.au domain names increasingly attacked

The number of successful attacks on .au domain names has increased over the past 12 months, according to the latest Cyber Hack Update 2008 report from TippingPoint.

The report, released at the AusCERT conference revealed that Australia is second in APAC in terms of the number of successful cyber attacks annually; up one position from last year’s third ranking.

Korea Republic domain names which were previously most attacked in 2006-2007 fell below Australia and are now in third place. China is now leading the pack in APAC with 32,128 successful hacks in 2007-2008.

The report also revealed that there were more successful attacks on .au domains than popular Asian countries, Russia, Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong.

“Australia is a high profile country despite its population. Its news attracts the attention of the world and [having] Asia as its nearest neighbour it’s certainly attractive,” said Ken Low security marketing director APAC at TippingPoint.

According to the report, .au domain names were hacked 24,444 times in the past 12 months, compared to 20,113 in the previous year.

TippingPoint analysis revealed that one in every 634 Internet users in Australia are now at risk of attack. Last year the figure was one in every 732 was at risk.

“It’s all about the rate of increase which has now outpaced Korea,” Low said. "Maybe Korea is doing more in regards to security."

Of all the hacks in Asia Pacific, a whopping 88 percent originated out of China, the report revealed.

Low said Australian agencies and the government need to be aware of this.