Australia Under Cyber Attack: Dissecting Canberra’s Response

Australia Under Cyber Attack: Dissecting Canberra’s Response

Tan E Guang Eugene

15 July 2020

Attributing cyber attacks to state-sponsored actors is a delicate balancing act that requires strategic and political thinking. States may or may not choose to name the offending state based on their own national interests. What is more important is how states should improve their capabilities to actively deter malicious actors.

ON 19 JUNE 2020, Australia publicly announced that it was a victim of state-based cyber attacks. This assessment was based on the “scale and nature of the targeting”. According to Australian Prime Minister Morrison, the malicious activity was targeted at a broad range of organisations across Australia, including government, industry, political organisations, education, essential service providers, and operators of critical infrastructure.

The Australian government did not disclose the identity of the attacker or the objectives of the attackers. Morrison particularly stressed that there were no large scale data breaches of private information, and that the announcement was a public call to improve capabilities in face of aggression caused by states. This raises questions of why did the Australian government feel the need to attribute a cyber attack when there was little harm done.

Read the full commentary at https://www.rsis.edu.sg/rsis-publication/cens/australia-under-cyber-attack-dissecting-canberras-response