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Australia Security The Internet Politics IT Technology

Australia's Major Political Parties Targeted by 'Sophisticated State Actor', Prime Minister Says (theguardian.com) 61

Australia's major political parties have been targeted by a "sophisticated state actor", according to Scott Morrison (Prime Minister of Australia), as part of a breach of the Parliament House computer network. From a report: The head of the Australian Cyber Security Centre, Alastair MacGibbon, says agencies were unsure what material had been taken in the incident because the rapid remediation efforts had removed some of the forensic evidence. The prime minister confirmed the state-sponsored intrusion in a statement to parliament on Monday, but said there was no evidence of electoral interference and measures had been put in place to "ensure the integrity of our electoral system."

Morrison said he had instructed the Australian Cyber Security Centre "to be ready to provide any political party or electoral body in Australia with immediate support, including making their technical experts available." He said the federal and state electoral commissions and cybersecurity agencies in the states had been briefed and the cybersecurity centre in Canberra had also worked with global anti-virus companies "so the world can detect this malicious activity."

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Australia's Major Political Parties Targeted by 'Sophisticated State Actor', Prime Minister Says

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  • by andydread ( 758754 ) on Monday February 18, 2019 @10:10AM (#58139670)
    My vote: China
    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I think a lot of times when a government or corporation gets hacked, they knee-jerkingly blame it on a "state-actor" to hide the fact that their network security was pathetically weak. It seems to me that a sophisticated group would not be so careless as to leave obvious evidence of their intrusion since that would only alert and motivate the target to tighten their defenses and make it more difficult to get in the next time.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      My vote: New Zealand

    • by Livius ( 318358 )

      The prime minister would count as a "state actor", but I'm not so sure about the "sophisticated" part.

    • My Vote: Barry Humphries He's a master of disguise and is clearly part of the communist ABC's plot to overthrow the government with independently researched news and current affairs. Not to mention his latest efforts to highlight Australia's natural wonder is clearly targeted at stopping miners from profiting from environmental destruction.
    • by louzer ( 1006689 )
      We solve crime by votes and guess now. Or even worse, by originating IP Addresses.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I only wish Slashdot's dupe detection mechanism was as sophisticated as a foreign state actor.

    Unless the "news" here is the word could has been replaced by the word was. https://it.slashdot.org/story/... [slashdot.org]

  • by mapkinase ( 958129 ) on Monday February 18, 2019 @10:36AM (#58139806) Homepage Journal

    Why do we keep inventing new words? Acts of foreign government are either "espionage" or "sabotage".

    And it has been the extension of diplomacy for a long long time. Like in "war is extension of diplomacy".

    Espionage is normal. Sabotage is less normal and more hostile, but it's much less than an act of war....

    • Why do we keep inventing new words?

      We don't. None of these words are new and none of them seem to mean what you think they do. Espionage though typically used to describe an act by governments is not exclusively used so.

      Embrace the english language. "Sophisticated" tells us about the attack quality, "state actor" tells us about the attacker, "espionage" or "sabotage" tells us about the purpose.

      You want to know why the words espionage and sabotage aren't being used? Well that's because not every government wants to resort to unsubstantiated h

  • Russia seems to have contributed to the misinformation over Brexit which, regardless of what happens next, certainly seems destined to destabilise the UK and possibly the EU for years to come. They may also have been a decisive factor in Trump's election as US president, though their contribution is difficult to separate from other factors. It is not surprising that state actors see similar attempts as an interesting way of trying to achieve their foreign policy goals.

  • Well deserved (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Guspaz ( 556486 ) on Monday February 18, 2019 @10:46AM (#58139852)

    This is the same government that recently banned secure encryption in Australia (by mandating backdoors in all secure systems). The fact that said government just got hacked is simply delicious irony.

  • by Archtech ( 159117 ) on Monday February 18, 2019 @10:47AM (#58139854)

    'Australia's major political parties have been targeted by a "sophisticated state actor"...'

    OMG it's Putin! He's weaponized truth!!

    • especially disinformation.

      Putin is not a friend of the free press. If he releases information it's solely to benefit himself at the expense of his enemies. This means the information he has released is likely to be incomplete. It will be missing anything that shows his administration in a negative light.

      Go watch John Oliver's latest Brexit Video [youtube.com]. It's terrifying how many people were just casually manipulated by the propaganda and are now realizing how screwed they'll be. The guy selling flowers who'
  • Which is the most "sophisticated state actor" you can think of, when it comes to electronic espionage and malware?

  • The plan to break AUS's shit and have them delete forensic evidence fucking worked.

    I can't believe some half-assed plan hatched on fucking 4chan by a bunch of high schoolers from various places around the world actually worked this goddamned well.

    GG NO RE fucking AUS. You got owned by a literal group of teenagers. Your 'best' and 'brightest' IT staff got owned by people that have yet to graduate from their mandated basic education.

    Don't trust Australia to keep your shit safe, folks. This is the result of th

  • Australia's Major Political Parties Targeted by 'Sophisticated State Actor'

    Well, that rules out the Australian government itself.

  • Sophisticated, or sophisticated compared to Australia?

  • We (Australia) have an election coming up in the next couple of months where the current outlook is that the Liberal government (who are our conservative party) are going to get annihilated. I find the timing of this VERY interesting.
  • Looks like they are looking for an excuse to use their new powers passed as the last parliamentary business for 2018.

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