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A clever state actor hacked an “Australian energy company” just days after a new exploit was disclosed.
That’s a day in the life of the Australian Signals Directorate’s (ASD) Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), which has just released its 2022 Threat Report, an annual inventory of harmful behaviour affecting Australia and worldwide cyber ailments we’re likely to develop.
In April 2022, ASD and ACSC discovered a new exploit in the field and triggered the ‘patch-or-UR-Pwned’ alarm, which jolted system administrators out of bed. The incident deeply ruined their corporate network and external internet connection. Additionally, the ICT network of Queensland Government-owned electricity generator CS Energy became a target of the Contiransomeware group.
“Immediate actions from the energy provider in response to ACSC’s notification confirmed two servers had been exploited. Existing network segmentation, specifically a demilitarised zone (DMZ)—a network kept separate from the core network to protect information from less trusted networks, such as the internet—worked as intended. As a result, energy operations were not disrupted,” ACSC said
Most cyber reports are primarily promotional for security firms pitching a solution; this report, the third annual stocktake, is more of the official real-estate information on what has been stolen, broken, or infested. Consider it a real estate report without the snobbishness. It is worth reading.
In the last year, about 76,000 cybercrime reports were filed. This represents a roughly 13% increase over the previous year. Nonetheless, that is a relatively decent performance. Commercial hackers make most of their money via ransomware, a business that has now achieved industrial maturity. People, including insurers, continue to pay the ransom despite clear repercussions. The level of coverage provided by cyber insurance policies influences whether or not a company pays the ransom.
According to an Australian Institute of Criminology study, only 19% of ransomware victims sought advice or assistance from the police or the ACSC. However, the study indicated that over 60% sought help from at least one formal source other than family or friends.
“The evolution of Cybercrime-as-a-Service (CaaS) continued to increase the overall cybercrime threat to Australia. CaaS encompasses an ever-increasing range of purchasable tools, services and information used to facilitate cybercriminal operations,” the ASC explained.
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