A cyber-attack on Telstra’s network that left tens of thousands of homes without broadband is a major concern for both carriers and the Australian government, as it indicates how easily Chinese or Russian hackers who refuse service attacks on Australian networks could bring Australia to a complete standstill.
There are millions of Australian homes without broadband today and that means no IP surveillance cameras, no smart home technology, no content streaming, or accessing the web.
The jarring truth is that the next war is going to be as much a cyberwar as a global war.
International forces like China will try to quickly knock out our carrier networks just like cyber-attackers have done against Telstra today, but if it is a war they will also knock out power grids and have the ability to regulate other essential services as well.
Right now, hundreds of businesses cannot make payments, and thousands of homes do not have an essential supply called broadband over the Internet.
International governments such as China and Russia are undertaking global cyber-attacks and aggressive anarchists that have attempted to bring down Federal Government operations through cyber-attacks in the US.
Cyber-attacks like the one that bought Telstra is a sharp digital assault that targets servers using viruses and tools to hack it.
How did it happen?
In Telstra ‘s case, they have chosen to hit the DNS which stands for Domain Name System, which is essentially the Internet’s phonebook.
Almost all of us access information online through domain names such as Telstra.com.au or news.com.au, and tens of thousands of businesses.
Each day we search web pages for information via the addresses of what is called an Internet Protocol (IP).
Hackers have bought their service at such a snail’s pace in the case of Telstra, resulting in millions of businesses being cut off immediately along with broadband to millions.
Cybercriminals warned by Prime Minister Scott Morrison about last month can easily hack a business or government’s critical computer systems to cause damage, death, and devastation.
Future wars will see hackers breaching an enemy’s infrastructure leveraging computer code, battling alongside forces using conventional weapons such as guns and missiles.
What hackers today did was infiltrate Telstra ‘s network, which should have had the proper security in place to avoid any attacks.
How to be ready to deal with cybersecurity incidents
It is a challenge for every business to cope with the rising frequency and intensity of security threats. That is why CGI (Cybernetic Global Intelligence) Incident Response provides a controlled service that makes your business ready to deal with potentially damaging cybersecurity incidents in an efficient manner.
We offer priority, 24/7 access to the highly-skilled and vastly qualified emergency response team at CGI when you need them the most.
Our Incident Response service works on a retainer model to respond quickly when you inform us of a suspected incident involving unauthorized or compromised access to your systems, data loss or theft, network bugs, fraudulent payments, suspicious network activity, or ransomware attacks.
CGI’s Incident Response ensures inner peace by ensuring that the incident will be fixed immediately, reducing any interruption to your business, and providing assistance when you need it.
Do you have any questions? Contact us today, we’re happy to help you. Just submit your details and request a callback, we’ll be in touch shortly.