Logo

American Security Council Foundation

Back to main site

Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow with the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes on the full range of topics relating to national defense, foreign policy and international security. Dowd’s commentaries and essays have appeared in Policy Review, Parameters, Military Officer, The American Legion Magazine, The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Claremont Review of Books, World Politics Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Jerusalem Post, The Financial Times Deutschland, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Examiner, The Detroit News, The Sacramento Bee, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Landing Zone, Current, The World & I, The American Enterprise, Fraser Forum, American Outlook, The American and the online editions of Weekly Standard, National Review and American Interest. Beyond his work in opinion journalism, Dowd has served as an adjunct professor and university lecturer; congressional aide; and administrator, researcher and writer at leading think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, Sagamore Institute and Fraser Institute. An award-winning writer, Dowd has been interviewed by Fox News Channel, Cox News Service, The Washington Times, The National Post, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and numerous radio programs across North America. In addition, his work has been quoted by and/or reprinted in The Guardian, CBS News, BBC News and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dowd holds degrees from Butler University and Indiana University. Follow him at twitter.com/alanwdowd.

ASCF News

Scott Tilley is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes the “Technical Power” column, focusing on the societal and national security implications of advanced technology in cybersecurity, space, and foreign relations.

He is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Previously, he was with the University of California, Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, and IBM. His research and teaching were in the areas of computer science, software & systems engineering, educational technology, the design of communication, and business information systems.

He is president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow.

He has authored over 150 academic papers and has published 28 books (technical and non-technical), most recently Systems Analysis & Design (Cengage, 2020), SPACE (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and Technical Justice (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018.

He is a popular public speaker, having delivered numerous keynote presentations and “Tech Talks” for a general audience. Recent examples include the role of big data in the space program, a four-part series on machine learning, and a four-part series on fake news.

He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria (1995).

Contact him at stilley@cts.today.

Australia Suspects China Behind Massive Cyber Attack

Friday, June 19, 2020

Categories: ASCF News Emerging Threats Cyber Security

Comments: 0

Australia was hit by “a sophisticated state-based cyber actor” Friday morning in an escalating cyber campaign threatening all levels of national government, businesses, essential services and critical infrastructure, the prime minister said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison declined to name any specific country amid inevitable speculation the cyber onslaught reflects Australia’s increasingly hostile trade rift with China.

Morrison said he made the growing threat public to raise awareness and particularly wanted organizations involved in health, critical infrastructure and essential services to bolster technical defenses.

A range of essential sectors were being targeted and the frequency of cyber intrusions to steal and cause harm has increased for months, the conservative coaliton leader said.

ABC News reports Morrison emphasised the attacks “hadn’t just started”, were ongoing and constant threats to Australia, and the accumulation of attacks required a firm warning to the government and private sectors to harden their shields.

Some of the attacks have been on state government departments and agencies and local governments, all of which hold sensitive economic and personal data.

“This activity is targeting Australian organisations across a range of sectors, including all levels of government, industry, political organisations, education, health, essential service providers and operators of other critical infrastructure,” Morrison said.

Peter Jennings, executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute think-tank, said only China had the capability and interest in launching such a massive cyber offensive against Australia.

“I’m absolutely certain that China is behind it,” Jennings told the Associated Press.

China in recent weeks banned beef exports from Australia’s largest abattoirs, ended trade in Australian barley with a tariff wall and warned its citizens against visiting Australia.

The measures are widely interpreted as punishment for Australia’s advocacy of an independent probe into the origins and spread of the coronavirus pandemic, as Breitbart News reported.

Australia’s decision to join the U.S. and ban Huawei from any participation in a national 5G network also remains a “sore point or thorny issue” between the two countries, the Chinese ambassador alleged in February, adding “discrimination against a Chinese company” lies at the core of the dispute.

The telecommunications giant was banned in August 2018 from joining Australia’s 5G rollout due to security concerns.  The then Turnbull conservative coalition government chose to follow the U.S. lead and say “no” to Huawei.

Photo: REUTERS/EDGAR SU/FILES

Link: https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2020/06/19/australia-suspects-china-behind-massive-cyber-attack/

Comments RSS feed for comments on this page

There are no comments yet. Be the first to add a comment by using the form below.