China steals Australian F- 35 Stealth Fighter and P-8 surveillance aircraft programmes

lcafanboy

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China steals Australian F- 35 Stealth Fighter and P-8 surveillance aircraft programmes
Thursday, October 12, 2017 By: TNN Source Link: CLICK HERE

Sensitive data about Australia's F- 35 stealth fighter and P-8 surveillance aircraft programmes were stolen when a defence subcontractor was hacked using a tool widely used by Chinese cyber criminals, officials said today.

The 50-person aerospace engineering firm was compromised in July last year but the national cyber security agency, the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), only became aware of the breach in November, technology website ZDNet Australia reported.

Some 30GB of "sensitive data" subjected to restricted access under the US government's International Traffic in Arms Regulations rules were stolen, ASD's Mitchell Clarke told a security conference yesterday according to ZDNet.

Clarke, who worked on the case and did not name the subcontractor, said information about the F-35, the US' latest generation of fighter jets, as well as the P8, an advanced submarine hunter and surveillance craft, were lifted.

Another document was a wireframe diagram of one of the Australian navy's new ships, where a viewer could "zoom in down to the captain's chair".

The hackers used a tool called "China Chopper" which according to security experts is widely used by Chinese actors, and had gained access via an internet-facing server, he said.

In other parts of the network, the subcontractor also used internet-facing services that still had their default passwords "admin" and "guest".

Those brought in to assess the attack nicknamed the hacker Alf after a character on the popular Australian soap "Home and Away", Clarke said.

The three month period where they were unaware of the breach they dubbed "Alf's Mystery Happy Fun Time".

Defence industry minister Christopher Pyne told reporters in Adelaide "the information they have breached is commercial".
"It is not classified and it is not dangerous in terms of the military," he said.

Pyne added that Australia was increasingly a target for cyber criminals as it was undertaking a massive 50 billion Australian dollar ($39 billion) submarine project which he described as the world's largest.

The nation has also committed to buy 72 F-35A aircraft for 17 billion dollar.

He would not comment who might be behind the breach, only stating that the government was spending billions of dollars on cyber security.

Western governments have long accused hackers in China of plundering industrial, corporate and military secrets.

The revelations came just days after Assistant Minister for Cyber Security Dan Tehan said there were 47,000 cyber incidents in the last 12 months, a 15 per cent jump from the previous year.

A key worry was 734 attacks that hit private sector national interest and critical infrastructure providers during the period, Tehan said.

Last year, the government's Cyber Security Centre revealed that foreign spies installed malicious software on the Bureau of Meteorology's system and stole an unknown number of documents.
http://www.defencenews.in/article/C...d-P-8-surveillance-aircraft-programmes-404061

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sorcerer

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Australia seems to be the destination place for LEAKS these days :D
Be it Scorpion Submarines or other random Anti India propagandas.
Now USA too.

Looks as though chinese have managed to infiltrate too deep into Australian systems.
Tells one thing, those aussies need to shape up.
 

Willy2

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There is a discussion here in this forum about how Indian govt don't actually trust Australia ,even japan-India and Vietnam don't want Aussies in military/naval drill as they are suspicious about ties of China-Aus ties...

These reports actually strengthen the view of contacts in deep-state level ...Aussies don't hav eto care anything militarily , they are well protected by seas without strong neighbors , the economic deal is bigger stuff for them and official can sell data to get favorable deal/stuff
 

sorcerer

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There is a discussion here in this forum about how Indian govt don't actually trust Australia ,even japan-India and Vietnam don't want Aussies in military/naval drill as they are suspicious about ties of China-Aus ties...
f
Right on!
china always use a proxy,
be it NoKo or pak or Aus to do their dirty work.
 

dhananjay1

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sorcerer

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THe fact is AUSTRALIA always say information leaked is commercial.

Are they playing the pre-formatted template of "commercial information" as they are deep with china!
The denial and clarity from Aussies came too soon to believe such or they surely knows that the sub contractor has only commercial info as the sub contractor is just a sales front.


If it is commercial , then chinese is playing the spoiler.
the first incident happened on Scorpene..a big buy from India.
and the motive is purely to create confusion among Indians and establishments. at-least to try and blunt our advantage at a psych level.(Kinda like the way pak tests missiles when India tests one :D )
chinese propaganda fever at play. The symptoms says the same.

Second Incident on UAV's from USA.
make Indian establishments again skeptical on buying from USA as we are on talks with them for various UAV's
Again motive is very clear on such an outbreak.
Its India centric and its chinese propaganda fever to blunt Indian advantage

and Australia maintains, "commercial information" angle.

It can only be clear what kind of information "SUB CONTRACTOR" was handling, as what he was tasked by US authorities, was it marketing or had it a bit more depth.


:popcorn:
 
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Hard to believe sensitive manufacturing data was given to Australians? Unless this is a way for USA to give technology to China? Never seen any reports of Russian data being stolen.
 

rone

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from my view the leak is not that serious becoz how they hack is simple finding the sub contractors web site and through that site they hack in to that web severer ..and the subcontractors will keep some brochures that not available public and it only exclusively available to partnering nations forr sales related things like scorpion 25,00 book let , also the tools they used proved its not a complex hack its just a web server hack..


ps:lm never store all confidential data on public faced or internet servers and they never keep all data out side usa
 

vayuu1

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China steals Australian F- 35 Stealth Fighter and P-8 surveillance aircraft programmes
Thursday, October 12, 2017 By: TNN Source Link: CLICK HERE

Sensitive data about Australia's F- 35 stealth fighter and P-8 surveillance aircraft programmes were stolen when a defence subcontractor was hacked using a tool widely used by Chinese cyber criminals, officials said today.

The 50-person aerospace engineering firm was compromised in July last year but the national cyber security agency, the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), only became aware of the breach in November, technology website ZDNet Australia reported.

Some 30GB of "sensitive data" subjected to restricted access under the US government's International Traffic in Arms Regulations rules were stolen, ASD's Mitchell Clarke told a security conference yesterday according to ZDNet.

Clarke, who worked on the case and did not name the subcontractor, said information about the F-35, the US' latest generation of fighter jets, as well as the P8, an advanced submarine hunter and surveillance craft, were lifted.

Another document was a wireframe diagram of one of the Australian navy's new ships, where a viewer could "zoom in down to the captain's chair".

The hackers used a tool called "China Chopper" which according to security experts is widely used by Chinese actors, and had gained access via an internet-facing server, he said.

In other parts of the network, the subcontractor also used internet-facing services that still had their default passwords "admin" and "guest".

Those brought in to assess the attack nicknamed the hacker Alf after a character on the popular Australian soap "Home and Away", Clarke said.

The three month period where they were unaware of the breach they dubbed "Alf's Mystery Happy Fun Time".

Defence industry minister Christopher Pyne told reporters in Adelaide "the information they have breached is commercial".
"It is not classified and it is not dangerous in terms of the military," he said.

Pyne added that Australia was increasingly a target for cyber criminals as it was undertaking a massive 50 billion Australian dollar ($39 billion) submarine project which he described as the world's largest.

The nation has also committed to buy 72 F-35A aircraft for 17 billion dollar.

He would not comment who might be behind the breach, only stating that the government was spending billions of dollars on cyber security.

Western governments have long accused hackers in China of plundering industrial, corporate and military secrets.

The revelations came just days after Assistant Minister for Cyber Security Dan Tehan said there were 47,000 cyber incidents in the last 12 months, a 15 per cent jump from the previous year.

A key worry was 734 attacks that hit private sector national interest and critical infrastructure providers during the period, Tehan said.

Last year, the government's Cyber Security Centre revealed that foreign spies installed malicious software on the Bureau of Meteorology's system and stole an unknown number of documents.
http://www.defencenews.in/article/C...d-P-8-surveillance-aircraft-programmes-404061

@IndianHawk @Willy2 @roma @Krusty @Defcon 1 @Ghanteshwar @raheel besharam @raja696 @Amr @AnkitPurohit @Akshay_Fenix @aditya10r @airtel @aditya10r @ancientIndian @Bahamut @Berkut @Bornubus @Bengal_Tiger @ersakthivel @FRYCRY @Gessler @HariSud @hit&run @hardip @indiandefencefan @IndianHawk @JayPatel @Kshatriya87 @LETHALFORCE @Mikesingh @NavneetKundu @OneGrimPilgrim @pmaitra @PaliwalWarrior @Pulkit @smestarz @SakalGhareluUstad @Srinivas_K @ShashankSharma @Superdefender @Screambowl @TacticalFrog @Abhijat @A chauhan @Alien @alphacentury @Ancient Indian @Ankit Purohit @anupamsurey @armyofhind @Bharat Ek Khoj @Bhumihar @blueblood @brational @Bangalorean @Blackwater @Bornubus @bose @Bullet @cobra commando @DingDong @DFI_COAS @dhananjay1 @ersakthivel @F-14B @fooLIam @gpawar @guru-dutt @here2where @hit&run @HariPrasad-1 @Indx TechStyle @Kshatriya87 @jackprince @Kharavela @Illusive @I_PLAY_BAD @LETHALFORCE @Lions Of Punjab @maomao @Mad Indian @OneGrimPilgrim @Peter @piKacHHu @Pinky Chaudhary @porky_kicker @Razor @raja696 @Rowdy @Sakal Gharelu Ustad @SanjeevM @saty @sydsnyper @Srinivas_K @Screambowl @sorcerer @Simple_Guy @Sylex21 @wickedone @tarunraju @TrueSpirit2 @thethinker @Tshering22 @vayuu1 @VIP @Vishwarupa @VIP @Varahamihira @Navnit Kundu @WARREN SS @Willy2 @3deffect
Probably they find it easier to access, but overall China is making rapid progress can't overlook that.

Sent from my vivo 1601 using Tapatalk
 

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