• Download mobile app
11 Dec 2023, Edition - 3072, Monday

Trending Now

  • Shivraj Singh Chouhan has launched Mission 29 (29 LS seats) for 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
  • ‘BJP can only win in Gau mutra states’: DMK MP Senthil Kumar makes a controversial remark in Lok Sabha
  • 15 Trains Cancelled As City Continues to Reel Under Waterlogging; Death Toll Reaches 20

World News

Australia parliament hit by cyber-hack attempt

bbc.com

Share

Authorities in Australia say they are investigating an attempt to hack into its parliament’s computer network.

Lawmakers said there was “no evidence” that information had been accessed or stolen, but politicians’ passwords have been reset as a precaution.

Local cyber-security experts have suggested the hack likely came from a foreign state.

Australian PM Scott Morrison said he didn’t intend to comment in depth on “the source or nature of this”.

He said there was “no suggestion” that government agencies or departments had been targeted. MPs and their staff use the parliament network to store emails, among other data.

Earlier, senior lawmakers said there was no evidence that the hacking attempt aimed to “disrupt or influence electoral or political processes”.

However, opposition leader Bill Shorten described the incident as a “wake-up call”. It also sparked commentary from other lawmakers.

The Australian government has faced a number of cyber-attacks in recent years, some of which have been attributed in local media to nations such as China.

In 2015 and 2016, there were high-profile attacks on the government’s weather and statistics agencies. In 2011, senior Australian ministers also had their email systems breached.

“It looks like another nation state is behind this attack as well,” said Fergus Hanson of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a Canberra-based think tank.

“You would be having access to swathes of correspondence between politicians, staffers and people who run Parliament House – lots of juicy information there.”

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

COIMBATORE WEATHER