littleroundman
01-08-2012, 09:19 PM
Business under cyber threat
Leonie Lamont
January 9, 2012
THE Australian Federal Police has warned that online attacks on companies are becoming more common, in the wake of the offshore cyber attack that forced the ANZ and St George banks to shut down their online broking sites.
ANZ's E*Trade was bombarded by millions of emails in a denial of service attack, forcing it to shut the site to some users for up to two weeks over the Christmas-New Year period. St George's directshares, which is provided by E*Trade, was also affected.
An AFP spokeswoman said while it did not have an active investigation into the attack on the broking sites, ''the AFP has been working closely with E*Trade throughout the denial of service attack''.
''Online attacks are becoming more common as organised criminal gangs and motivated individuals understand the technology of the internet and take advantage of the anonymity that comes with it,'' she said.
''These groups can operate from countries with less developed legal frameworks and are increasingly sophisticated, operating from a high level of technical ability.
''The ability for criminals to use technology to commit crime, attack critical infrastructure, engage in terrorist activity and undermine national security is a very real threat.''
The scope of the threat was highlighted last month in the report 2012 Threats Predictions by security technology company, McAfee. Threats ranged from ''hactivism'' - the targeting of business sites for political ends - to the vulnerability of customers using mobile devices and smartphones for banking.
''Attackers have adapted quickly to every change intended to secure banking on PCs. As we use our mobile devices ever more for banking, we will see attackers bypass PCs and go straight after mobile banking apps," the report said.
''Hactivism'' came to prominence during 2010 when activists launched denial-of-service attacks on Paypal, Visa and Mastercard, in retaliation for their refusal to process business for WikiLeaks, a move that was financially crippling the whistleblower site.
''When hactivists picked a target, that target was compromised either through a data breach or a denial of service. They are a credible force,'' McAfee said.
''It is not hard to predict the evolution of the Occupy [movement] and other outraged groups to include more direct digital actions. The possibility of mating hactivist goals with industrial controller or SCADA [supervisory control and data acquisition] systems is a very real possibility.''
It said industrial and national infrastructure faced more frequent attacks, aided by the inherent weaknesses in the industrial controller systems technology. And with a nod to ''cyber armies'' operating out of totalitarian countries, it predicted 2012 would be the ''Year for Cyberwar''.
The AFP spokeswoman said she could not speculate on who was behind the attack on the broking sites. She confirmed that the AFP had not received referrals from other financial institutions during the denial-of-service attack.
Read more: Business under cyber threat (http://www.watoday.com.au/business/business-under-cyber-threat-20120108-1pq17.html#ixzz1ivJpLbWU)
Leonie Lamont
January 9, 2012
THE Australian Federal Police has warned that online attacks on companies are becoming more common, in the wake of the offshore cyber attack that forced the ANZ and St George banks to shut down their online broking sites.
ANZ's E*Trade was bombarded by millions of emails in a denial of service attack, forcing it to shut the site to some users for up to two weeks over the Christmas-New Year period. St George's directshares, which is provided by E*Trade, was also affected.
An AFP spokeswoman said while it did not have an active investigation into the attack on the broking sites, ''the AFP has been working closely with E*Trade throughout the denial of service attack''.
''Online attacks are becoming more common as organised criminal gangs and motivated individuals understand the technology of the internet and take advantage of the anonymity that comes with it,'' she said.
''These groups can operate from countries with less developed legal frameworks and are increasingly sophisticated, operating from a high level of technical ability.
''The ability for criminals to use technology to commit crime, attack critical infrastructure, engage in terrorist activity and undermine national security is a very real threat.''
The scope of the threat was highlighted last month in the report 2012 Threats Predictions by security technology company, McAfee. Threats ranged from ''hactivism'' - the targeting of business sites for political ends - to the vulnerability of customers using mobile devices and smartphones for banking.
''Attackers have adapted quickly to every change intended to secure banking on PCs. As we use our mobile devices ever more for banking, we will see attackers bypass PCs and go straight after mobile banking apps," the report said.
''Hactivism'' came to prominence during 2010 when activists launched denial-of-service attacks on Paypal, Visa and Mastercard, in retaliation for their refusal to process business for WikiLeaks, a move that was financially crippling the whistleblower site.
''When hactivists picked a target, that target was compromised either through a data breach or a denial of service. They are a credible force,'' McAfee said.
''It is not hard to predict the evolution of the Occupy [movement] and other outraged groups to include more direct digital actions. The possibility of mating hactivist goals with industrial controller or SCADA [supervisory control and data acquisition] systems is a very real possibility.''
It said industrial and national infrastructure faced more frequent attacks, aided by the inherent weaknesses in the industrial controller systems technology. And with a nod to ''cyber armies'' operating out of totalitarian countries, it predicted 2012 would be the ''Year for Cyberwar''.
The AFP spokeswoman said she could not speculate on who was behind the attack on the broking sites. She confirmed that the AFP had not received referrals from other financial institutions during the denial-of-service attack.
Read more: Business under cyber threat (http://www.watoday.com.au/business/business-under-cyber-threat-20120108-1pq17.html#ixzz1ivJpLbWU)