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Updated March 18th, 2021 at 16:44 IST

China suspected of cyber attack on Western Australia's parliament: Report

A large number of Australian organisations, including Western Australia’s parliament, were hit by a cyberattack earlier this month, allegedly by the Chinese.

Reported by: Vishal Tiwari
China
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A large number of Australian organisations, including Western Australia’s parliament, were hit by a cyberattack earlier this month, allegedly by the Chinese. The attacks came in the middle of election campaigning in Western Australia, which was conducted on March 13 to elect the new members of the parliament. According to ABC, Western Australia’s parliamentary email server was hit during the attack, following which lawmakers received an alert message from the Department of Parliamentary Services. 

'No data breach' 

After Western Australia's Parliamentary Services Department detected the attack, they shut down the server until the next morning. The department later concluded that no data was stolen during the attack. According to the Australian government’s cybersecurity centre, the hack occurred due to vulnerabilities in systems using Microsoft Exchange software. The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) also issued an alert asking organisations using Microsoft Exchange to fix the problem urgently to avoid compromise. 

“The ACSC has identified a large number of Australian organisations are yet to patch vulnerable versions of Microsoft Exchange, leaving them vulnerable to compromise. The ACSC urges these organisations to do so urgently. The Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) advises organisations using Microsoft Exchange to urgently patch certain Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs),” ACSC said in a statement.

The Australian government has not blamed any particular state for the attacks but they reportedly believe China may have played a role, according to ABC. Chinese Embassy has dismissed the allegations of cyberattack, calling them “deplorable” and accused Australian media of running a misinformation campaign to defame China. Last year, a massive hack hit Australian government organisations and businesses. Australian government blamed the attack on “sophisticated state-backed” hackers.

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Published March 18th, 2021 at 16:44 IST

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