Meteorology Bureau of Australia, Hacked By Foreign Spies!

A report has been published by ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) which is revealing that last year in December, the computer system related to Meteorology Bureau of Australia suffered a major cyber-attack. A malware had been installed by the hackers in computer system of Australian Agency to steal official documents. Australia’s Meteorology Bureau is analog of United States National weather service. Australian climate, national weather and water agencies comes under meteorology bureau. The most interesting fact is, the targeted computer system has been used by Australian Meteorology Bureau to provide weather information to Australian Defence agencies.

Who Did It?

The name of suspected, has not been revealed by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The reports of media are saying that it had been done by China. In 2013, Chinese spies were accused for stealing the top secret blue prints of Australian intelligence agency from its headquarters. Moreover China had also been accused for hacking US government websites and many other websites owned by private firms.

Why they did it?

It is not confirmed yet that why Australian Meteorology Bureau was the target of hackers. According to ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), the systems of Australian BoM contains a huge amount of information including weather data. Further, they are sharing this information with various industries of Australia. Defence department of Australia is also sharing this information. That’s why hackers had target the system of Australian BoM.

"These type of Cyber-Attacks can cause huge problems for Australian Homeland Security."

Response of Australian Cyber Security Centre

The minister of Australian Cyber Security Dan Tehan Said, “We don’t narrow it down to specific countries, and we do that deliberately”. He also said that we are taking all the necessary steps to keep the national systems safe from these type of attacks. Cyber security is a serious topic, we can’t take it lightly. This threat is real and our security experts are trying their best.

Remote Access Tool (RAT) Detected By ASD

ASD (Australian Signals Directorate) is national cyber security agency of Australia. A RAT (Remote Access Tool) has been detected by the security researchers of ASD in the system of Australian BoM (Bureau of Meteorology). The code of this malware is similar as the malwares which has been used by the hackers to perform state-sponsored cyber-attacks and this malware is famous as “state-sponsored adversary malware”.

The footprints of this adversary malware has been detected by security researchers. This malware was copying and searching unknown documents and files in the system of Australian BoM. The same malware had been used by the hackers in past to hack other Australian networks. According to Australian Terrorist Cyber Threat experts, it seems like the hackers behind this hack were not that much cultivated.

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