February 2019 – Cyber Law Watch

Cyber attacks becoming common place: Different industries, similar methods

Feb 24 2019

By Cameron Abbott and Ella Richards

Popular car manufacturer Toyota has been hit by a malicious attack rendering their employees completely unable to access their emails. It is unclear whether any customer or employee data has been accessed, and Toyota is going to extensive efforts to discover the origin of the attack.

Staff who are powering on despite their access restrictions have been told to use face-to-face, phone and text communication until the emailing system is back online. Can you imagine!

Although the central server system is inaccessible, dealerships are continuing to operate normally besides being able to provide customers with the date they’ll receive their exciting new car.

Additionally, Melbourne Heart Group was subject to a cyber attack which completely locked them out of their filing system. 15,000 files were scrambled and held for ransom after a cyber crime syndicate hacked into their server, blocked all access to files and demanded a cryptocurrency payment be made.

Melbourne Heart Group is based at Cabrini Hospital in Malvern, but the separation of their systems ensured that no Cabrini operations were affected. Even though a payment was made to decrypt their servers, information including patient details and sensitive medical records are yet to be recovered.

Payment in these situations is always troubling, dealing with faceless individuals, having to trade in cryptocurrencies in order to chart a course to the fastest resolution.

Major political parties join the Federal Parliament in the February data breach

Feb 21 2019

By Cameron Abbott and Ella Richards

Following an unprecedented surge in cyber attacks against Australian businesses, an attack on Australia’s political infrastructure was imminent. New information reveals that the cyber attack against the Federal Parliament earlier this year was accompanied by yet another directed towards the Liberal, Labour and National parties.

To encrypt or not encrypt? That is the question

Feb 18 2019

By Cameron Abbott and Ella Richards

In response to the new controversial anti-encryption laws, Australian tech heavyweights have banded together to kick and scream over the restrictive implications the laws are already having on their industry.

Quick history lesson; the Assistance and Access Bill permit law enforcement to demand companies running applications such as Whatsapp to allow “lawful access to information”. This can be through either decryption of encrypted technology, or providing access to communications which are not yet encrypted. These ‘backdoors’ are intended to provide the good guys with the opportunity to fight serious crime, however there’s serious fear that in reality, these doors could throw out privacy or let in unwanted guests.

While the legislation states that backdoors should only be created if it doesn’t result in any ‘systemic weakness’; this is yet to be defined in a concrete and informative way. Industry points out that once created any such measure has the potential to be exploited by others. There is no such thing as a “once” only back door.

There is little doubt that this will end up in litigation as larger industry players challenge the abstract concepts in the legislation against the reality of their technology.

StartupAUS, an industry group of tech executives, have made several recommendations to amend the legislation. Even though they’re not holding their breath for any significant changes, they’re demanding more transparency around the requirements. Their recommendations include scrapping the requirement for an employee to build capabilities to intercept communications, tightening the scope of ‘designated communication providers’, giving oversight on how companies will be targeted and increasing what constitutes a ‘serious offence’.

Australia’s legislative response to the problem faced by law enforcement is one of the most heavy handed in the democratic world, and now has the world of technology companies with their significant impact on our economy watching the latest debate on reforms with great concern.

Q4 NOTIFIABLE DATA BREACHES CONTINUE TO RISE

Feb 18 2019

By Cameron Abbott, Rob Pulham and Ella Richards.

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has released its fourth quarter report of notifiable data breaches between October – December 2018.

The report exposed that the OAIC received 262 notifications of data breaches, which has increased from the 245 notifications that were reported the previous quarter. Below are the key findings from their report:

The OAIC report identified the top five sectors who reported data breaches. Private health service providers reported 54 breaches, the finance sector reported 40 breaches, professional services reported 23 breaches, private education providers reported 21 breaches and the mining and manufacturing industry has made its first appearance with a reported 12 breaches.

85% of data breaches involved individual’s contact details, 47% involved financial details, 36% involved identity details, 27% involved health details, 18% involved tax file numbers, and 9% involved other types of personal information.

The sources of breach varied, with 64% of data breaches due to malicious or criminal attack, 33% due to human error, and 3% due to system faults.

The report also breaks down the breach types per industry. Interestingly, the finance sector experienced the most malicious cyber attacks, and human error dominated the healthcare sector.

Even though 60% of the total breaches involved personal information of 100 individuals or fewer, there were a couple of notifications affecting a significantly higher number of individuals (including one that affected more than 1 million individuals). Human error breaches resulting in the unauthorised disclosure of personal information (via unintended release or publication) impacted an average of more than 17,000 individuals per breach (though this average seems likely to have been skewed by some particularly large breaches), and the failure to securely dispose of personal information affected an average of 300 individuals per breach.

Most data breaches resulted from malicious attacks which gain access through compromised credentials (such as phishing emails or stolen username and passwords). So, if you believe that the email from your CEO requesting your bank details for your exorbitant raise is legitimate, think again!

Bypassing the Castle Walls: Tactical Exploitation of America’s Vulnerable Grid

Feb 06 2019

By Cameron Abbott, Max Evans and Wendy Mansell

A recent Wall Street Journal Report has detailed how America’s utility grid was hacked. The Department of Homeland Security has named Russia as responsible for the overwhelmingly complex and threatening campaign.

The scheme targeted energy companies affiliated with the government and was carried out in a sophisticated manner by initially focusing on small firms within the utility supply chain.

Early techniques involved planting malware on the websites of online publications likely to be read by employees of companies within the energy sector. The hackers would lace the online publications with malicious content allowing them to steal usernames, passwords and infiltrate company systems.

A number of small firms fell victim to these tactics giving the hackers broad access to company networks. Fake emails were subsequently sent out on behalf of the affected firms containing forged and malicious Dropbox links which captured usernames, passwords and other credentials. Further they used fake personas to send emails and pretended to be job seekers, by sending resumes containing tainted attachments to energy companies.

The hackers continued this technique of sending malware emails on behalf of firms until they reached the top of the supply chain. It was reported that on at least 8 occasions the hackers infiltrated companies who had access to the industrial control systems that run the grid.

An alarming aspect was the number of affected companies that remained oblivious of the penetration. The report is a useful description of the variety of methods used to tempt employees to expose their credentials. All too easy to do. These same techniques are regularly used by more pedestrian hackers. Two factor authentication and regular password resets remain measures to limit these threats but so many organisations do not use them.

We repeatedly counsel that employees are the last line of defence for your organisation. Circulating the Report may make an interesting read to remind them of the variety of ways they can be seduced to click an incorrect link.

K&L Gates Supports Safer Internet Day 2019

Feb 05 2019

By Cameron Abbott and Wendy Mansell

Today is Safer Internet Day and K&L Gates is a proud supporter of this yearly international event which raises awareness of cyber issues and online safety concerns.

K&L Gates has a strong focus on promoting and advocating for a safer internet through the Cyber Civil Rights Legal Project. This project helps victims of non-consensual pornography known as ‘revenge porn’ by providing pro bono legal assistance to individuals suffering from these cybercrimes.

Revenge porn is a serious invasion of privacy and K&L Gates assists in having the images removed from the internet. This cyber epidemic is taking place around the world and due to K&L Gates global legal presence, these services can be provided to victims internationally.

K&L Gates further supports Safer Internet Day through the working relationship being built with the Office of the eSafety Commissioner,who is responsible for coordinating the event in Australia.

The theme for this year’s event is “Together for a better internet“, which encourages the development of respect, responsibility, reasoning and resilience skills when using the internet. K&L Gates is actively striving for a better internet through focusing on improving online safety and fighting against cybercrimes.

Archive:February 2019