[ISN] Hackers reach Defence files: report

From: InfoSec News (isn@private)
Date: Sun Nov 09 2003 - 22:30:49 PST

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    Forwarded from: William Knowles <wk@private>
    
    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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