Cyber Breach Bureau of Meteorology

Question: Discuss about theCyber Breach for Bureau of Meteorology. Answer: Introduction The current report details a recent cyber breach on the Bureau of meteorology (BoM) of Australia, which is found in reports to be executed by China, in the year 2015 (Business Insider, 2015). This news has been chosen because it relates to one of the latest and huge breach in Australia. The breach by the Chinese hacker leads to leakage of important and confidential data of BoM which are related to various government departments, including the Defence Department. Further section of this report details the reason and corresponding impact of mentioned cyber breach (Business Insider, 2015). Reason for the Breach Cyber attacks on Australian government departments is considered to be a serious issue, especially on the defence assets connected to the BoM and its immense data collection capacity. China have a history of attempts to steal the private information and data of Australia, which is believed to have interest towards information for commercial profit and security purpose. There are generally two reasons behind the high profile cyber breach of BoM which includes (Scott, 2013, pp.112): The first reason was the Geospatical and Intelligence agency of Australia. It is an intelligence organisation of the Defence department which supplies highly specified and detailed mapped data for military reason or for any intelligence agency. The second reason behind the hacking was the Jindalee Operational Radar Network, which is a technologically advanced radar operated by the Air Force of Australia. Impact of the Breach In order to compensate the cyber breach of the Australian BoM by Chinese Hacker, approximately millions of dollars is amounted to cost for the remedy and/or fixing purpose. In conjunction to the repairing consideration for these systems, Australia government faces significant problem related to technical aspects. As the bereaus systems provide climate, weather reports, and even space reports, there is no provision for switching off the system and proceed towards repairing (Putra and Punzalan, 2013, pp.267). Again with the hacking of the systems some of the confidential and valuable data were corrupted. It is estimated that around 25 million of personal data, along with some questionnaires and polygraph tests results were stolen in the hacking process (Birkett and Mala-Jetmarova, 2014, pp.287). Notably, Australian insures are also prime targets of the cyber hackers other than government departments. It is because of the Chinese hackers, Australians were deprived of using iPad and iPho ne due to an uploaded infected app, which is reported to have link with the above mentioned cyber breach issue. Remedies to Prevent Such Breaches To prevent such cyber breach in the future, Australian government needs to introduce a newer and efficient Cyber security plan. There should be information or data sharing relationship between the government and private agencies. The government need to create a certification system in order to meet the cyber security standards. Furthermore, a secure shell database is also needed to be maintained, such that back-up for critical information can be made available to BoM, in such cyber breach or corruption situation (Andress and Winterfeld, 2013). The improved solution also need to have tracking provision and avoiding any proxy connection such that remote login can be avoided. References: Andress, J. and Winterfeld, S., 2013. Cyber warfare: techniques, tactics and tools for security practitioners. Elsevier. Birkett, D. and Mala-Jetmarova, H., 2014. Plan, prepare and safeguard: Water critical infrastructure protection in Australia. In Securing Water and Wastewater Systems (pp. 287-313). Springer International Publishing. Business Insider, 2015. Report: China wa s behind a cyber attack on the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com.au/report-china-was-behind-a-cyber-attack-on-the-australian-bureau-of-meteorology-2015-12. Dated 22 Sep 2016. Putra, N.A. and Punzalan, K., 2013. Cyber Security. Non-Traditional Security in Asia: Issues, Challenges and Framework for Action, p.267. Scott, M., 2013. Operating in a degraded information environment. Australian Defence Force Journal, (190), p.112.