Page 55 - Australian Defence Magazine April 2023

Near routine cyberattacks on Australian organisations, companies and institutions demonstrate what is the new normal.
The conflict in Ukraine appears to have upped the tempo. Faced with broad west- ern hostility, Russian leader Vladimir Pu- tin seems to have unleashed his “official” hackers as well as the criminal hackers directed by Russian intelligence.
It’s not just the Russians. Though it’s always difficult to attribute cyber intru- sions and attacks, those most knowledge- able in this field list them with the usual suspects, China, North Korea and Iran.
In late February, German interior min- ister Nancy Fraser warned of a “massive danger” facing Germany from Russian sab- otage, disinformation and spying attacks.
“The cybersecurity concerns have been exacerbated by the war. The attacks of pro-Russian hackers have increased,” she said in an interview with news network Funke Mediengruppe.
Germany is an obvious target but it fol- lows that Australia, an active supporter of Ukraine, is also in their sights.
In the April 2022 Joint Cybersecurity Advisory, US, Australian, Canadian, NZ and UK authorities warned Russia’s inva- sion of Ukraine could expose organisa- tions within and beyond the region to increased malicious cyber activity.
“This activity may occur as a response to the unprecedented economic costs im- posed on Russia as well as materiel sup- port provided by the United States and US allies and partners,” it said.
Cybercrime seems a useful earner for cash-strapped Russians (or North Kore- ans), which explains why they seek the large quantities of personal data acquired in the Medibank and Optus attacks.
Traditionally such attacks have re- quired significant resources, available to state sponsored groups, with high success rates and significant dividends, though neither Medibank nor Optus paid up.
The cybersecurity authorities urged critical infrastructure network defend- ers to prepare for and mitigate poten- tial cyber threats, including destructive malware, ransomware, DDoS attacks, and cyber espionage, by hardening cy- ber defences and performing due dili- gence in identifying indicators of mali- cious activity.
That was a year ago but nothing has changed since then to suggest the threat has eased. ■
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