Prime Minister: "Australia is cyber-attacked"

According to the Australian Signal Surveillance Authority, the attack includes fake sites that steal user information, links to malicious files, emails that send information to the sender about where and when the email opens, reports The Sydney Morning Herald.

The Prime Minister says that this is not a new phenomenon, but that the scope has increased.

According to Morrison, it is a large-scale attack on all state institutions, industries, political organizations, education and health care systems, as well as critical infrastructure. So far, the attack has not resulted in any major damage, or that personal information would have ended up in operation.

Morrison urged those concerned to seek expert advice and introduce technical protections to defend themselves against the cyber attack.

What country may be behind the attack, the prime minister does not want to comment.

- But I can confirm that there is no large number of state-based actors that can carry out this type of activity, he says according to ABC.

Jai Galliott at the University of New South Wales specializes in cyber warfare. He says that the attack is probably happening now because the target, ie Australia in general, is exposed.

- Australia, like other countries, is affected by the pandemic, so it is reasonable for a state actor to fit in right now, he tells TT.

What the motive can be can only be said. Cyber-attack sounds dramatic, but it may as well be about traditional espionage.

- Before you set out the motif, you can not say with certainty. It can be as simple as the actor being in search of financial information, potentially embarrassing information about politicians or knowledge of problems in the healthcare sector, he says as an example.

Australia is considered to be a country with high cyber capabilities, which is also part of the intelligence cooperation Five Eyes together with the US, Canada, the UK and New Zealand. Jai Galliott assumes Australia has its suspicions about who's behind it.

- And if the point was that the state actor wants to highlight that one is dissatisfied with something Australia has done on the international stage, then it would not be so well hidden, says Galliott.

Possible actors could be Indonesia, Russia and China.

China and Australia, for example, have been in conflict since Australia pushed for an investigation into the origin of the corona virus, which has annoyed China.

- My first thought was immediately China, but it may be that we never know where the attack comes from. It could be any other country behind it, he says.