale of the breach was significant.
The second attack worth mentioning happened back in July, when an organisation responsible for issuing Aviation Security Identity Cards (ASICs) was breached, raising concerns that airport security may be compromised. ASICs play an important role in airport security since their purpose is to prevent criminals and terrorists from accessing planes or gaining access to restricted airport zones. This breach compromised the personal information of those applying for or renewing ASICs; identity theft in this case could lead to dangerous or even catastrophic consequences…Click here to read full article.
