Australian Cyber Security Incident,
16 December 2021

Cyber criminals force shutdown of New South Wales’ Prime/Oracle based budgeting system

The problem is part of a worldwide vulnerability identified in Log4j

Source: Cyber criminals force shutdown of NSW budgeting system | Australian Financial Review (AFR)

View other incidents relating to State Governments and New South Wales.

An attempt by foreign criminals to hack into the NSW government’s new budgeting system forced a delay in publication of the state’s half-yearly budget review.

Treasurer Matt Kean said there was an attempt to break into Prime, an Oracle-based computer system used by government agencies to report their finances to the Treasury.

“On Monday night we were made aware that there was a global cyber attack on the platform that we use to prepare the state’s finances. As a precautionary measure we’ve disconnected our software system from the rest of the network to ensure there was no data breach.” Mr Kean said.

The problem is part of a worldwide vulnerability identified in an obscure computer program used to run servers, called Log4j. Companies and governments around the world reported cyber attacks over the weekend seeking to exploit the problem, including Microsoft, Amazon, Twitter, and Cisco Systems.