News has surfaced of an attempted cyber-attack on the Australian government.
As reported by the BBC, authorities in Australia are said to be investigating an effort that was made to hack into its parliament computer network.
It is believed that information was not accessed and that the passwords of politicians were reset as a precaution.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has thus far declined to comment on the incident in detail and further information on the supposed attack remains scarce, although it has been suggested by local cybersecurity experts that a foreign state was likely behind it.
Senator for Western Australia Jordon Steele-Johntook to Twitter to state “Parliament House had a cybersecurity data breach last night. ALL passwords were reset.”
He added: “We’re supposed to have faith that unprecedented, internet-breaking powers will be safe from cyber-threats.”
Alvin Rodrigues, security strategist, APAC and Sam Ghebranious, senior regional director, ANZ, Forcepoint, said: “Reports emerging today that the Australian Parliament’s computer network has been hacked are deeply concerning – and yet not surprising. The government should be lauded for their efforts to quickly identify the breach and take precautionary steps to avert any leakage of data. While investigations into the attack are still underway, the precaution taken – resetting passwords – suggests that nefarious actors may be looking to steal the digital identities/credentials of approved users, so as to operate within the parliamentary computer network without being identified.”