Australia’s cyber security watch room is monitoring threats 24/7. Here’s what it’s like inside – ABC News

For a dedicated few, keeping Australia safe online starts in the early hours of the morning. That’s when the day shift starts for analysts in the Australian Cyber Security Centre’s 24/7 watch room.
Their Canberra headquarters looks like any other nondescript government building but, a few steps inside the lobby, a lattice made up of zeros and ones provides a clue as to what’s going on inside.
Now more than ever, Australians are living their lives online. And every connection for work, school or leisure creates a new vulnerability.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s unusual press conference in June declaring that Australia was under sustained attack came after months of warnings that the COVID-19 pandemic was providing a valuable opportunity for criminals.
If a determined attacker did try to turn the lights out in Sydney, or tie up a hospital’s files with ransomware, the watch room team in the ACSC should be among the first to know.
“Defence is always the best offence,” according to Abigail Bradshaw, the agency’s head.
“To the extent that we can help Australians lift their defences, the better they are in terms of surviving the attempts of those that are trying to do them harm.”
The Australian Cyber Security Centre is located within the nation’s intelligence agency, the Australian Signals Directorate.(ABC News: Mark Moore)
One call every 10 minutes
Based in the Australian Signals Directorate, the country’s intelligence and security agency, the ACSC was set up in 2014 and leads Government efforts to improve Australia’s security online.
In the watch room, someone is always on deck but we can’t tell you their names or show you their faces.
Five teams work an unusual schedule of shifts: two days, two nights, and then a few days off. And there’s an order to things. A handover in the early hours of the day, a daily briefing for the executive and continuous triaging of the incidents that come their way.
They try to keep on top of all the ways Australians may be targeted online, as well as working with staff from the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission.
Their information may come from public sources like online forums following the activities of hackers and criminal groups, from the briefings of security partners overseas, or calls from local businesses to the hotline.
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All this allows the team to make “the best picture that they possibly can”, Ms Bradshaw said, of cyber-criminal tradecraft and tactics, as well as spotting where vulnerabilities may emerge across industries and the country.
Overall, the team handles hundreds of daily communications from partners and industry, as well as a new cybercrime report every 10 minutes on average.
And each day, the centre identifies and responds to multiple security incidents.
That could be reports of scanning and reconnaissance activity, when attackers look for unguarded ways to access a network, such as passwords that have never changed from the factory setting.
Then there could be phishing activity emails or text messages that encourage people to click a link or open an attachment, allowing an attacker to get their first foothold on the network.
The COVID-19 threat
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a busy time for the ACSC. The past few months have been marked by an uptick in cybercrime, and even warnings from the Australian Government directed at nations who were using the upheaval to hack healthcare companies.
The massive, nationwide shift to working from home brought new security challenges. Fear and confusion also offered an opportunity to exploit.
It was in late March and early April that analysts started to spot COVID-19-themed websites designed to support phishing campaigns, seeking to steal personal details or install malware.
Commander Chris Goldsmid oversees cybercrime operations with the Australian Federal Police.(ABC News: Mark Moore)
“We’ve seen COVID 19 themed phishing campaigns trying to attract people to click a link related to government stimulus measures

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