❓ A parliamentary question regarding cyber attacks on the Department of Premier and Cabinet is met with a response highlighting the government's focus on improving cybersecurity measures and addressing past audit failures, while also offering to investigate the specific incident mentioned.
AnsweredQoN 694Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
CYBER ATTACKS —
DEPARTMENT OF THE PREMIER AND CABINET
694. Mr
W.R. MARMION to the Minister for Innovation and ICT:
Based on answers in the Legislative
Assembly regarding cybersecurity that identified that the Department of the
Premier and Cabinet's internal computer systems have been attacked 1.85
million times since the election, including successful attacks, I ask —
(1) Can the minister confirm the
number of attacks?
(2) What data was compromised during
the successful attacks?
DEPARTMENT OF THE PREMIER AND CABINET
694. Mr
W.R. MARMION to the Minister for Innovation and ICT:
Based on answers in the Legislative
Assembly regarding cybersecurity that identified that the Department of the
Premier and Cabinet's internal computer systems have been attacked 1.85
million times since the election, including successful attacks, I ask —
(1) Can the minister confirm the
number of attacks?
(2) What data was compromised during
the successful attacks?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for the question.
(1)–(2) I
am pleased that after a considerable amount of time, I have received a question
from the shadow minister for disruptive technologies, I think he calls himself.
It is a very modern title for the portfolio. It is no surprise that government
departments are subjected to thousands and thousands of attacks every month.
The statistic on the number of attacks on the Department of the Premier and
Cabinet to which the member referred is of absolutely no surprise to me at all,
because governments face automated attacks on a regular basis. I have not been
briefed on the particular attacks that the member talked about. I am not aware
that there have been any data breaches at the Department of the Premier and
Cabinet. A successful attack could mean a range of things. If the member wants
me to get him some more information on that particular incident that he has
referred to, I am more than happy to do it. The member would have seen the
recent Auditor General's report that came out. I think it is the tenth
Auditor General's annual report in a row that said that department
after department during the Liberal Party's term in government
continued to fail basic audit requirements in the areas of protection of
personal information and business continuity.
Looking at the work that has been
done in the last 12 months, the last report showed the first real signs of
genuine improvement in this area, and I put that down to the emphasis that we
as a new government put on this issue since coming to government. One of the
first things I did as Minister for Innovation and ICT was address a forum of
directors general at which I made it absolutely clear that cybersecurity was a high
priority for the new government and that it expected directors general to take
a personal interest in this area. For too long, report after report by the
Auditor General said that directors general were not engaged enough on this
issue because they saw cybersecurity as the responsibility of the ICT
department. If there is no leadership from the highest level in government,
improvement will not occur. We made it clear to the directors general that we
take this issue seriously. We signed a memorandum of understanding, as the
member may be aware, with Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, which is a world
leader in the area of cybersecurity. We led a push for the Cyber Security
Cooperative Research Centre to be headquartered at Joondalup, which will allow Western
Australia access to more than $100 million in research funding in the area of
cybersecurity. Just a couple of days ago as part of the memorandum of understanding,
I met a group of six students from ECU Joondalup who are now working with the
Office of Digital Government to improve cybersecurity in some of the
departments whose cybersecurity was found wanting in the Auditor General's
reports. As a government, we are getting on with it. It does not surprise me.
Government agencies across the world are subjected to ongoing attacks. I am
more than happy to see what I can find out about the particular incident to
which the member referred, but as far as I am aware, there were no personal
information data breaches—but I will confirm that.
(1)–(2) I
am pleased that after a considerable amount of time, I have received a question
from the shadow minister for disruptive technologies, I think he calls himself.
It is a very modern title for the portfolio. It is no surprise that government
departments are subjected to thousands and thousands of attacks every month.
The statistic on the number of attacks on the Department of the Premier and
Cabinet to which the member referred is of absolutely no surprise to me at all,
because governments face automated attacks on a regular basis. I have not been
briefed on the particular attacks that the member talked about. I am not aware
that there have been any data breaches at the Department of the Premier and
Cabinet. A successful attack could mean a range of things. If the member wants
me to get him some more information on that particular incident that he has
referred to, I am more than happy to do it. The member would have seen the
recent Auditor General's report that came out. I think it is the tenth
Auditor General's annual report in a row that said that department
after department during the Liberal Party's term in government
continued to fail basic audit requirements in the areas of protection of
personal information and business continuity.
Looking at the work that has been
done in the last 12 months, the last report showed the first real signs of
genuine improvement in this area, and I put that down to the emphasis that we
as a new government put on this issue since coming to government. One of the
first things I did as Minister for Innovation and ICT was address a forum of
directors general at which I made it absolutely clear that cybersecurity was a high
priority for the new government and that it expected directors general to take
a personal interest in this area. For too long, report after report by the
Auditor General said that directors general were not engaged enough on this
issue because they saw cybersecurity as the responsibility of the ICT
department. If there is no leadership from the highest level in government,
improvement will not occur. We made it clear to the directors general that we
take this issue seriously. We signed a memorandum of understanding, as the
member may be aware, with Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, which is a world
leader in the area of cybersecurity. We led a push for the Cyber Security
Cooperative Research Centre to be headquartered at Joondalup, which will allow Western
Australia access to more than $100 million in research funding in the area of
cybersecurity. Just a couple of days ago as part of the memorandum of understanding,
I met a group of six students from ECU Joondalup who are now working with the
Office of Digital Government to improve cybersecurity in some of the
departments whose cybersecurity was found wanting in the Auditor General's
reports. As a government, we are getting on with it. It does not surprise me.
Government agencies across the world are subjected to ongoing attacks. I am
more than happy to see what I can find out about the particular incident to
which the member referred, but as far as I am aware, there were no personal
information data breaches—but I will confirm that.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.