Cyberattack

Russian hackers behind the damaging cyberintrusion of the State Department in recent months used that perch to penetrate sensitive parts of the White House computer system, according to U.S. officials briefed on the investigation. 

a worrying trend?

AUSTRALIA plans to strengthen its national security laws and enhance the powers of its spy 

agencies in the wake of 



growing concern about waves of Australian Islamists returning from fighting in Iraq and Syria.


the government would give its intelligence agencies greater capabilities to track the online 

activities of extremists

Australia has among the highest number of Islamic fighters per capita in the Western world. At least 10 Australians have

 died in the fighting in Syria and Iraq, and about 150 are believed to be participating in the conflicts. The latest would-be 

militants included two Sydney teenagers aged 16 and 17, one of whom reportedly told his mother he was "going fishing

" before secretly heading to Iraq last week.

The government has already cancelled the passports of Australians believed to be planning to fight in the Middle East. 

Citizens face up to 25 years in jail if they fight for organisations deemed terrorist groups, such as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

2013 - to what extent is technology a useful tool for governments...

problem



Not a tool but an enemy they have to learn to defend 

themselves against

attempts to bring down government websites, and the

 defacement of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and Istana 

webpages. 


solution


WORK is under way to tighten Singapore's defence against 

attacks that aim to disable government websites


how

This will be done by providing Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) mitigation services.

DDoS attacks work by having thousands of infected computers accessing and overwhelming a targeted site, causing a huge spike in traffic.

DDoS mitigation is a set of techniques that differentiates genuine incoming traffic from that sent by hijacked, infected browsers, so that services to genuine users will not be denied.