Hackers reach Defence files: report

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

Forwarded from: William Knowles <wk () c4i org>

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/11/10/1068329455162.html

November 10, 2003 

Hackers have reportedly accessed top-secret files inside the 
Department of Defence.

Defence Minister Robert Hill told an inquiry into computer security in 
the public service about three external security breaches in the past 
three years, the Herald Sun said.

"There have been three incidents in which an external security breach 
has led to unauthorised access to computer systems," Senator Hill had 
told the inquiry.

According to the minister, the Defence Department also reported 13 
cases since 2000 of its own staff trying to hack into computer systems 
without authorisation.

A review of electronic security inside commonwealth agencies has 
reportedly uncovered a culture of theft and lax security inside the 
public service.

The inquiry comes amid a series of thefts of computers containing 
classified information from a customs office at Sydney Airport and the 
Transport Department in Canberra.

Submissions by the major departments to the Joint Committee of Public 
Accounts and Audit has found that more than 1600 computers have 
vanished since 1998.

Senator Hill said three computers stolen in the past two years 
contained information classified as "secret", but they had been 
recovered and the risk to national security had been assessed as low, 
he told the inquiry in a memo.


 
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