Australia’s critical infrastructure under regular and rising attack from hackers, ASD warns

A container ship at Port Botany. A cyber-attack on ports operator DP World Australia shut down its operations in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Fremantle. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

Just days after a major ports company was forced to shut down operations due to a cyber-attack, the Australian Signals Directorate has issued a strong warning that Australia’s critical infrastructure is under regular targeted and opportunistic cyber attack.

DP World Australia, the country’s biggest ports operator, closed its Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Fremantle port operations after detecting unauthorised access on its network on Friday.