“The possibility at that point was that someone could lock all the data up and ransomware it or do something like that and Australia would have no weather forecast for an extended period of time, so it had to be fixed, had to be secured so that we could be confident that we can continue to provide the weather forecast every day,” Minchin said.
“It’s hundreds of meteorologists, it’s ingestion tools and pipelines and server farms and everything else that actually had to be updated and it was also that fundamental security.”
Watt told this masthead that, while the website upgrade was needed, “value for money must remain front and centre” and he had instructed Minchin to account for the cost of the works.
“Our government’s unyielding expectation is that the BoM, as with all federal agencies, spends taxpayers’ money efficiently and appropriately,” Watt said.
“I’ve spoken with the new chief executive again today, to ask him to use fresh eyes to examine the procurement process and the rollout of the website redesign, to see how this occurred and what lessons can be learned.”
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In 2015, the BoM’s site was infiltrated by malware associated with state-sponsored cyber agents. While China was blamed for the attack at the time by official sources speaking on background to detail sensitive investigations, Bejing issued a denial through its foreign affairs spokespeople, saying: “As we have reiterated on many occasions, the Chinese government is opposed to all forms of cyberattacks.”
The incident raised fears that foreign actors could interrupt crucial weather forecasts and compromise military operations or infrastructure like airports.
Earlier this month, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation’s director general, Mike Burgess, said authoritarian regimes are growing more willing to disrupt or destroy critical infrastructure with cyberattacks.
“We have seen Chinese hackers probing our critical infrastructure as well,” Burgess said.
Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek – who held the environment portfolio in the last term of government – told Seven’s Sunrise on Monday: “I don’t think the new website has been a good exercise for the Bureau of Meteorology. When we came to government, there was a rebranding exercise going on where the BoM was asking people to call it the bureau instead of the BoM. I said at the time, we needed to focus on weather, not rebranding.”
Liberal senator Maria Kovacic said: “For the cost to blow out to almost $100 million is extraordinary and something that this government needs to explain as to how this has happened … another trademark of this government, excessive spending, something that’s taken too long and cost a lot more than it should have.”
Nationals Leader David Littleproud said the BoM’s business model “is to fail and ask the taxpayer for more money”.
“The old one was probably the only part of the Bureau website you actually did have trust in,” Littleproud told Nine’s Weekend Today on Sunday.
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