Australia needs to do more on cyber security: report

Leading Internet security firm., McAfee and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has surveyed IT executives from critical electricity infrastructure enterprises around the globe for the report titled "In the Dark: Critical Industries Confront Cyber attacks".

It found cyber attacks on critical utilities systems have nearly doubled since 2009, while 80 percent of the water, gas and energy firms around the world reported that hackers had compromised their security systems with the past year.

Three-quarters of respondents believe that hackers could disable utility systems significantly within the next two years, leading to catastrophic failure, energy outages and even deaths.

Earlier, Australian federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland has spoken of the need for cyber protection of facilities like major banks, electricity networks and water providers.

But the report said much more must be done by the Australian federal government.

The report showed Australia is well behind Japan and Britain in efforts to improve IT security. Kazinform cites Xinhua. See www.xinhuanet.com for full version