This sort of behaviour is increasingly occurring - and to counter it, laws will be changing.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=1016230Allegations that a NSW government transport website was hacked into days before its launch have been referred to police by the company developing the site, Transport Minister David Campbell says.
On Saturday, The Sydney Morning Herald splashed its front page with an exclusive story on the NSW government's unreleased transport blueprint, saying it had obtained key announcements when they were accidentally uploaded onto the Shape Your State website.
But Mr Campbell said the private contractor developing the site, Bang The Table, has disputed the claims, saying its unlaunched site had been hacked into on February 18 and 19.
Without naming the newspaper, Mr Campbell said there were 3727 unauthorised hits on the site and they were sourced to four different IP, or internet protocol, addresses.
Two of those were traced back to a "Sydney media" address, he said.
The government's transport blueprint was released on Sunday by NSW Premier Kristina Keneally.
"Contrary to the newspaper's claims, I am advised by Bang The Table that at no time was (the) website available to casual viewers," Mr Campbell told parliament on Tuesday.
"On the advice provided by Bang The Table it seems that the only way to enter the site was to hack into it.
"And allegedly someone did.
"It was not a one-off, but a concerted effort.
"An internal investigation by Bang The Table found that there were a total of 3727 unauthorised hits on the site's firewall security over a two-day period."
Mr Campbell said the attack was akin to picking "the lock of a secure office and take highly confidential documents".
"A person using a Sydney media IP address hit the site 209 times," he said.
"On Friday, February 19, an unknown person using a Sydney media IP address entered the secured site for 21 minutes, from 1.02pm until 1.23pm, and accessed confidential government information.
"Reports by the newspaper that the documents were uploaded accidentally were incorrect and the user at the Sydney media address gained unauthorised access to government information.
"We await the findings of the police investigation."
Comment was being sought from Fairfax.
