Australian Electoral Commission subject to cyberattacks ‘almost every day’

The gateway to Australia’s democracy is coming under attack “almost every day” but there’s a desperate plan in place to stop it from happening.

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) said it was boosting its cyber defences ahead of the federal election, with the agency expecting an increase in attacks leading up to this year’s federal election.

The move comes amid a wave of cyberattacks on the country’s biggest government agencies, banking institutions and other organisations.

Acting AEC Commissioner, Jeff Pope, told 7NEWS.com.au this week “there’s actors trying to penetrate our door almost every day, during non-election time and absolutely more so in election time”.

It’s a concern echoed by executive director of cyber intelligence at Australian cyber security company CyberCX Katherine Mansted.

“There are more foreign governments than ever that have the means and desire to target our democratic institutions, like elections,” she told 7NEWS.com.au.

“It’s all about just making sure we’ve got that resourcing, and that attention matched to what our foreign adversaries will be investing in because no doubt they will be considering their position and whether it’s worth probing the vulnerabilities of our democracy.”

Cyber Security Shadow Minister, James Paterson, expressed concern about overseas influence adding “it’s virtually certain that some actors, including foreign actors, will try and exert their influence over this election”.

The AEC is working alongside Australia’s security agencies and is “alert to both” attacks from foreign and domestic operators.

“We’ve withstood all of that incredibly successfully, we’ve been able to move with increased threats and deter and resist those,” the organisation said.

“We are working with our national security and intelligence partners to make sure that we have got absolutely the best protections in place around those cyber security measures.”

The local response comes after Romania’s constitutional court annulled its election results last month when declassified documents revealed evidence that cyberattacks, and foreign interference influenced its election results.

Lecturer in cybercrime at the University of Portsmouth Anda Solea commented on the annulled election, saying “Romania was the target of over 85,000 cyberattacks before and during election day”.

“These attacks disrupted the IT and communication infrastructure supporting the electoral process,” Solea said.

“The declassification of documents by Romanian intelligence services ... exposed evidence of voting manipulation through social media platforms, illegal campaign financing on TikTok, cyber-attacks orchestrated by external forces and suspected Russian interference.”

Paterson slammed Labor’s response to foreign interference and said the government needed to do more.

“I’m very concerned that the Federal Government has done very little to actually prepare against the serious risk of foreign interference through social media during the election... public opinion can be influenced by social media, particularly through foreign-headquartered social media platforms (such as TikTok),” Paterson said.

The attack on Romania’s election is not the first time Moscow has been accused of election interference with a US intelligence committee finding “ample evidence to suggest that the Russian government was developing and implementing capabilities to interfere in the 2016 elections, including undermining confidence in US democratic institutions and voting processes”.

However, since 2016, artificial intelligence technology has grown in sophistication, increasing the number of tools available to bad actors.

Katherine Mansted noted that although Australia has one of the most resilient electoral systems in the world, it is important to remain alert.

“The threat actors are multiplying and they’re more determined than ever before ... We will see, no doubt some threat actors attempt to interfere with or attempt to target our elections.”

The AEC said it was concerned about AI-instigated cyberattacks on the commission, but is confident in its existing defence strategy.

“We are absolutely enhancing all of our cyber defences in order to protect our systems and particularly our election management system and the election results.”

Pope said that he was “comfortable” with the current arrangements the AEC has in place related to artificial intelligence and that they would “consider what that legislative framework needs to look like going forward.”

“Nothing is ever 100 per cent certain and the sophistication level of cyberattacks as we’ve seen around the globe is increasing and, again, we are very alert, not yet alarmed,” he said.

The Annual Cyber Threat Report revealed that Australians can expect more cyberattacks from foreign nations as tensions continue to rise.

“The threat of state-sponsored cyber operations is persistent and will likely grow as strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific increases.”

“State-sponsored cyber actors will continue targeting Australian governments, critical infrastructure, and businesses, as well as connected systems and their supply chains, for espionage and information-gathering purposes,” the report found.