ABC Four Corners on Cyber-attacks in Australia

ABC Four Corners report "Hacked!" (27th May at 8.30pm on ABC1), alleged that Chinese military hackers were targeting Australian Government departments and corporations to steal secrets and business information. The program contained little hard evidence or new information. One allegation, that the plans to the new ASIO headquarters had been stolen to assist penetration of the building was new, but not particularly significant. However, the program will be useful if it prompts the Australian Government to restart its dormant work on public cyber security policy.

One curious segment of the program had a private security consultant asked if the Australia was preparing for offensive cyber-warfare, that is preparing to attack,. not just defence. The consultant hedged around the question, hinting but not answering clearly.

This reluctance to answer the question is at odds with a media release from Northrop Grumman in 2012 which announced it was building a cyber test range at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) in Canberra, to train defence force personnel. A cyber range is analogous to a test range for conventional weapons: the cyber range is used to test cyber warfare techniques, which can be both defensive and offensive. I attended a presentation to the Australian Computer Society, 13 March 2013, where one of the staff from Northrop Grumman gave a presentation on the cyber range.

Cyber Range for Teaching Cyber-Warfare in Canberra

Greetings from the CSIRO Discovery Centre in Canberra, where Rich Richmond from Northrop Grumman is speaking on "USA view on Cloud computing technologies - A Private Cloud for Environment Testing" to Australian Computer Society members. Rich has been building a specialized cloud service for UNSW Canberra. He described the use of a "Cyber Range" which is a network test environment for cyber security (the virtual equivalent of a weapons test range). There is already a "Michigan Cyber Range" for teaching cyber security in the USA and DARPA had a "National Cyber Range Project" to build a simulation of the Internet for cyber war games. The DoD Cyber Range was reported open in mid 2012, as part of the US DoD Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace (2011):

The development of the National Cyber Range will enable the success of these and other efforts, allowing DoD, other U.S. government entities, and potentially non-U.S. government partners to test and evaluate new cyberspace concepts, policies, and technologies. Although the U.S. military routinely exercises units on target ranges and in a variety of simulations, DoD has had limited capability to simulate cyberspace operations. The National Cyber Range, which allows the rapid creation of numerous models of networks, is intended to enable the military and others to address this need by simulating and testing new technologies and capabilities. ...

While not explicitly stated, it would appear the Canberra Cyber Range will be used for teaching cyber-warfare to military personnel at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA), which is the military partner of UNSW Canberra. This is hinted at in the media release from Northrop Grumman (2012): ".... build a cyber test range for the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Canberra campus at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) ... training and educating the future leaders of the Royal Australian Navy, Army and Air Force... including the burgeoning area of cyber research."