'Consequences catastrophic': Dutton says cyber attacks on critical infrastructure rising - Sydney Morning Herald

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton will warn Australia must prepare to counter prolonged and catastrophic cyber attacks on critical infrastructure that could disrupt entire industries.

Mr Dutton will say Australia is continuing to experience a rise in cyber attacks on critical infrastructure, warning that a serious penetration of Australia's energy sector could mean "widespread failure" of electricity networks, disrupting hospitals, transport, banking and food supplies.

Speaking at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age's National Security Summit on Thursday, Mr Dutton will say Australia needs to harden its networks against these threats.

The government is looking to impose new obligations on owners and operators of critical infrastructure to provide details about their networks. The Home Affairs Minister will be able to declare an emergency to give agencies such as the Australian Signals Directorate the power to plug into the networks of critical infrastructure to fend off major attacks.

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"While private industry has obligations to protect critical infrastructure, some threats are too sophisticated or disruptive to be handled alone," Mr Dutton will say, according to a draft of his speech.

"And so the government will provide assistance in response to immediate and serious cyber attacks on Australian systems. We will provide support to those companies."

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton says the consequences of a successful attack would be catastrophic. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

While not naming the countries involved, Mr Dutton will say Australia's critical infrastructure is a prime target for foreign interference and other malicious activity.

Australian security agencies believe China was probably behind a series of cyber raids this year on all levels of government, industry and critical infrastructure, including hospitals, local councils and state-owned utilities.

"We are continuing to see an increase in attacks targeting infrastructure and systems
that are essential to our way of life," Mr Dutton will say.

"In the past two years we have seen cyber-attacks on federal Parliamentary networks, logistics companies and universities – just to mention a few. Internationally, we have seen cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure including water services and airports.

"The potential consequences of a successful attack could be catastrophic. A prolonged and
widespread failure in the energy sector, for example, could cause knock-on disruptions to
other essential systems including medical, transport, traffic management systems, banking services or even the supply of food and groceries."

Mr Dutton will renew his attack on Facebook and other companies for moving to end-to-end encryption, saying it will hinder efforts to tackle online crime including child sexual abuse.

This month, Australia joined its "Five-Eyes" intelligence partners – the United States, Britain, New Zealand and Canada – along with India and Japan, in signing a statement calling on tech companies to come up with a solution for law enforcement to access end-to-end encrypted messages.

Facebook is introducing end-to-end encryption across its messaging platforms – including Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram – which prevents anyone from being able to read private messages by encrypting both ends of a conversation.

"We are calling on technology companies, including Facebook – but not just Facebook – to
design their systems so they are safe, so they co-operate with law enforcement by providing
lawful access to encrypted communications and engage in consultation with governments
and other stakeholders to facilitate legal access in a way that is substantive and genuinely
influences design decisions," Mr Dutton will say.

Mr Dutton will warn the dark web, encryption and other anonymising technologies are allowing "paedophiles, terrorists and a whole variety of criminals to further obscure their true identity and their malicious activity".

Meanwhile, Opposition defence spokesman Richard Marles will on Thursday tell the National Security Summit that the Morrison government has had "no leadership or clear voice" on its relationship with China.

He is expected to say the government is allowing "fringe-dwellers to determine the discussion while the adults are silent".

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2020-10-21 18:00:00Z
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