The world’s largest ecommerce platform has not been hit by a massive cyber attack.
In fact, the company’s web host is more than 30 years old, the site is in compliance with Australian law and its data security practices are up to the standard set by many large businesses.
A lot of companies rely on a host in the cloud to store their customers’ data and to help them stay connected.
The company has been hit with cyber-attacks, including one that knocked the site offline for days in December, but its hosting service is still operating.
“The attack took place in the United States and Australia,” said chief executive David Caulfield.
“There was no damage to the site itself or to the Australian infrastructure.
It was just that the hosting provider, Asianet, was not in compliance in a way that it could have been.”
The Australian Tax Office was notified about the attack in January and it took it seriously, Mr Caulfields said.
But Asianet did not go into detail about what it had done to ensure compliance, and Mr Caulls said the company was now working with the Australian Cybercrime Unit.
He said there was no indication the cyber attack had had any impact on its business.
“We have no reason to believe it has affected our business,” he said.
The AFP confirmed the AFP was aware of the matter, but declined to comment further.
The Australian Federal Police has also been notified of the issue, and it has been assisting Asianet.
“As an Australian Government agency, the AFP takes cyber crime very seriously,” the AFP said in a statement.”AUSTRAC has been in contact with Asianet and we will continue to support them and their compliance with relevant laws.”
The AFP also said the AFP had provided technical assistance to Asianet during the cyber incident, and the company had been providing additional assistance.
“Our team is continuing to work closely with Asianett to ensure they continue to operate the site in compliance,” it said.
“However, the Australian Federal Government has informed Asianet that they will be unable to operate their Australian web hosting service indefinitely.”
The issue has caused a lot of concern among business users and IT professionals, who are now worried about their personal data being stolen.
“I’m not really sure how the Australian Government is going to enforce their own laws,” said a customer of the hosting company who did not want to be named.
“What is the point of having an Australian web host when you can use a service from China or other countries?”
He said he was worried the attacks might affect the Australian economy.
“It’s not just that we have to worry about data theft, but the way that they’re storing our data in the first place,” he added.
