Cybersecurity experts warn the digital holdings of the National Archives could be at risk from hostile attacks.
Anne Lyons,a fellow with Defence-funded think tank the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and the Archives’ former chief information officer,says the problem is the institution is vulnerable but the information it holds isn’t necessarily thought of as valuable by policymakers.
She warns any attack on the “memory holders,the truth holders” of the nation could cause people to lose trust in their integrity and “create cracks in our democratic and our important institutions”.
She paints a scenariowhen hostile actors have altered digital land title records so no one can prove ownership of their assets,online records of Acts are tampered with and a simultaneous ransomware attack has locked up the archives of major media organisations.
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“If someone wanted to disrupt[those records],that would be catastrophic,” she said.
“We focus so much on highly classified and personal information,protecting our privacy,that this other material that is very,very valuable and very,very important is just left to … the Archives which is totally underfunded,” she said.
“The Archives has responsibility[for] both paper and digital. It’s essentially two archives,but it’s only ever had funding for one and that has reduced over the years.”