KEY POINTS
- The Department of Home Affairs was hit by a cyber attack, impacting online immigration services.
- A department spokesperson says no personal data was accessed in the attack.
- The Administrative Appeals Tribunal website was also targeted.
The Department of Home Affairs has confirmed it was the victim of a cyber attack, preventing people from temporarily accessing online visa and citizenship applications.
The attack came after a pro-Russia hacker group said in a Telegram post on Thursday night that it would target the department’s website over Australia’s support for Ukraine.
“The Department of Home Affairs is aware of a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the department’s website overnight that briefly prevented access to both the website and online portals,” a spokesperson told SBS News in a statement on Friday.
“No departmental holdings, including personal or sensitive information, were accessed by the threat actor.
“An investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident is underway, but initial assessments indicate that the DDoS attack was solely designed to prevent access to our websites.”
