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Aussie Spies Spooked By Cyberwar
An anonymous reader writes "Wikileaks cables released overnight revealed that Australia's top cyber spy agency (akin to the NSA) was unprepared for cyberwar in the view of other intelligence agencies in 2008. Australian agencies were so concerned they asked US intelligence to provide the framework to defend the country's critical information infrastructure, modelling on the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative. Spooks also discussed how Israel was preparing to take down Iran's nuclear program and how to stay relevant when so much information that was classified was now open source and available to anyone."
...asking the US for tips on information security wasn't probably the best idea.
THL phish sticks
Australia would freely admit that they could be taken down by Anonymous, and therefore Anonymous would leave us alone.
It's only if we were to taunt them that we would be in real trouble...
Cheers, Chris
Australia would freely admit that they could be taken down by Anonymous, and therefore Anonymous would leave us alone.
It's only if we were to taunt them that we would be in real trouble...
Sounds like Anonymous Cowardice to me ;-)
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
The subs are expensive things that whoever is in opposition likes to complain about and whoever is in government likes to use for pork. Minor problems were blown out of proportion, sometimes even after they had been fixed. Then there were things like expensive modifications were done to allow for extremely dodgy procurement deals which kept the subs out of the water. "Free trade" talks with the USA were not going well and it was difficult to get access to some people in US government, then suddenly there was a plan to buy a lot of surplus torpedoes of a size nobody makes anymore and modify the subs so that they will fit. The talks then went ahead and it was a problem for a later government to modify the subs again once that lot of torpedoes is unusable.
It's not just subs, there was the purchase of the sprightly old Sea Sprites which were not safe to fly over water and had been considered obsolete in the 1970s. It had to be corruption because stupidity of that level would be inconsistant with making it to an adult age alive.
There is more than enough talent being trained in Australia, what we lack is a communication and "digital economy" minister that actually knows something about IT. They guy got locked out of his own iphone FFS.
http://apcmag.com/how-conroys-daughter-wrecked-his-unsecured-iphone.htm
They guy is clueless and just keeps pushing his censorship agenda. Oh and the useless NBN.
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/154249,nbn-useless-without-subsea-investment.aspx
Ask yourself: why didn't they hire Julian Assange? I am sure the cultural reasons will fill several pages for a start.
Wait... Julian Assange has actual skills?!
Yes [1] [2]
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Any organization that deals with information security has an obvious (and paradoxical) problem when hiring talent: The most talented (if not experienced) people in information technology as well as security are hackers. Hackers are young, curious, idealistic, independent and anti-authoritarian. The very traits that comprise their talent also make them a potential liability in a rigid command structure.