The National Broadband Network (NBN) could prove to be a best friend to cyber criminals, according to the head of the Australia’s National Computer Emergency Response Team (AusCERT). Speaking at a cyber security roundtable in Sydney, Graham Ingram, general manager at AusCERT said cyber criminals currently placed a premium on infecting PCs which were connected to high-speed networks. “We have seen cyber criminals reject using dial-up based computers because they aren’t fast enough,” he said. Anecdotally, the penetration of malicious activity had become almost directly proportional to broadband connectivity speed, Ingram said. “The same compromised PCs in homes we have now will be the same ones connecting to a faster communications channel via the NBN,” he said. “This will simply amplify the problems we have now significantly.” Also speaking at the roundtable, chief research officer at F-Secure Mikko Hypponen said connection speed had a decisive role in the selection of PCs for denial of service attacks and spamming botnets. “We have seen malware which when it infects a PC, the first thing it does is connect to a university file server to download a gigabyte size Linux installation DVD package to clock the speed. If it is too slow it just rejects the PC. [Hackers] have so many machines at their disposal they can choose to be picky.” Another implication of the NBN was that it was likely to be leveraged for VoIP services, which were increasingly being used in phishing and other cyber security attacks, Ingram said. Related content BrandPost Retail innovation playbook: Fast, economical transformation on Microsoft Cloud For retailers, tight integration of data and systems is the antidote to a challenging economy. By Tata Consultancy Services Mar 24, 2023 3 mins Retail Industry Digital Transformation BrandPost How retailers are empowering business transformation with TCS and Microsoft Cloud AI-powered omnichannel integration and a strong, secure digital core lets retailers innovate across four primary areas while staying compliant, maintaining security and preventing fraud. By Tata Consultancy Services Mar 24, 2023 4 mins Retail Industry Cloud Computing BrandPost How to Build ROI from Cloud Migration This whitepaper and webcast can help you calculate the ROI and create a business case for modernizing your legacy applications to the Microsoft Cloud. By Tata Consultancy Services Mar 24, 2023 1 min Retail Industry Cloud Computing BrandPost How to power a sustainable enterprise on Microsoft Cloud In this eBook, we’ll follow the journey of Amal Skye, a fictitious woman who is committed to living in a way that preserves the planet for the future —and how businesses like Tata Consultancy Services and Microsoft are making that possi By Tata Consultancy Services Mar 24, 2023 1 min Retail Industry Green IT Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe