Recent cyberattacks a result of trade tensions?
WERE THE RECENT CYBERATTACKS ON AUSTRALIA THE RESULT OF ESCALATING TRADE TENSIONS?
By Victoria Ticha, UNSW Newsroom
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Australia’s largest-ever investment in cybersecurity – $1.35 billion in existing defence funding to be spent over the next decade.
But experts have warned such measures will be of limited use unless businesses take action to educate themselves and improve cybersecurity within their organisational structures properly before it’s too late.
Who was behind the recent attacks?
The announcement followed a public warning earlier this month that several Australian governments, businesses and political organisations were exposed to an escalating series of cyberattacks from a “sophisticated state-based cyber actor”.
The Prime Minister would not identify the nation Australia believed responsible. But he said, “there aren’t too many state-based actors who have those capabilities”, leading many experts to suspect it was China behind the attacks.
“Everyone seems to think it’s China – they certainly seem the most obvious,” said Richard Buckland, Professor in Cybercrime, Cyberwar and Cyberterror at the School of Computer Science and Engineering UNSW Sydney.
“But what’s interesting about these attacks is that they’re not very sophisticated. [So] my thought is, these [cyberattacks] were intended to be discovered. It’s a bullying strategy,” Prof. Buckland observed.
“If they really wanted to cause harm, there would be other ways,” he said, suggesting the cyberattacks could have been much worse.
COVID-19 has seen rising trade tensions, the most notable being the recent threat to Australian barley and beef exports to China.
While China has claimed that the announcements are unrelated to Australia’s call for an independent international inquiry into the cause of the pandemic, the timing of it seems to be part of a global trade onslaught.
But the recent cyberattacks trace back to pre-COVID-19, suggesting the role of economic espionage through cyberattacks plays a much more significant role in geopolitics than the current timing suggests.
Worryingly, this also means that future attacks are highly likely, if not inevitable.
“That such a simple and out-of-date attack would work against us, is a damning indictment of our level of preparation,” added Prof. Buckland.
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So how do Australian businesses stack up in terms of cybersecurity compared to other countries? As a general rule, the further you are away from seeing it as vital to business to defend yourself, the worse you are, said Prof. Buckland.
As a starting point, he urged businesses should ensure they are taking actions to:
Improve staff training and awareness of cybersecurity fundamentals, including being tricked.
Invest in and have a dedicated cyber team or capability.
Regularly and independently test the cybersecurity mechanisms that are in place.
