lynas admits further output trouble, page-44

At least Lynas has addressed the hacking issue (hopefully!)


http://www.theaustralian.com.au/technology/hacking-forces-upgrade-for-lynas/story-e6frganx-1226734272681

Hacking forces upgrade for Lynas
Fran Foo |From: The Australian |October 08, 2013 12:00AM

IN February last year, Sydney-based miner Lynas had a rude shock when its website was hacked in protest against a rare-earths processing plant being built in Malaysia.
As thousands of people took to the streets to protest against the development in Kuantan, Lynas found itself vulnerable in the virtual world.

According to Lynas chief information officer Gillian Kidson, the company was a small set-up and IT was not a high priority at the time.

Ms Kidson said Lynas's website was defaced and the hacker, who claimed to be a Malaysian citizen, had also launched a denial of service attack that paralysed the website.

Although no one could access the site for a few hours, the attack did not have any impact on Lynas's internal systems as the website was hosted by an external provider.

"It highlighted to us that we needed to bring everything into a more centralised position where it could be managed," she said.

Initial investigations showed that the website code was old and security procedures lacking.

The site was hacked a second time as Lynas was undergoing a major restructure of its online assets.

Ms Kidson said that, previously, the marketing department had responsibility for the website, but a decision was made to park it under IT.

The hackings were a wake-up call for Lynas and it realised it had to obtain the services of a reliable security provider.

"When we look for services, we don't want to have additional resources to manage it," Ms Kidson said. "There must be a cost benefit to the business so we look for companies we can partner with to provide the service, staff and support and to enhance our knowledge."

NTT Com Security was selected after a competitive tender where both parties "had our first conversation in February this year and had our project kick-off meeting by mid-March", she said. Implementation was completed at the end of July.

"Their ability to put together projects and stick to deadlines to date has been incredible," Ms Kidson said.

"They give you a dedicated team. A lot of other businesses don't and you have to share resources."

Ms Kidson said there was no capital outlay with the NTT project and estimates Lynas would have had to spend about $500,000 if it went alone.

NTT, part of the NTT Communications Group, owned by Japanese telecommunications giant NTT, is no stranger to Lynas as it provides data networks to the miner.

The security provider conducted a comprehensive audit of Lynas's systems and security that gave Lynas a good picture of what could be improved, Ms Kidson said.

Lynas uses a mix of security technologies including Juniper Networks, Cisco, Check Point and Microsoft.