[The article in the paper identified a number of "vital points" in the infrastructure. From the nature of them I think the journalist was confused about whether people would break into them electronically, or were going to blow them up! - Clem] Forwarded From: "Colman, Clem" <Clem.Colmant_private> >From "The Canberra Times" 15/10/98 Inaction exposes us to techno terrorism By LINCOLN WRIGHT Top security analysts have warned that the Government has failed to act on a secret report which concludes that much of Australia's communications, electricity, gas and other infrastructure is vulnerable to information warfare. Prepared by Ian Dudgeon of the top-secret Defence Signals Directorate, the report, completed last year, concluded that skilled computer hackers could target critical software underlying Australia's infrastructure, and recommended that a national body should deal with the issue. A special inter-departmental committee was even set up in the Attorney-General's Department last November to report to a Secretaries Committee on National Security, but so far no action has been taken. The security of infrastructure has been highlighted recently by the enormous social impact of the accidental gas explosion at Esso's Longford plant in Victoria and the growing use of sophisticated information technology. An Australian Army expert told a seminar at the Australian Defence Force Academy yesterday that the Department of Defence had already sought to replicate a United States experiment in which computer hackers proved it possible to disrupt vital infrastructure. The US experiment, a war game called Eligible Receiver, was conducted by specialists from the US National Security Agency, who used readily available software to hypothetically 'disable' the US electric-power grid and the US Pacific Command. A defence analyst and fellow of the Parliamentary Library, Dr Adam Cobb, has also caused a few ructions in the defence establishment by publishing an in-depth analysis of the vulnerabilities of Australia's infrastructure. Dr Cobb says little or nothing has been done to remedy the situation at the government level, and there needs to be more debate. The Dudgeon report on the National Information Infrastructure identifies threats coming from malicious and non-malicious hackers, disgruntled employees, organised crime, terrorists and foreign states. 'The actual and potential threat posed by these persons is growing,' the report said. 'There is less resilience overall to sophisticated attacks against software or information. The major vulnerability is unauthorised access by malicious hackers, particularly via Internet or other external connectivity.' The report warned, 'Terrorists will increasingly focus on [infrastructure] as a target for attaining or promoting their aims.' Mr Dudgeon, now a security consultant, said this week the bureaucracy was making headway with the problem of infrastructure security, and that private-sector companies were being consulted. The Government had accepted the recommendations of his report. However, industry was very upset with him for putting details of its infrastructure base on the Internet. In a May 1998 paper, the chairman of the interdepartmental committee, Peter Ford, said that it was still undecided whether to establish a government agency, a joint public-private body, or just leave it to the private sector. -o- Subscribe: mail majordomot_private with "subscribe isn". Today's ISN Sponsor: Repent Security Incorporated [www.repsec.com]
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Apr 13 2001 - 13:07:34 PDT