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Cyber attacks continue to blight the nation, with new findings revealing that MyGov, NDIS and Australian Tax Office details have been secured by hackers and sold online.
As discovered through an investigation by the ABC, MyGov, ATO, and National Disability Insurance Scheme details have been circulated online, suggesting that the current cyber climate in Australia is set to worsen.
The ABC, who have concluded from the new findings that the Medibank and Optus hacks are just the "tip of the iceberg", revealed that many of those affected were not sufficiently notified by hacked companies that their data had been jeopardised, with many only made aware when contacted by the ABC.
For example, a cyber attack on CTARS, a company offering cloud-based client management to the NDIS, saw 9,800 individuals have their information stolen. While the National Disability Insurance Agency stated that everyone affected had been informed.
However, the ABC spoke with 20 of those affected, only one of which had been notified after finding a letter in her junk mail.
Stolen data is not hard to find online either, with one of the main locations where this data is sold and traded not located on the dark web, but on the clear web, meaning it is easily accessed via a Google search.
Cyber intelligence experts, such as CyberCX director of cyber intelligence Katherine Mansted, have expressed concern over the easy access.
“There’s a criminal’s cornucopia of information available on the clear web, which is the web that’s indexed by Google, as well as in the dark web.
“There’s a very low barrier of entry for criminals … and often what we see with foreign government espionage or cyber programs — they’re not above buying tools or buying information from criminals either.”
Adding to the concern is the low price of this information, which only further incentivises would-be criminals. The ABC investigation found information being sold for as little as US$1.
Mansted states that the “black economy” of stolen data and cyber crime could be regarded as the third largest economy worldwide, only beaten out by the US and China.
“The cost of buying a person’s personal information or buying access to hack into a corporation, that’s actually declining over time, because there is so much information and so much data out there.”
The lower cost of becoming a cyber criminal has made Australia an attractive target. The ACSC saw cyber crime reports increase by 13 per cent in 2022, the equivalent of one every seven minutes.
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