Customs theft sparks security fear
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SYDNEY, Australia -- Australian security services have been badly embarrassed -- and possibly compromised -- by the theft of two computer servers containing confidential files and communications.
The two servers -- belonging to Australia's Custom's Service -- were taken from a high-security area at Sydney International Airport on August 27.
According to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, two men posing as technicians gained access to the cargo processing and intelligence center.
They spent two hours dismantling the computers before calmly wheeling them out of the building.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) are now investigating the theft and Customs are conducting extensive tests to determine what, if any, information has been compromised.
A Customs spokesman told media Friday that there had been no evidence yet of an intrusion. The service earlier told staff in an e-mail that no sensitive operational information had been lost.
The AFP and the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) are both also conducting audits to determine whether access might have been gained to sensitive intelligence information.
Customs officers said the two mainframe servers held thousands of confidential files, including top-secret communications between customs investigators and the AFP and ASIO, the SMH reports.
"The servers have no value except the information they contain," an officer is reported saying.
"They would have personal internal email accounts, probably the passwords for those accounts, and any information harbored within them.
"Customs officers use the accounts to communicate volumes of sensitive operational material and intelligence to each other, including information from other agencies such as AFP and ASIO. This would be at risk."
Also at risk, the officers told the newspaper, were operations against terrorists and international drug cartels.
