Computer intrusion is any unauthorised access of a computer or network of computers.
Denial-of-service is the deliberate disruption or impairment of a service or communication.
In general, for a matter to fall within the jurisdiction of Australian police, when an unauthorised system intrusion, disruption or impairment occurs:
If your free email account has been 'hacked' and an unauthorised person is using it, the first course of action you should take is to contact the provider of the email service and seek their assistance in fully resolving the problem.
If you know who the perpertrator is, they reside within Australia, and you consider the matter serious enough to warrant reporting to police, you may choose to report it to the State or Territory police where you live. See our Key Law Enforcement Partners.
In most cases - unless the perpertrator resides in Australia, or the computer server of the company that provides the free email service is located in Australia - Australian law enforcement will not have the jurisdication to take action.
Malware, botnets, Trojans and computer viruses (or virus writing) are all tools used by offenders to gain unauthorised access to a computer system or network.
The discovery of these sorts of tools on your computer system or network should be reported to your anti-virus software and firewall provider.
If your home computer is infected with malicious software such as a virus, spyware or adware, you should use commercially available anti-virus software to quarantine and remove the malicious software.
If the virus was sent to you via an infected email from someone you know, then you should advise them their computer is probably also infected.
If you cannot solve the problem yourself, you may need to engage the services of your local computer shop or IT professional for assistance. Auscert also provides information about protecting your computer from malicious code and how to deal with infection.
If you believe you were intentionally infected with a virus and you have evidence as to the identity of the person who sent you the virus, then you may choose to report it to the State or Territory police where you live. See our Key Law Enforcement Partners.
If you have information about anyone involved in the creation or distribution of these tools, please report it to the AHTCC: Malware, Botnets, Trojans and virus writing - Online Crime Reporting.
Pop-up advertising on Internet sites can be annoying and can appear as a result of unknowingly having 'adware' and 'spyware' programs installed on your computer.
Programs designed to defeat adware and spyware, and browsers with built in pop-up blockers, can be found on CDs supplied with some computer magazines, downloaded from program creators' websites, or purchased from retail computer software outlets.
You may use the online form to report a computer intrusion or denial-of-service to police via the AHTCC.
When evaluating an incident, police will need to know:
To fully assess the report of a systemintrusion and determine an appropriate response, police will require all logs from your network or system, and information from your administrators describing what happened at the time of the attack(s).
This information should include, where possible and/or appropriate:
Any computer connected to the Internet will eventually be scanned by individuals attempting to gain unauthorised access. This is especially true for home systems and those who have 'always on' broadband Internet connections.
Personal firewalls, virus scanners and intrusion detection systems are an important part of securing home computers as they can prevent and respond to the security incidents that commonly occur across the Internet.
Some common terms and their meanings:
The distinction between firewalls and IDS is becoming less clear, as IDS functions are increasingly being integrated into personal firewall programs.
It is important to remember that no program is perfect at interpreting network and computer activity. In security terms, monitoring software will sometimes produce 'false positives' and 'false negatives':
If you believe a security incident has occurred, organisations such as AusCERT and NetAlert are able to provide more details on the specific vulnerability and how to recover from it.
