The Black Basta ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation has targeted more than 500 private industry and critical infrastructure entities in North America, Europe, and Australia since its emergence in April 2022. In a joint advisory published by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Health and Human Services […]
Governments from Australia, the U.K., and the U.S. have imposed financial sanctions on a Russian national for his alleged role in the 2022 ransomware attack against health insurance provider Medibank. Alexander Ermakov (aka blade_runner, GistaveDore, GustaveDore, or JimJones), 33, has been tied to the breach of the Medibank network as well as the theft and […]
After being targeted by the Cl0p ransomware organization, the largest casino in Australia, Crown Resorts, revealed that there had been a data breach. The gang claims to have exploited a zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2023-0669) in Fortra’s GoAnywhere MFT secure file transfer product in order to steal sensitive data from over 130 different companies. The campaign has […]
The private information of firefighters is likely to be among the material that was leaked into the dark web by the hackers who broke into the information technology system of Fire Rescue Victoria. It is thought that the cybercriminals who targeted the information technology system of the emergency rescue service around the end of the […]
A recent wave of Gootkit malware loader attacks has targeted the Australian healthcare sector by leveraging legitimate tools like VLC Media Player. Gootkit, also called Gootloader, is known to employ search engine optimization (SEO) poisoning tactics (aka spamdexing) for initial access. It typically works by compromising and abusing legitimate infrastructure and seeding those sites with […]
Fire Rescue Victoria’s (FRV) emails, phones, and emergency dispatch systems that automate firefighters’ tasks, such as opening station doors as soon as firefighters get an emergency call, were all affected by a hack, which resulted in “a broad IT outage.” The Australian government and private companies are facing a significant challenge in the form of […]
This week, an announcement was made by TPG Telecom in Australia stating that an unidentified threat actor had acquired unauthorized access to a server that hosts the email accounts of 15,000 subscribers. After Singtel-owned Optus, Medibank, and a second Singtel subsidiary were hacked, this event is one of the numerous recent high-profile hacks that have […]
The Australian government has passed a bill that markedly increases the penalty for companies suffering from serious or repeated data breaches. To that end, the maximum fines have been bumped up from the current AU$2.22 million to AU$50 million, 30% of an entity’s adjusted turnover in the relevant period, or three times the value of […]
Recent data breaches have driven fast reforms to Australia’s cybersecurity and data protection rules, and the most recent development looks to be the formation of a cyber task force that will “hack back” and aggressively pursue what Minister for Home Affairs Clare O’Neil termed “scumbags.” Due to the fact that millions of Australian citizens have […]
Following the Optus data breach, Queenslanders are now required to give banks, telecoms, and utility firms a second number on their driver’s license to verify their identity.People will have to supply both the card number and the license number starting this week. Every time a license is issued or changed, a new card number is […]
Australian health insurance firm Medibank on Wednesday disclosed that the personal information of all of its customers had been unauthorizedly accessed following a recent ransomware attack. In an update to its ongoing investigation into the incident, the firm said the attackers had access to “significant amounts of health claims data” as well as personal data […]
Australian telecom giant Optus on Monday confirmed that nearly 2.1 million of its current and former customers suffered a leak of their personal information and at least one form of identification number as a result of a data breach late last month. The company also said it has engaged the services of Deloitte to conduct […]
A hacker who allegedly targeted Optus, Australia’s second-largest telecom company, and stole the personal information of millions of Australians, has posted more material online. In the past, the hacker demanded a ransom payment of around $1 million in return for client information. On Tuesday, the attacker changed his mind about this demand. Names, email addresses, […]
A 24-year-old Australian national has been charged for his purported role in the creation and sale of spyware for use by domestic violence perpetrators and child sex offenders. Jacob Wayne John Keen, who currently resides at Frankston, Melbourne, is said to have created the remote access trojan (RAT) when he was 15, while also administering […]
Researchers at security firm SentinelLabs report the detection of a new Chinese-speaking hacking group identified as Aoqin Dragon and which has been active since 2013. According to experts, this group focuses on cyber espionage against the government, educational, and telecommunications companies in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Vietnam. The main attack method, employed by this […]
Cybersecurity agencies from Australia, the U.K., and the U.S. on Wednesday released a joint advisory warning of active exploitation of Fortinet and Microsoft Exchange ProxyShell vulnerabilities by Iranian state-sponsored actors to gain initial access to vulnerable systems for follow-on activities, including data exfiltration and ransomware. The threat actor is believed to have leveraged multiple Fortinet […]
One of Australia leading water supply platforms confirmed that its systems were compromised by threat actors for nine long months. Apparently, threat actors left malicious files on a web server to redirect legitimate traffic to a video platform as early as 2020. Sunwater acknowledged the computer intrusion after filing a notification with local authorities, who […]
The security teams of vpnMentor, in charge of the renowned researcher Noam Rotem reported the detection of a massive data breach from the Australian firm Acquirely, dedicated to the development of marketing software. A considerable part of this company’s work is the collection of data from public sources, so the leak includes all kinds of […]
In early August, Group-IB researchers began tracking unusual activity on a hacking forum specializing in selling stolen payment cards. According to the researchers, the user AW_cards posted a link that directed users of a couple dark web forums to an archive with more than 1 million stolen financial records, available to anyone interested completely free […]
Australian law enforcement arrested two suspected drug traffickers and seized more than $1.5 million in cryptocurrency after the Australian Border Force intercepted two packages containing a combined total of 55 grams of MDMA. The cryptocurrency seizure was one of the largest of its kind in Western Australia. The Australian Border Force announced in a recent […]
Optus, Australia’s second-largest telecom operator, officially launched its “market-leading” 5G service on Monday, with a 5G network offering on-the-go mobile connections as well as on home broadband. Optus will be the second telecom operator in Australia to switch to 5G after Telstra began offering 5G coverage in select areas earlier this year. But while Telstra […]