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❓ A WA parliamentary question on notice regarding cybersecurity incidents and spending within various government departments and agencies. The response indicates minimal reported incidents across most entities, with some malware and virus activity reported at the Department of Finance/PUO and Western Power.

AnsweredQoN 555Legislative Assembly

Asked

25 May 2017

Member

Mr Z.R.F. Kirkup

Portfolio

Treasurer; Minister for Finance; Energy; Aboriginal Affairs

QuestionView source ↗

In respect of the Minister’s portfolio responsibilities for departments, agencies or publicly owned corporations: (a) how much money was spent on anti-virus, network security, firewall or anti-malware software in the last financial year; (b) from 17 March 2017 to 19 May 2017, have there been any reported instances of: (i) Viruses: (A) if so, what systems were affected, for how long and was there any downtime (in hours) for each system; (ii) Malware: (A) if so, what systems were affected, for how long and was there any downtime (in hours) for each system; (iii) Cyber-attack: (A) if so, what systems were affected, for how long and was there any downtime (in hours) for each system; and (B) was this attack reported to the WA or Australian Federal Police? If not, why not; (iv) DNS attack: (A) if so, what systems or websites were affected, for how long and was there any downtime (in hours) for each system; and (B) was this attack reported to the WA or Australian Federal Police? If not, why not; (v) Infected websites: (A) if so, what websites were infected / hacked, for how long and was there any downtime (in hours) for each system; (c) From 17 March 2017 to 19 May 2017 have any network files been illegally accessed by external individuals or organisations: (i) if so, what files were illegally accessed and when; (ii) if so, were the WA Police or Australian Federal Police informed of this illegal access; and (iii) if not, why not?

AnswerView source ↗

Answered

27 June 2017

Response time

7 days

(a) Please refer to clause a) of Legislative Assembly Question on Notice 549.
Department of Aboriginal Affairs
(b)(i-v) Nil
(c) No
Department of Finance/PUO
(b)(i-v) 18
(A) 7 hours
(B) Not applicable.
(c) No
Department of Treasury
(b)(i-v) Nil
(c) No
Economic Regulation Authority
(b)(i-v) Nil
(c) No
Fire and Emergency Services Superannuation Fund
(b)(i-v) Nil
(c) No
Government Employees Superannuation Board
(b)(i-v) Nil
(c) No
Horizon Power
(b)(i-v) Nil
(c) No
Independent Market Operator
(b)(i-v) Nil
(c) No
Insurance Commission of Western Australia
(b)(i-v) Nil
(c) No
Office of the Auditor General
(b)(i-v) Nil
(c) No
Synergy
(b)(i-v) Nil
(c) No
Western Australia Treasury Corporation
(b)(i-v) Nil
(c) No
Western Power
(b)(i -v) 62,525
(A) In the case of the successful Malware attack, an employee’s desktop was the offending device; The desktop was disconnected from the network; its hard-disk wiped and a fresh system installed; to minimise downtime the user is given a replacement device from spares. Approximately 15 minute’s downtime.
(B) Not applicable.
(c) No

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