Australia weather bureau hacked by foreign spies, says report

The BBC is reporting that an official report has concluded foreign spies were behind a cyber attack on the Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s computer system.

The report provides new details on the 2015 attack on the BoM, which owns one of Australia’s largest supercomputers.

The Australian Broadcasting Corp previously quoted officials blaming China for the hack, which China denied.

The weather bureau produces scientific research information which is valuable to other countries.

Among other services, it gives climate information to commercial airlines and shipping, analyses national water supplies, gathers climate data and works closely with the defence department.

The Australian Cyber Security Centre report says that suspicious activity was detected from two computers on the bureau’s IT network last year.

Investigations found the presence of malware “popular with state-sponsored cyber adversaries, amongst other malware associated with cybercrime”.

The same “Remote Access Tool” (RAT) malware had also been used to compromise other Australian government networks, said the report.

The ACSC said the malware was linked to “a foreign intelligence service” and that security controls “were insufficient to protect the network from more common threats associated with cybercrime”…

More at: Australia weather bureau hacked by foreign spies, says report

PENETRATION TESTING SERVICES BASED IN EXETER, DEVON

Pentesting UK is based in Exeter, Devon, offering penetration testing, ASV scanning, application testing and vulnerability scanning for businesses in the South West and across the UK and beyond. Contact us for more info…