SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia’s top-ranked university said on Tuesday hackers breached its cyber defenses late last year to obtain sensitive data, including students’ bank account numbers and passport details going back 19 years.
The Australian National University (ANU) said it had only discovered the breach two weeks ago and that it was carried out by “a sophisticated operator”, without elaborating.
An earlier cyber attack, disclosed by ANU in July last year, had failed to gather sensitive information. Media reports at that time had cited sources as saying the hacking originated in China.
According to World University Rankings, ANU is Australia’s best university and many of its graduates go on to hold senior government positions, magnifying security sensitivities over the data breach.
“National community agencies are recruiting directly out of ANU,” said Fergus Hanson, head of the International Cyber Policy Centre at think-tank the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
“To have information around particular people who are working in different departments... that would be very useful.”
Australia’s cyber intelligence agency said it was investigating who was behind the attack.
“It does appear to be the work of a sophisticated actor,” a representative of the Australian Signals Directorate said in an emailed statement.
The number of Buddhist monks who were killed following the accident at the Na Uyana Theravada Buddhist Monastery (Na Uyana Aranya Senansenaya) in Pansiyagama, Melsiripura, Kurunegala currently stands at nine , with four injured, Minister of Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs Prof. Hiniduma Sunil Senevi told Parliament this morning. He revealed that two of the injured Buddhist monks are being treated at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU
Several shops were damaged in a major fire that broke out in a shop on the third floor of a building at First Cross Street in Pettah, Colombo, today evening.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, addressing the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, said that both inequality and poverty ought to be regarded as a worldwide catastrophe that requires urgent attention.
The opposition has renewed its demand for a long delayed forensic audit into the controversial e-visa deal, following the sentencing of former Controller General of Immigration, Harsha Ilukpitiya, for contempt of court.
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