Experts are concerned about the seriousness of the latest large-scale cyber attack on Australia.

Nigel Phair, Director of the UNSW Canberra Cyber Security Centre told Deborah Knight “it’s serious enough to get the Prime Minister to drop what he was doing” and front the media.

“This has been going on for some time and now it’s just being amplified, and it’s time people knew about it.”

As to who is behind the attacks, Mr Phair said there are a lot of jurisdictions that have the capability for such an intrusion, but motive narrows down the suspects.

“Our big two are China and Russia.

“Then probably the next scale after that would be North Korea and Iran.”

The Director of the Cyber Security Centre explained this sort of activity is part of modern warfare and can be designed as a show of strength to demonstrate they have the power to take down and degrade systems.

“They’re posturing to show what their skill level is and their intent.

“Invariably… they’re after trade secrets, intellectual property, negotiations between government and other governments: those sorts of things they can trade with.”

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