Australian Defence Department ‘Hacked’ in Cyber Attack on Bureau of Meteorology

A massive cyberattack against Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology may have allowed hackers to access the nation’s defence department through a linked network.

Potentially sensitive national security information could have leaked in the attack on the Bureau of Meteorology which owns one of Australia’s largest supercomputers, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported today

Citing several unidentified sources the channel said that the “massive” breach may have compromised sensitive Australian government computer systems.

ABC suggested that hackers from China could be behind the recent breach.

Short of admitting that the attack took place, The Bureau of Meteorology said in a statement that it was working closely with security agencies (to address the cyber attack) and that its computer systems were fully operational.

The Department of Defense said in a statement that it was barred by policy from commenting on specific cybersecurity incidents.

Hackers from China or China have been blamed in recent Australian and American cyber incidents with unnamed sources claiming that Beijing stood to gain in terms of commercial intelligence and cyber espionage.

However, no hard evidence has yet been offered to lay the blame at the door of Beijing.

 China and the US entered into an agreement earlier this year to prevent hacking of government and private data and bring to justice the perpetrators of such acts.