Australia spy chief warns of China hackers probing networks
The Salt Typhoon and Volt Typhoon hacking groups work for Chinese government intelligence and the military
[SYDNEY] Australia’s spy chief has accused hackers working for China’s government of probing his nation’s communications and infrastructure networks.
In a speech to a financial regulation conference on Wednesday (Nov 12) in Melbourne, Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, said while the US has been the main target, the scope of Chinese state-linked actors has widened.
“We have seen Chinese hackers probing our critical infrastructure,” he said, referring to the Volt Typhoon group. The same hackers “compromised American critical infrastructure networks to pre-position for sabotage,” Burgess said.
Another group of state-sponsored Chinese hackers, Salt Typhoon, has been probing telecommunications networks in Australia and has penetrated networks in the US for espionage purposes, he said.
Australia’s spy chief said cyber-enabled espionage is appealing to foreign intelligence agencies because it’s low-cost and potentially high-impact, as well as being deniable and scalable. The Salt Typhoon and Volt Typhoon hacking groups work for Chinese government intelligence and the military, Burgess said.
“Once access is gained – the network is penetrated – what happens next is a matter of intent not capability,” he said. “I do not think we – and I mean all of us – truly appreciate how disruptive, how devastating, this could be.”
Australian and other allied intelligence services warned early in 2024 that Volt Typhoon had been inside some critical industry networks for years. The Chinese government has consistently denied that it is involved in hacking or cyber espionage.
When asked about the comments made by Burgess, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said that the “Australian official you mentioned this year repeatedly hurled attacks at China, spread disinformation and deliberately provoked confrontation.”
Beijing had filed a diplomatic protest over the matter, Guo added at the regular press briefing in Beijing.
Burgess also referenced Australia’s 2018 decision to exclude Chinese firms from building the nation’s 5G network.
He said the telecommunications network was “at the top of the nation’s most critical infrastructure list,” which prompted the government to exclude “high-risk” vendors such as Huawei Technologies, a move that was later followed by a number of other countries across the world. BLOOMBERG
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