Cyber Attacks On Australia Increased, Threats To Critical Infrastructure And Business

Defense Minister Richard Marles (Photo: Twitter @richardmarlesmp)

Jakarta - According to government reports, cyber groups supported by several countries have increased attacks on critical infrastructure, business, and homes in Australia. The report added that Australia's new defense agreement with Great Britain and the United States might make him more vulnerable as a target.

Annual threat report from the Australian Cyber Security Center on Wednesday, November 15 recorded a 23% increase in cyber crime reports to more than 94,000 for one year until June. They estimate that cyber attacks occur every six minutes.

"The threat of cyber continues to grow," Defense Minister Richard Marles told ABC Radio. "We also see greater interest from state actors towards Australian critical infrastructure."

The report states that one of the reasons is the new aukus defense partnership "with a focus on nuclear submarines and other sophisticated military capabilities."

In May, the Alliance of Intelligence Five Eyes and Microsoft said the Chinese hacker group supported by the state was reproduction of the United States critical infrastructure organization. The US, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Britain formed a network of sharing intelligence for five eyes.

The techniques used by the Chinese hacker group can be used against Australian critical infrastructure, including telecommunications, energy, and transportation, the report said.

Marles said Australian relations with China, his biggest trading partner, "complex" and the government had never pretended that the relationship would be easy. Diplomatic relations and trade between the two countries have been stable lately after several disputes since 2020.

The surge in cyber intrusion encouraged the Australian government in February to establish an agency to help coordinate responses to hacking. They are also changing the Federal Siber Law - The details are scheduled to be released next week - and the government said it would make the reporting of the ransomware incident become mandatory for the company.

The average cost of cyber crime for victims increased by 14%, said the report.

"Evidence like this provides demands for the government to have a closer relationship between industry and the government," said Matthew Warren, Director of RMIT University Center for Cyber Security Research and Innovation. "Some statistics are quite worrying."

Australian Securities and Investments Commission also said this week that a survey of 700 companies found that 44% of them did not manage risks related to third parties such as supply chain partners who access confidential data. It was also found that 58% had limited or non-existent steps to protect confidential data and 33% did not have a planned conscience.

"Cyber attacks on Australia will continue to increase until the organization begins to provide more efforts to the security and risk management of their information assets," said Nigel Phair, Siber security professor at Monash University.

This month, the cyber incident at DP World Australia, one of the largest port operators in the country, forced them to stop operations for three days.

The reshuffle of the country's cyber security regulations was triggered by data theft in 2022 at the Optus telecommunications service provider, which revealed personal information from 10 million Australians.