Tag: Australian Signals Directorate

Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said the country's major political parties were hacked earlier this month alongside the federal parliament by a "sophisticated state actor". The announcement on Monday came 10 days after the launch of a probe into the cybersecurity breach of the parliament's computer network. "Our cyber experts believe that a sophisticated state actor is responsible for this malicious activity," he said. At the time, the Australian Signals Directorate had confirmed it was working with parliament in response to the breach, a move that indicated the possible involvement of sophisticated actors. May polls Australia is expected to hold elections in mid-May, raising concerns that hackers could be trying to influence the outcome of the vote or change the tenor of the debate. Along with Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the United States, Australia is part of the Five Eyes intelligence network, which gives it access to a host of signals and human intelligence to back up any suspicions of state hacking. "Our political institutions represent high-value targets. But we have resilient systems in place to detect compromises and remediate them," said Alastair MacGibbon, head of the Australian Cyber Security Centre. He said it was unclear whether the attackers gained access to sensitive data or emails. "We genuinely do not know."