Hacker attack on PM’s website highlights online security challenge

An internet security expert has warned the office of Prime Minster Kevin Rudd faces an uphill battle to defend its systems from hackers after groups claiming to promote internet freedom last night succeeded in disabling the office of the Prime Minister’s website, despite warning the office a day earlier that they were going to do so.

The websites of the Prime Minster and the Australian Communications and Media Authority were shut down at 7.20pm last night, although both were running again an hour later.

A group called ‘Anonymous’ claimed responsibility for the attack, which it said was the beginning of a protest against proposed federal internet filtering laws.

“Not only will your rights be at stake, our internet speeds will slow down by 70%, be mandatory for all Aussies and will not protect us from evil AT ALL,” the group said in a post on the PM’s site.

Pure Hacking CEO Robert McAdam, whose company helps websites identify potential security flaws, said the Prime Ministers’ office would receive up to 1,000 software threats each day, and faced the challenge of weighing up which ones were the most serious.

“Obviously in practical terms, they underestimated the threat of the warning in this case,” he said.

He said the office would now be conducting a full security review of all related systems.

But Techonline director Peter Philipp said the hack was relatively tame, compared to the problems most websites face.

He quoted a February 2009 Websense report saying 77% of all legitimate websites have at some point in their life been compromised with malware such as viruses, Trojans and spyware, which compromise viewers’ own systems.

Of the world’s top 100 websites, 70% have been affected this way, he says.

A spokesperson for Communication Minister Stephen Conroy said the hackers campaign was “erroneous and misinformed”.

“What the Government is proposing is to filter refused classification content which includes imagery of child sexual abuse, rape and bestiality,” he told the AAP.

The Government is currently conducting trial of its proposed internet filter.