DP World Hack

Why is cybersecurity important in critical infrastructures? Cyber attacks can block all maritime trade in a region. Are you wondering how? Then continue reading.

Australia's biggest port operator suffered from a cyber attack on Novenber 10th, 2023 and had to shut down all of its terminals around the country. As a result, 30,000 (thirty thousand) containers stuck at ports. They also had to disconnect internet in order to decrease the effect of the attack. They began to restart their operations graduallt but not fully recovered as of today.

Some of the managers/project leaders are reluctant to understand the important of cybersecurity. They only understand the point after they see their company in the "hacked news" on the internet. But then it's too late.

Cyber attacks can also cause devastating damages if the hacked company doesn't have sound recovery processes. The longer yor systems are down the more money you lose. Apparently, time is money.

The hackers DO know this fact and do their jobs.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/nov/13/australian-port-operator-hit-by-cyber-attack-says-cargo-may-be-stranded-for-days


hashtag

Australia's Medibank Ransomware Attack

 

Australian health insurer Medibank suffered a ransomware attack where the names, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of 9,7 million customers is -allegedly- leaked. (Quite huge amount of data.)

In this ransomware attack, the victim's files are not encrypted but threatened to be exposed. The ransomware gang began to expose some information in the internet to be more persuasive that they really have the data.

Medibank refused to pay the ransom in order not to encourage such attacks. (Brave but risky decision which I think a correct decision.)

It is believed that the attack is carried on by the ransomware gans REvil or BlogXXX.

And yeah... It is seen one more time that cyber security is not a game or not an abstract concept. On the contrary, cyber threats are real and can have serious effects on our real lives.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/07/medibank_breach_n0_ransom_payment/

"Australian health insurer Medibank – which spent October discovering a security incident was worse than it first thought – has announced it will not pay a ransom to attackers that made off with personal info describing nearly ten million customers."

"Medibank also confirmed that primary identity documents, such as drivers licenses, were not accessed for most of its clients – but around 1.8 million international customers weren't so lucky and also had details of the visas that permit them to reside in Australia exposed. The Australian national health scheme (Medicare) ID numbers of 2.8 million customers were also leaked."

Signal vs. Australia

Australian government tries to block Signal services because Signal doesn't want to share user data with Australian government. Signal says that it is not possible by design because:


"By design, Signal does not have a record of your contacts, social graph, conversation list, location, user avatar, user profile name, group memberships, group titles, or group avatars. The end-to-end encrypted contents of every message and voice/video call are protected by keys that are entirely inaccessible to us..."


Australian government insist on it because they think that some Signal users can be a threat to the Australian national security.


We will see who will win this battle.


For more news and the article:
https://signal.org/blog/setback-in-the-outback/