Given the technical issues encountered by the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX: ASX) in recent months, cybersecurity fears swept across the market on Monday morning when the market operator ceased processing trades amid technical difficulties. 

Beefing up their defence, IT professionals promptly changed all internal passwords by adding a ‘1’ to the end of them before notifying staff of a major increase in ASX security. 

The move was widely applauded by cybersecurity experts, including Hugh Honey from Paddy’s Cyber Defence. 

“Processing millions of trades and billions of dollars on a daily basis, it makes sense for the ASX to be at the forefront of technology and security in Australia,” commented Honey. 

“With this change, it’s going to be much more difficult for hackers to access ASX systems because the introduction of numbers from their standard ‘qwerty’ and ‘password’ passwords will create a whole new minefield for hackers trying to access ASX systems.” 

The ASX tech issue comes just one month after the market operator launched a new website which functions as if users are connected via a dial-up internet connection and regularly fails to load announcements made by companies listed on the exchange.