Australian Cyber Law and Hacking

Running Head: Australian Cyber Law and Hacking
Australian Cyber Law and
Hacking
Essay
System04104
9/29/2019

Australian Cyber Law and Hacking
1
Executive Summary
This report has been prepared for the Australian ministry to get status about the cyber laws in
Australia. This report specifically focuses on the ‘hacking’, which is a serious cyber offence
in the cybercrime. The purpose of this report is to present overview of about the Australian
Cyber legislation policy and recommend changes for making it more effective in future.
Australia was facing a strong issue related to cyber-attack on Victorian parliament,
Queensland ombudsman, Queensland Legal Centre homepage, Queensland legislation
Websites, and Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal etc. The incident was known as
cryptojacking, where hacker secretly mines crypto currency on the computers without
permission of the user or owner of the computer. The Australian government is known for its
economic superiority and advanced technology usage in the country in multiple of sectors
like defence, education, research, and some other secret services. This report analyses the
policies and legislation of Australia related to hacking in the country. This report also
analyses the bottlenecks of its cyber law policies and recommends how the government can
make its cyber laws more effective and impactful in future to prevent future cyber-attacks on
its computer and defence system. The report also analyses the various laws and regulations
related to cyber laws in various states and territories of Australia. It also explain that how the
harmony and collaboration among these states and with the Federal government can avoid
future cybercrimes in the country.

Australian Cyber Law and Hacking
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Introduction
Australia is one of the countries that are mostly dependent on its modern and advanced
technology for its security, research, education, economics, and information collaboration. In
such scenario, the policies and legal frameworks related to cybercrime or cyber activities are
really crucial to control illegal and unethical activities or sharing online data through internet
in the field of digital media. Hacking, malicious activities, and ransom ware some of the most
dangerous cybercrimes that force the government to review periodically its legal frameworks
related to cybercrime. This essay will focus on hacking, which is one of the types of
cybercrime in Australia and effect large number of government organisations and their work.
Hacking is also dangerous for people because people who do not follow the internet ethics
generally became a victim of hacker and lost their personal data, money, or secret
information related to their bank accounts or personal lives. The essay also discusses the
current rules and regulations in the country related to cyber law and hacking. This essay also
discusses that how government can control these unethical activities with possible changes in
their policies view related to hacking and other cybercrime in the country.
Incident of Hacking on Australian Computers and Websites
In the month of February 2019, a series of Australian computers and websites were blocked
by a hacker. The website of Victorian Parliament was also hacked and a compromised
malware forces visitors’ computers to secretly mine crypto currency. At that time, a large
numbers of websites and computers were hacked by a ransom ware malware by a hacker and
this hacking was known as cryptojacking. This hacker forced the owner of the computer to
mine crypto currency without their permission and generating profits for the hackers. The
Australian government was facing string challenge from the hacker because the hacker

Australian Cyber Law and Hacking
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almost hacked the half of the government computers and networks that affect the whole
system in the country. The cyptojacking attacked on the computers of Victorian parliament,
Queensland ombudsman, Queensland Legal Centre homepage, Queensland legislation
Websites, and Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal etc. Apart from this, the hacker
also used the browser called Browsealoud that converts the website texts into audio version,
so visual impaired users can listen what the hacker want to do (Maurushat, 2013). The
hacking almost affected the complete Australian government and forced the government to
review their policies and frameworks related to hacking and cybercrime. The Australian
people are continuously joining the social media and other platforms for communication and
sharing information to other people. According to a report, by 2020 more than 93% of
Australian people will be connected with social media and Internet (Broadhurst, 2017). More
than half of the population is dealing with online or digital transaction while by 2019 every
household connected with more than 24 devices, which can be connected with online. The
increasing number of online users and involvement of people through online transaction and
payment requires a strong and strict rules and regulation in the country to avoid the chances
of hacking a single terminal or account in the country. Hacking is a common and most
dangerous threat in all cybercrimes because it has abilities to crack the computer network of
Australian government defence system and interrupt the functionality of computers. The
hackers generally uses the numerous vulnerabilities in cyberspace while doing cybercrime or
hacking of computers or information from a computer system. The intention of hackers is to
target the weak programmed software and hardware designs using malware (Martin, and
Rice, 2012).