Camden Council, in south west Sydney, had considered implementing full border protection on its network but felt the danger of attack was such a low risk that other system needs took priority. All that changed when Council fell prey to hacker attack.
“We were on the receiving end of several malicious attacks on our network, from patrons using public access PCs in our public libraries,” said Council’s IT Administrator, Kerry Hyland. “Of the three known events, one was carried out by a clever hacker gaining access to our network services from a PC that we presumed was locked down.
“The other two incidents were carried out by amateurs using hack tools freely available on the web. Thankfully the damage was minimal and the more naive offenders were caught. The more capable hacker was interrupted in his ventures, but was able to remove most of his traces from the system. When the attacks occurred, we were working with data security and networking specialist Outside Edge Pty Ltd on our core technology server infrastructure, and we had already discussed security options.”
Council moved quickly to raise its level of protection, moving from a simple Gnat Box firewalled entry system, to a fully managed Check Point firewall system that protects all segments of Camden’s internet and intranet. Outside Edge completed phase 2 of the security process by segmenting the network and placing fully managed routers and firewalls to isolate public access and staff segments, and to create an efficient and reliable wide area network (WAN) based network across multiple dispersed buildings and public access areas.
“Our eyes were opened by the volume of logged attacks that were recorded once the new security systems were in place,” Kerry Hyland said. “The false impression – why should we worry with attack prevention when no one would be interested in a boring Council site – was soon dispelled, and we intensified our efforts to tighten security.
“Thankfully, the frequency and volume of these attacks has since reduced dramatically, due to the rigorous blocking and active follow up provided by our Outside Edge solutions. We would like to caution Local Governments about the perils of giving data protection a low priority, and suggest that they too call in data security professionals.”
For further information contact Kerry Hyland on (02) 4654 7777 or Paul Knibbs, Director of Outside Edge, on (02) 9025 3716 or visit www.oea.com.au.
* Copy supplied by Outside Edge Pty Ltd
