Cyber probe to continue
Geelong Australia website back online
THE City of Greater Geelong’s website is back online as the council continues to probe a potential cyber security incident.
The council has been tightlipped on the nature of the incident, which saw the Geelong Australia website pulled down on Wednesday, but is expected to release details on the findings of its investigations next week.
A cyber security expert said a potential attack could have been targeting personal or payment information.
Council chief executive Martin Cutter yesterday confirmed community members could now access the website and council services as usual.
“Whilst there is no immediate evidence to suggest that there has been an impact from this incident, we are continuing our assessment,” Mr Cutter said.
“The potential cyber security issue was isolated to the Geelong Australia website and did not affect any internal city operating systems.”
He said the council regretted the disruption and thanked the community for its patience while the website was brought back online.
Geelong-based cyber security expert Matt Warren said two days was still a long time in terms of a cyber incident.
“The fact we’re only talking about the website and not the entire organisation highlights that it is an attack on one particular vector, not the entire organisation,” Professor Warren said.
The head of RMIT University’s cybersecurity research centre said a potential attacker could be interested in the council for reasons including potential payment data, or could have been after personal information that could be sold on the dark net.
The incident comes after Barwon Health was struck by a ransomware attack on September 30 last year that forced the health service offline.
Barwon Health had to temporarily rely on paper systems after the attack, which also ensnared other regional Victorian public health services.
Some elective surgeries and outpatient appointments were called off, with some complications in accessing patient history.
Email access for staff was still being restored more than a month after the attack.