back to article Big trouble Down Under as Australian MPs told to reset their passwords amid hack attack fears

The Australian Parliament has reset all passwords on the parliamentary computing network following an unspecified security incident. In a joint statement on February 8, the legislature's presiding officers – Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives Tony Smith, and Scott Ryan, President of the Australian Senate – said …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm sure a government tech savvy enough to introduce anti-encryption legislation will be using 2FA/MFA for anything important, right. And who'd want to influence our elections, the only choice are two flavours of the same awful!

    1. theblackhand

      Re: But...

      And with such a tech-savvy government, shouldn't "At this early stage our immediate focus is on securing the network and protecting its users," be:

      "At this early stage our immediate focus is on removing encryption to allow both the hackers and law enforcement access to the data to ensure it can be verified. If the politicians have nothing to hide, I'm sure they have nothing to fear"

  2. Adrian 4

    It's good to know that the MPs are just like the average man in the street.

    No secrets for anybody.

  3. SNAFUology
    Devil

    I'm the Next PM

    Supposedly hackers set up to go through all but the Lib gov's computers, so that's opposition, back benchers etc.

    Can you believe that ? well don't

    Seems most popular password found was "I'm the Next PM". Now how could they reveal that ?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Go

      Re: I'm the Next PM

      It's Australia, at the rate they are going through Prime Ministers, I could end up as PM. And I'm an American!!

      1. the Jim bloke
        Coat

        Re: I'm the Next PM

        At least we do throw them away once they get a bit smelly, although the criteria is more "will they lose the next election", rather than "violently allergic to telling the truth", or "unable to recognise other people as human beings".

        I actually suspect our current reigning political party has deliberately decided that being in opposition is a better strategic position, and has been maneuvering to get there for the last couple of years.

      2. Alister

        Re: I'm the Next PM

        I thought Australia always put their Prime Ministers in prison as soon as they were elected into office?

        (Thanks to Sir PTerry)

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I'm the Next PM

        "I could end up as PM. And I'm an American!!"

        But foreigners can't hold political office in Australia.

        With Australia's best and brightest enforcing this, you'd be lucky to remain PM for more than ten years before your true nationality was discovered.

  4. moooooooo

    bollocks

    it's yet another distraction from the Liberal National Murdocracy to try and put something else into the news instead of the pitiful infighting that is going on and will continue to happen right up until the next election.

    Just because someone used nmap to scan the parliamentary network doesn't mean it was "hacked" ffs and the blame China rhetoric is yet another way to try and deflect the LNPs pitiful performance and ulta-low "popularity".

  5. ThatOne Silver badge
    Devil

    How is that even possible?

    I thought the required backdoors would henceforth prevent any wrongdoings?

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: How is that even possible?

      But the backdoors haven't been implemented yet and so haven't been secured

      Once you have a secure backdoor, as well as a secure front door, you are twice as secure - obvious really

  6. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    FAIL

    Deflection

    "no evidence that any data has been accessed" is not evidence that no data has been acessed.

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Deflection

      Don't they realise statements like that just make them sound dodgy?

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Laws of Australia

    Based on the famous politician comment about the laws of Australia trumping mere mathematics, I'm surprised they didn't just pass a law making it illegal to use MPs passwords. Job done.

    1. OhThatGuy

      Re: Laws of Australia

      Well, it'll take some time to put together the official list of these not-to-use passwords, that's why it isn't done already...

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Probably got in through the backdoors

    LOL

  9. m0rt

    Just a thought.

    In terms of foreign involvement - are Australian politics considered of international importance to warrant even bothering with?

  10. steviebuk Silver badge

    It would be very...

    ....very, very funny if they got in via one of the "backdoors" the Assuie government wants left open on encryption :)

    If not now, that will happen at some point. I'd bet a £1 on it.

    1. The Central Scrutinizer

      Re: It would be very...

      Give them time. The spooks are supposedly already busy undermining encryption, to keep us all safe, don't you know? With that sort of twisted logic, it's only a matter of time until some exploit gets out into the wild and then we're all screwed.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    global IT service providers like HPE and IBM.

    global IT service providers like HPE and IBM. theres the problem.

    no aus is not worth hacking

  12. RunawayLoop

    C'mon its not a hack

    Ok people sorry to quell your fears .. there is no hack here!

    It's just China checking in to make sure they're getting their money's worth out of our pollies.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: C'mon its not a hack

      "It's just China checking in to make sure they're getting their money's worth out of our pollies."

      Either China has very low standards or what they're paying for is pretty poor comedy, so there's no need to check.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like