Someone Stole Top Secret Files From Adelaide Defence Contractor Because Password Was ‘Admin’

Most people who use the internet will be well aware that they have to have a 'unique' password for anything that requires you to set up an account. In the early days it used to be a minimum of six characters, now some places have a minimum of eight and you have to use an uppercase letter and a number.

It's tiresome, but essential to ensure that you don't... you know, have your personal shit stolen.

But clearly that memo wasn't forwarded to an Adelaide Defence Contractor who held top secret information about new fighter jets and navy vessels. An investigation by Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) found the contractor hadn't changed its initial passwords, with the company's web portal being 'admin' and the guest password was... wait for it... 'guest'.

via GIPHY

The hacker reportedly stole about 30 gigabytes of data about the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, C130 Hercules aircraft and the P-8 Poseidon surveillance aircraft. Naturally, Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne is trying to water down this clusterfuck by explaining that luckily it wasn't 'classified' military, but was commercially secretive.

He told reporters: "I don't know who did it... it could be one of a number of different actors. It could be a state actor, a non-state actor.

"It could be someone who was working for another company."

But the hackers managed to get incredibly detailed versions of the blueprints for the ships and aircraft. ASD incident response manager Mitchell Clarke said: "[A viewer could] zoom in down to the captain's chair and see that it's, you know, one metre away from nav chair.

"This attack... is a salutary reminder to everyone in the industry and the government about this kind of behaviour.

Credit: PA

"Fortunately, the data that was taken was commercial data, not military data, but it's still very serious and we will get to the bottom of it."

But what was even more outstanding was that the hacker was in the system as early as June 2016 and had access for three months. Australian Signals Directorate thought it would lighten the mood on the situation by code-naming the hack 'ALF', after Ray Meagher's character on Home and Away.

Not only that, but ASD has dubbed the period that the hacker was in the system 'Alf's Mystery Happy Fun Time'.

Oh Australia, never change.

I am 100 percent certain Alf Stewart would be calling this South Australian defence contractor a 'flamin' galah'.

Sources: news.com.au, ZDNet

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: World News, Internet, Fail, Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie