Cyberattack against Parliament, TV network in Australia

The news broadcasts of Channel Nine from Sydney were disrupted over the weekend in what is described as largest cyberattack ever carried out against an Australian media company. Meanwhile, the Australian Parliament's e-mail system was taken offline to protect it from another attack

Cyberattack against Parliament, TV network in Australia

The Australian Parliament. Photo from the official website

A cyberattack that took place over the weekend in Australia disrupted the news broadcasts of Channel Nine, which broadcasts from Sydney. The network said that it was the biggest cyberattack ever against an Australian media company. The network's news production systems stopped functioning for more than 24 hours. An investigation to identify those behind the attack is continuing.

The attack was described by the network as sophisticated and calculated, and there are concerns that Channel Nine will be affected for weeks. The network sent an e-mail to its entire staff in which it instructed them to work from home indefinitely, and said that Australia had 60,000 reports of cybercrime in 2020, namely an average of an attack every 10 minutes.    

Meanwhile, Assistant Defence Minister Andrew Hastie announced that the government was forced to cut access to the Parliament's e-mail and take the IT system offline to protect it from a cyberattack related to an external provider. "This is a timely reminder that Australians cannot be complacent about their cyber security," he said, according to a report on the Sky News website. The source of the attack has yet to be confirmed.