By Ry Crozier on May 24, 2021 12:47PM
Fast-tracks replacement of mobile device management system.
Australia’s parliamentary network was targeted with an “unsophisticated brute-force” attack over a 24-hour period in late March.
A brute-force attack uses trial-and-error to guess login info by throwing a number of combinations at a system.
President of the Senate Scott Ryan told senate estimates on Monday that the brute-force attack did not breach parliament’s defences, but did lead to mobile devices being locked down between March 27 and April 5.
“On March 26, the Department of Parliamentary Services (DPS) was the subject of malicious cyber activity,” Ryan said.
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Two years after an alleged rape at Parliament House, no changes to policy have been made to help staff respond to serious incidents.
But Prime Minister Scott Morrison told parliament during Question Time that a report will be with him very very shortly and an independent complaints process - which he would discuss with Labor to gain bipartisan support - will be in place this year.
Secretary of the Department of Parliamentary Services Rob Stefanic told a Senate estimates hearing earlier on Monday there had been discussions but no formal changes in policy .
The department is responsible for building access and cleaning, including in the ministerial office where the alleged rape of Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins occurred in March 2019.
Last modified on Mon 24 May 2021 03.59 EDT
Sexual assault survivor Grace Tame says Scott Morrison responded to her powerful speech at this yearâs Australia Day awards ceremony by remarking, âWell, gee, I bet it felt good to get that outâ.
In a podcast interview for the satirical newspaper the Betoota Advocate, Tame revealed the prime ministerâs comment as she criticised the Coalitionâs handling of sexual violence complaints and argued the assistant minister for women, Amanda Stoker, was not up to the job.
The Betoota Advocate hosts described Morrison as âvisibly uncomfortableâ during Tameâs Australian of the Year speech in January.
No changes to Parliament House policy following Brittany Higgins alleged rape
More than two years after an alleged rape at Parliament House, there have been no changes to policy to help staff respond to serious incidents.
The revelation came out of Senate Estimates on Monday, after Labor Senator Katy Gallagher demanded to know how safety processes had been strengthened. Has anything changed to the way the Department [of Parliamentary Services] responds to incidents at APH since March 2019? And the answer is, there have been no changes to policy. Is that correct?
READ MORE: That is correct, DPS Secretary Rob Stefanic told the committee.
Prime Minister
Scott Morrison has talked his way around answering why there has been so little change in Parliament House since the alleged rape of Liberal staffer
Brittany Higgins two years ago.
During Question Time on Monday, Opposition Leader
Anthony Albanese asked the Prime Minister why Parliament House has seen next to no change in terms of its response to serious incidents.
“This morning, Senate estimates were told that more than two years after the reported sexual assault of Brittany Higgins in this building, there have been no changes in the way that this building responds to serious incidents and none of the reviews that the Prime Minister ordered have concluded,” Albanese said, as per The Guardian.