While most of the world has heard about the famous hacks of Target, Anthem and Sony, few have heard about what happened in 2013 to the Australian Secret Intelligence Organisation's new headquarters in Canberra. While it was being built, credible reports claimed, Chinese hackers had gained access to the digital files of a "prime contractor" and stole floor plans and other vital information related to data and communications systems. As pointed out in ENR's recent cover story on cybersecurity, the world knows little more than a skeletal account of what occurred.
And that's a problem at a time when engineers, contractors and insurers are still trying to gauge their potential exposure to cyber attacks. It's easy to understand the impulse by an individual company or government agency to squelch information about a security breach. But that reticence works against the group welfare by leaving an information vacuum.