Australian organisations unprepared for Cyber War

Australian organisations are not ready to deal with an Estonian-style Cyber War, a Deakin University information security expert has warned. Professor Matthew Warren, Head of Deakin's School of Information Systems discussed Australia's response to an Estonian "Cyber War" event at the 3rd Annual Infrastructure Protection and Security Forum, Rendezvous Hotel, Melbourne, May 22 and 23.

"Australian organisations should consider the threat of an Estonia Cyber War as being real," he said. "We will see an increase in Cyber Warfare attacks as our reliance upon critical infrastructure increases, and the risk of political disagreements could result in Cyber Warfare."

Professor Warren said Cyber Warfare attacks took the form of co-ordinated mass requests for information and spam email which slowed down key web sites so that they did not function or crashed.

"The problem with Cyber Warfare is that a country, sub-state group or individuals can be behind such an attack and Australian organisations need to be able to deal with these threats," he said. "Australia organisations need to prepare and plan for the impact of Cyber attacks, hopefully before an Estonian Cyber War occurs in Australia. Such planning could include the development of effective Business Continuity Plans focussing specifically on Cyber Warfare and the impact of the attacks."