Originally posted by Wikinews. Wikinews content appears under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license except where specified. As these articles are static snapshots of news items that may be later updated, they may not represent the latest or final revision of that article, and posted information may be only preliminary. Australian Security Intelligence Organisation website hacked, blueprints stolen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- May 29, 2013 Original URL: http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Australian_Security_Intelligence_Organisation_website_hacked,_blueprints_stolen The allegations that the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) had been hacked from an IP address in China as ''inaccurate'' and ''unsubstantiated allegations''. The allegations made by the Australian Broadcasting Coprorations Four Corners programme, which aired on Monday night, come shortly after the 2013 Federal Budget announcement of increased spending in ASIO. Chinese hackers allegedly broke into ASIO's private computer system and stole blueprints detailing the agency's new headquarters in Canberra. Several other branches of the government, including the Prime Minister's office, have also allegedly been breached. Construction workers told Fairfax Media that they were asked to check their phones before entering the site. Fairfax were also told that the allegedly stolen building plans were only kept on a private server and in hard copy. Australia's Prime Minister yesterday refuted the claims, saying the report was "unsubstantiated allegations of hacking" and she would not comment on "inaccurate reports." ASIO and the Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus, have refused to comment. Professionals in the information and securities industry are also questioning the accuracy of the report. Twitter was abuzz while the show aired, many criticizing it's lack of insight. Author Bernard Keane today accused the ABC of fear mongering. "The only solid material to emerge from the report was what anyone who works in IT already knew: some companies and government departments fail to do the basics of IT security, from using decent passwords (or at least change them from the factory default), keeping up-to-date with software patches, and not having confidential material on publicly-available servers," Keane wrote in a column for Crikey.com. Keane also attacked the journalistic integrity of the report. "Obsessed like the corporate media is about Chinese hacking, Four Corners’ Andrew Fowler didn’t understand enough about cybersecurity to question the narrative being fed to us by governments and companies." Katina Michael, an information technologies researcher at the University of Wollongong was not surprised by the adverse reaction. "Most people in the industry will slap you on the back of the hand for the loose usage of the word," Michael told Wikinews. But Asher Wolfe, a blottr.com news curator says it goes further than the choice of words. "The perception that’s played out in the mainstream media is often informed by the information and securities industry. This is problematic because the information and securities business has a lot of money to make out of presenting hackers and online threats as huge, huge, huge issues." Michael can understand why people within the computer industry are upset. "The word hacker, for example, does not appear in the [European Union's] cyber crime convention [which Australia acceded to]," she said. "I think we need to use specific terminology." == Sources == * http://www.canberratimes.com.au/it-pro/security-it/gillard-says-china-asio-breach-reports-inaccurate-20130528-2n9z3.html?rand=1369777858257 * http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2013/05/27/3766576.htm * https://twitter.com/danielhurstbne/status/339231244044869632 * http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary%20Business/Hansard * http://www.crikey.com.au/2013/05/28/asios-mislaid-plans-hardly-a-chinese-cybersecurity-attack/ * https://twitter.com/search?q=%234corners&src=typd * http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-28/gillard-defends-intelligence-funding-in-wake-of-asio-hack/4718166 * http://www.itnews.com.au/News/335341,australia-accedes-to-eu-cybercrime-convention.aspx .