Cyber Attacks Securing Agencies

Cyber Attacks: Securing Agencies’ ICT Systems

Country : Australia

Year Published: 2014

Language: English

Sector: Revenue and Taxation, Personnel Administration and Training, Borders and immigration

Issue: Cybersecurity

Description

Governments, businesses and individuals increasingly rely on information and communications technology (ICT) in their day-to-day activities, with rapid advances continuing to be made in how people and organisations communicate, interact and transact business through ICT and the Internet. In the government sector, ICT is used to deliver services, store and process information, and enable communications, with a consequent need to protect the privacy, security and integrity of information maintained on government systems.

Cyber crime is an international problem, and it is estimated that in 2012, 5.4 million Australians fell victim to such crimes, with an estimated cost to the economy of $1.65 billion.1,2 In the government sector, the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD)3 has estimated that between January and December 2012, there were over 1790 security incidents against Australian Government agencies. Of these, 685 were considered serious enough to warrant a Cyber Security Operations Centre response.

The protection of Australian Government systems and information from unauthorised access and use is a key responsibility of agencies, having regard to their business operations and specific risks. In the context of a national government, those risks can range from threats to national security through to the disclosure of sensitive personal information. Unauthorised access through electronic means, also known as cyber intrusions, can result from the actions of outside individuals or organisations. Individuals operating from within government may also misuse information which they are authorised to access, or may inappropriately access and use government information holdings.

For some years, the Australian Government has established both an overarching protective security policy framework, and promulgated specific ICT risk mitigation strategies and related controls, to inform the ICT security posture6 of agencies. In 2013, the Government mandated elements of the framework, in response to the rapid escalation, intensity and sophistication of cyber crime and other cyber security threats.

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Summary/Highlight:

The selected agencies were assessed on their: compliance with the top four mitigation strategies and related controls; maturity to effectively manage logical access and change management as part of normal business processes (IT general controls); observed compliance state as at 30 November 2013; and reported planned compliance state by 30 June 2014.

The ANAO’s summary findings for each of the selected agencies are reported in the context of a matrix, which indicates agencies’ overall level of protection against internal and external threats as a consequence of the steps taken to implement the top four strategies and IT general controls. The matrix, which is referred to as the Agency Compliance Grade, indicates where agencies are positioned in terms of ICT security zones: vulnerable zone; externally secure zone; internally secure zone, and cyber secure zone. The zones are explained further in Table S.2 and illustrated in Figure S.1. An agency’s position indicates its overall ICT security posture—in essence how well the agency is protecting its exposure to external vulnerabilities and intrusions, internal breaches and disclosures, and how well it is positioned to address threats