auDA dismisses hack claims

Australia’s domain administrator, auDA, has dismissed claims that its systems were breached by cyber criminals operating under the moniker NoEscape.

The claim was first made on Friday last week, and auDA said on Sunday it was investigating and had notified the relevant authorities.

The group claiming credit for the attack offered five screenshots as evidence that they had access to auDA’s systems.

However, in a statement posted yesterday afternoon, auDA now said it has identified that the files listed in the screenshots “were not stored on auDA systems.”

“The source of the data breach was an Australian sole trader, with an Australian domain name. That sole trader’s server was subject to a malware attack by the cyber criminal on 10 August 2023,” auDA said.

“The sole trader’s data was encrypted and a ransom payment was sought.”

auDA said the victim did not pay a ransom, and that “there is no evidence that cyber criminals have accessed auDA systems, or have obtained auDA data.”