Australian government agencies held crisis talks on Sunday following a cyber incident that disrupted operations at major ports across the country.
Port operator DP World on Friday suspended internet connectivity at its ports in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Fremantle to prevent “ongoing unauthorized access” to its network, a spokesperson said.
DP World senior director Blake Tierney said in a statement that while the ongoing disruption has not prevented containers from being removed from the ship, it has prevented the trucks needed to transport containers from entering and exiting the terminal. .
“We are working around the clock to safely restore normal operations,” he added.
The Australian Federal Police said it was investigating the incident.
Advertisement – SCROLL TO CONTINUE
“The disruption is likely to last several days and will impact the movement of goods domestically and internationally,” National Cyber Security Coordinator Darren Goldie said on X (formerly Twitter).
“DP World Australia has advised that access to Australian port operations will be restricted while the incident is investigated,” he added.
After holding an emergency meeting on Saturday, Mr Goldie reconvened the National Coordination Mechanism on Sunday with representatives from the government, maritime and logistics sectors to manage the government’s response.
Advertisement – SCROLL TO CONTINUE
The Australian National Emergency Management Agency also attended the meeting.
Mr Goldie, an air marshal with the Royal Australian Air Force, was appointed as the first National Coordinator in July last year in response to several cyber-attacks.
Cybersecurity experts said inadequate security measures and stockpiling of sensitive customer information made Australia an attractive target for hackers.
Advertisement – SCROLL TO CONTINUE
Medibank, Australia’s largest private health insurance company, announced in November 2022 that hackers had accessed data on 9.7 million current and former customers, including medical records related to substance abuse and abortion.
Just two months ago, telecoms company Optus fell victim to a data breach of similar scale in which the personal information of up to 9.8 million people was accessed.
These two incidents were among the largest data breaches in Australian history.
Advertisement – SCROLL TO CONTINUE
Australia’s second-largest phone provider Optus said last week that a “technical network failure” had halted electronic payments, disrupted phone lines used by emergency services and left people unable to access government services. , apologized to more than 10 million customers.
The Australian government has launched an investigation into the unexplained bug, but it has not been ruled out as a cyber attack.
There were 76,000 cybercrimes reported to the Australian Cyber Security Center last year, but experts warn many more go unreported.