Massive university hack

arthwollipot

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arthwollipot
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China behind massive Australian National University hack, intelligence officials say

Intelligence officials believe China may have been behind a massive data breach which compromised the personal details of thousands of Australian National University students and staff.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that senior intelligence officials have pointed the finger at China as one of only a few countries capable of pulling off the hack, which compromised up to 19 years’ worth of personal data from students and staff.

The ANU revealed the breach on Tuesday, with vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt saying the university had detected an “unauthorised access to significant amounts” of data including the bank numbers, tax details, academic records and passport details of students and staff dating back almost two decades.

The Australian Signals Directorate said the hack appeared to be the work of a sophisticated actor, and now intelligence officials are reportedly pointing the finger at China.
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I know a bunch of people who are affected by this. Heck, half of Canberra is affected by this. The ANU is Australia's top university. I'm not personally affected because I never went to uni, but many high-level public servants, including a significant number of people in intelligence agencies, have now had their data compromised.

This is a Really Big Deal.

The irony is that due to the university having a huge number of overseas students, China now has a ton of data on many of its own citizens.
 
Trebuchet said:
I'd guess that's what they were looking for.
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That was my thought too. But the fact remains, China now has data on every person who has been a student or member of staff of the university since Australia had the Olympics. It goes far enough back that it includes digitised paper records.
 
arthwollipot said:
That was my thought too. But the fact remains, China now has data on every person who has been a student or member of staff of the university since Australia had the Olympics. It goes far enough back that it includes digitised paper records.
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Or the USA or Russia or Israel does (or others). The article is quite unclear about the actual agent behind this hack.
 
Darat said:
Or the USA or Russia or Israel does (or others). The article is quite unclear about the actual agent behind this hack.
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Yes, that's true. They're saying it's probably China. And remember where on the planet we are. China is the major player in our region. They've been throwing soft power at everything they can for decades now. It might not be China, but it would utterly fail to surprise me if it were.
 
rjh01 said:
Worse if they can hack into the ANU, they should be able to hack into almost any university in a similar way.
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My suspicion, based on nothing, is that some Chinese student put in a secret back door 20 years ago, and recently remembered it and wondered whether it was still there. Found that it was, grabbed everything and gave it to the Chinese government. That kid is probably very rich now and living in luxury.

Childlike Empress said:
Ah, I see. The wires are shorter so the hacking is easier. Makes sense. :thumbsup:;)
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What? That makes no sense whatsoever. Australia is in China's region of geopolitical influence. Taiwan is in our backyard. Their ships are in our waters all the time, and ours in theirs. We literally just this week had some Chinese warships unexpectedly sail into Sydney Harbour, which ruffled some feathers to say the least. Of course there's going to be increased intelligence traffic with your nearest geographical neighbours.
 
arthwollipot said:
My suspicion, based on nothing, is that some Chinese student put in a secret back door 20 years ago, and recently remembered it and wondered whether it was still there. Found that it was, grabbed everything and gave it to the Chinese government. That kid is probably very rich now and living in luxury.

What? That makes no sense whatsoever. Australia is in China's region of geopolitical influence. Taiwan is in our backyard. Their ships are in our waters all the time, and ours in theirs. We literally just this week had some Chinese warships unexpectedly sail into Sydney Harbour, which ruffled some feathers to say the least. Of course there's going to be increased intelligence traffic with your nearest geographical neighbours.
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Bitch, bitch, bitch! So now you're crying foul? Where were you back in the day when we needed your yes vote to ratify the treaty for the United Peoples of the pan-Pangaean Pact referendum?! You were already scheming with the Antarcticans to go off and do your own thing, that's where!. Nevermind, that some of us told you not to trust the Antarcticans! "Don't do it," we said. They're going to break off all ties and leave you stranded in the middle of some super ocean somewhere. And now look at you! A dead continent, dead in the water!
 
Elagabalus said:
Bitch, bitch, bitch! So now you're crying foul? Where were you back in the day when we needed your yes vote to ratify the treaty for the United Peoples of the pan-Pangaean Pact referendum?! You were already scheming with the Antarcticans to go off and do your own thing, that's where!. Nevermind, that some of us told you not to trust the Antarcticans! "Don't do it," we said. They're going to break off all ties and leave you stranded in the middle of some super ocean somewhere. And now look at you! A dead continent, dead in the water!
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Not all that dead. It's moving 7cm/year*. Pretty speedy as continents go.

(*- North, it bears pointing out. In the general direction of China, that is.

An invasion of sorts?)
 
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