Who is behind the cyber attacks in Australia?

Dangerous hacker attack cripple Australia’s electricity grid. Here’s what happened

Dangerous hacker attack cripple The Australian power grid and millions of Australians were at risk of blackouts due to a ransomware attack on November 27. The attack was targeting one of the largest Australian companies, CS Energy.

The attack was stopped only at the last minute before the company’s two coal-fired power plants were likely to be shut down. If the damage had been done, they could have stolen 35,000 megawatts of electricity from the grid, leaving 1.4 to three million homes in the dark.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison noted on Wednesday that Australian cyber authorities had played a critical role in stopping the attack.

“The Australian government acted urgently to engage those who were directly threatened and we were able to ensure that these worst-case scenarios did not occur,” he said. Certain Morrison. “So it was a timely action by our IT authorities that avoided a negative outcome there. I would like to thank them for the great work they have done. We know that cyber threats to Australia are real, both in terms of defence, but also only in the civilian sphere. “.

Morrison also noted that criminal actors were looking to take advantage of Australian and Australian companies. “It is very important that Australian businesses listen carefully and accept the advice of our cybersecurity agencies,” he said. “Australia is one of the world leaders in this field.”

Morrison also refused to confirm whether the attack was carried out by Chinese hackers.

However, as the analysis by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute has clearly demonstrated, Beijing is most likely the “cyber state actor” behind the increasing cyber attacks on Australia.

Cybercrime has become an even greater focus this year in a report by the Australian Center for Cyber ​​Security (ACSC), a division of ASD, Australia’s first line of defense against cyber incidents, which showed that cyber attacks have increased by 13% in the last 12 months.