By Kaylee Berger
“INDONESIAN hackers have stepped up cyber attacks against Canberra, with Australia’s peak spy agency the latest to fall victim after spying allegations enraged Jakarta.”
The Australian Security Intelligence Organization’s (ASIO) website was hacked on Monday, November 11th by a hacking group named Anonymous Indonesia. The site was inaccessible for at least half the night! The Anonymous Indonesia revealed itself on Twitter the next day. The ASIO was said to be offline for about two to three hours after the group made this public statement. However, there is no indication as to why the site was down or if it is now protected from these cyber attacks.
The ASIO is overseen by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, but they failed to make a public statement after the incident. Not making a statement about the cyber attack is failing them to gain confidence that the people are protected in Australia.
Anonymous Indonesia has made previous attacks on the ASIO. When it became public that Australia had used its Jakarta embassy as a spying base, an attack was made that crippled more than 170 websites of Australian business organizations. The ASIO was forced to focus on intelligence websites after fellow hackers in Australia demanded they leave non-government websites alone.
Having multiple attacks on this prestigious site, is extremely threatening. Although the ASIO claims there is no threat, the people view this as a lack of protection. The organization either needs to create a new site, hacker free or figure out ways that people can not discover classified information.
It seems that this will not be the last cyber attack. Anonymous Indonesia has plans on hacking an intelligence agency within Defense called the Australian Signals Directorate. Having already known that, let’s hope that Australia can protect itself.
If the Australian government does not see this group as a threat, they should at least put the group to rest. Anonymous Indonesia needs to be discovered so that this trend does not continue. They are completely humiliating Australia on multiple levels. For Anonymous Indonesia to take to Twitter to publicize their own hack on a prestigious organization, that is embarrassing.
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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/indonesians-step-up-cyber-attacks-against-australia/story-fn59nm2j-1226758538363#
This is super interesting. I would have never thought Australia would have a hacking problem, especially from a country like Indonesia that I perceive to be less technologically advanced. I am a little confused about what the issue is between Indonesia and Australia that would make them want to hack. I agree with the blogger that this is super embarrassing for Australia, and the fact that they did not report it to their people makes it even more embarrassing because it makes it seem like there is no solution. If I was form Australia I would be worried about the safety of my Internet because, god for bid it shut down for a period of time, I would be very upset.