Australia experiencing ongoing 'sophisticated' cyber attack from unnamed state

‘State-based actor with significant capabilities’ hits government, health and education services

Australia is under increasing cyber attack from a “sophisticated state-based cyber actor”, the country's prime minister said.

Scott Morrison would not name the state responsible, and he said he made the threat public to raise awareness.

He said: “This activity is targeting Australian organisations across a range of sectors, including all levels of government, industry, political organisations, education, health, essential service providers and operators of other critical infrastructure.”

Although the threat was constant, the frequency of attacks had increased “over many months”.

Mr Morrison added: “This is the actions of a state-based actor with significant capabilities.

“There aren't too many state-based actors who have those capabilities.”

Australia’s defence minister Linda Reynolds said advice showed no large-scale personal data breaches from the attack.

The latest incident comes after Reuters news agency reported Canberra had determined in March last year that China was responsible for a hacking attack on Australia’s parliament.

Australia never publicly identified that source of the attack and China denied it was responsible.

A US security ally, Australia recently strained ties with its largest trading partner, China, by pushing for an international inquiry into the source and spread of Covid-19 that first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.

Additional reporting by agencies