The report from the ASIO – whose open approach to talking about national security is in stark contrast to the UK's – discusses the major DDOS attack on the Parliament House website earlier this year.
In that incident, one of the worst in Australian IT history, the Australian Parliament House website was inaccessible for almost 12 hours after the 'Anonymous' group of hackers launched a massive attack on the portal in September.
What was interesting about the aftermath of the attack were the unconfirmed reports that Australian government reworked the IP addresses of the sites, and brought the portals back up on a different DNS route, Infosecurity notes.
In his annual report, the ASIO's head, David Irvine, said his agency is working in a very demanding environment and the upcoming 12 months will be an important and challenging one.
"While ASIO's work remains very much a human endeavour, with espionage, terrorism and other politically inspired violence continuing to be driven by motivations of ideology, material gain and realpolitik, the communications revolution has fashioned new security frontiers", he said.
"Cyber espionage is an emerging issue, requiring considerable attention across government to address both the criminal and public protection aspects, as well as counter-espionage and other defence elements", he added.
According to the report, the publication of al-Qaeda's online English-language magazine, Inspire, is a reminder not only that terrorist organisations are actively seeking western recruits, but that they can do so most effectively using a tool that epitomises the globalised world.
"The use of the internet as a propaganda and recruitment tool has enabled al-Qaeda and other terrorist organisations to access and influence a vast, international audience", says the report.
And, the report adds, the DDOS attacks by the Anonymous group "demonstrated potential vulnerabilities of government websites that can be exploited to hamper government service delivery."
In addition, said chief spy David Irvine, the speed and scale of technological development presents significant challenges for organisations such as the ASIO, demanding an increasing focus across all levels of government on both the technological and the legal aspects of the telecoms interception regime.
In response to these challenges, Irvine says that the ASIO will be conducting a pilot study on the creation of a National Interception Technical Assistance Centre (NITAC), which will provide a central point for Australia's intelligence and law enforcement agencies to receive IT assistance.
"For terrorists, the internet is a well-established and essential tool, providing not only a platform to support operations, but a means by which terrorist and other groups can amplify their messages to a global audience", said the report.