Warning after TasRail hit by hack attack

THE state’s peak IT body is warning Tasmanian businesses not to be complacent about cyber security following TasRail’s admission that it was the subject of an ransomware attack that breached its defences.

TasRail ICT manager Andrew Quill told the Mercury that recently a ransomware attack breached the organisation’s security and, while it was stopped, it raised serious questions of its protocols.

“We did have one minor incident recently which was luckily contained,” he said.

“But we do face threats, as do a lot of business, but that really rammed it home for us.

“It doesn’t matter where you are, from a threat land- scape, it [cyber attack] is an issue for you.

“What this made us do was look at how we were combating the threat of attacks.”

Soon after, TasRail implemented a cloud-based security system from international company Mimecast.

“We now have very good data protection and retention which is crucial for us in the way we work,” Mr Quill said.

“We can’t have delays in our communications, it’s crucial for our operations, so we need to ensure that our system can allow us to keep going.”

The revelations from TasRail follow Cadbury’s Hobart factory being compromised by a global ransomware attack in June.

The operations at the Claremont factory were halted when Cadbury’s parent company — Spanish food giant Mondelez — was engulfed in the worldwide Petya cyber attack.

Outgoing TasICT chief executive Will Kestin said it showed that companies needed to be proactive on cyber security.

“They still happen fairly regularly, I think we don’t find out about more of them because companies don’t say when they get them,” he said.

“Most come from the inability of staff to update their devices. These days, there are so many instances of workers outside of the office on the company’s network which does leave companies open to ransomware.

“It happens far more regularly than people think.”