Australia’s intelligence agency has accused “Chinese hackers” of seeking to gain access to critical infrastructure assets, including telecommunications networks.
In a speech to a business forum in Melbourne, the director-general of the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation, Mike Burgess, said the nation now faced a threat of “high-impact sabotage”.
Burgess referenced the activities of two hacking units known as Salt Typhoon and Volt Typhoon, which he said were “working for the Chinese government and their military”. He said the groups had successfully targeted the United States.
“Salt Typhoon’s intent was espionage – they penetrated the United States’ telecommunications system to gain access to the nation’s communications through a strategic spying operation,” Burgess said.
“We have seen Chinese hackers probing our critical infrastructure as well.”
Burgess said Volt Typhoon’s intent was to compromise American critical infrastructure networks to “pre-position for potential sabotage”.
“The penetrations gave China the ability to turn off telecommuncations and other critical infrastructure,” Burgess said. “And yes, we have seen Chinese hackers probing our critical infrastructure as well.”
Burgess did not say which Chinese units had allegedly targeted Australian infrastructure and whether they had gained access.
“Once access is gained – the network is penetrated – what happens next is a matter of intent not capability,” Burgess said.
“I don’t think we – and I mean all of us – truly appreciate how disruptive, how devastating this could be.”
More to follow …
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