Cyber agency looking at parliament ‘disruption’

The federal government is seeking advice from the cyber security agency over a ‘disruption’ to the parliamentary network which forced the shutdown of emails.

Federal MPs were contacted by text message regarding a ‘high priority’ issue with communications.

The federal government is seeking advice from the cyber security agency over a “disruption” to the parliamentary network which forced the shutdown of emails over the weekend.

Federal MPs were contacted by text message on Friday regarding a “high priority” issue with communications.

They were also sent text messages throughout Saturday saying the Department of Parliamentary Services was “still investigating” the issue, with it only being rectified on Sunday afternoon.

“DPS are currently experiencing an outage to several ICT services including interrupted updates to email, calendar and contacts on smart phones and tablets,” said a text message sent to MPs on Saturday.

“Email, calendar events and contacts that are already stored in your device should remain.

“Support teams are currently investigating.”

A spokeswoman for DPS said “smart phones and tablets have been experiencing disruptions over the weekend”.

“DPS is working to resolve the issues and some services have been restored,” the spokeswoman said.

“DPS is investigating the cause of the disruption and the Australian Cybersecurity Centre is providing advice as part of this process.”

Assistant Defence Minister Andrew Hastie said it was a “timely reminder that Australians cannot be complacent about their cyber security”.

“The Australian Cyber Security Centre has been in contact with DPS and is providing support and continuing to monitor the situation,” Mr Hastie said.

“Cyber security is a team effort and a shared responsibility. It is vital that Australian businesses and organisations are alert to this threat and take the necessary steps to ensure our digital sovereignty.

“The government acted quickly, and we have the best minds in the world working to ensure Australia remains the most secure place to operate online.”