Fergie's Tech Blog

Chinese Hackers Responsible For 88% Of All Website Hacks In Australia?

Chris Oates writes on AdelaideNow:

Chinese computer hackers are responsible for 88 per cent of attacks on Australian government web sites, according to web security company TippingPoint.

What's more, hacks per capita in Australia are higher than in the US, UK and Russia.

Linux systems accounted for 64.7 per cent of IT systems hacked, with Windows 2003 and 2000 systems attracting about 26 per cent between them, with all other systems hovering about the 1 per cent mark. AIX and Mac OS X were the least exploited, at 0.3 per cent each.

TippingPoint revealed its findings at the AusCERT 2008 conference at the Gold Coast last week, a conference for computer security professionals.

Marketing director, Ken Low said the high Linux exploits were largely due to versions of Linux being free of charge.

"Many organisations in Australia use Linux as the platform for their internet-facing servers to reduce their IT operating costs," Mr Low said.

"This is unfortunate as it is common to find Linux servers with security holes unpatched or security settings misconfigured among these organisations.

posted by Fergie @ 5/31/2008 12:00:00 PM