China fingered at ‘huge’ cyber attack on Bureau of Meteorology supercomputer

THE Bureau of Meteorology said its sensitive systems were compromised by a major cyber attack blamed on China.

The ABC reports the breach as “massive”, with the bureau housing one of the country’s largest supercomputers. 

Its computer systems have a connection to the Department of Defence at Russell Offices in Canberra, the report said.

The cost of fixing the breach has not been known, and time needed to repair it  unclear.

The weather bureau’s services is important in warning of weather conditions linked to bush fires, thunderstorms, tropical cyclones, flooding, rain, and dangerous winds.

They are also necessary to the economic wellbeing of the nation,helping the construction, resources, agriculture and marine industries and others that make our international trade routes open.

The country’s defence forces rely on a wide array of the weather bureau’s services, starting from specialist forecasts for pilots to ocean forecasts for naval operations.

The news arrives after funding for the weather bureau’s new supercomputer was recently approved by the Australian Government in the 2014-15 Federal Budget.

Due to be completed by mid-2016, the new computer will come from global supercomputer leader Cray Inc after a $US59 million contract was signed.

Weather forecasts across the country have been promised to be more accurate and deliver faster updates once this supercomputer is installed.

The supercomputer will have about 16 times the capacity of the weather bureau’s current computer.

This will allow the bureau to issue forecasts and warnings more often and with greater precision than before, giving the community and emergency services access to unprecedented information, particularly before and during harsh and extreme weather.

In a statement the BOM said it did not comment on security matters.

“Like all government agencies, we work in-conjuction with the Australian government security agencies,” it said.

“The bureau’s systems are totally operational and the bureau continues to provide trusted, on-going access to high-quality weather, climate, water and oceans information to its users.”