[LINK] China allegations

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

A lead item on "Japan Today" news media ..

"China suspected of stealing new Australian spy agency blueprints"

<http://www.japantoday.com/category/world/view/china-suspected-of-stealing-
new-australian-spy-agency-blueprints>


SYDNEY — Foreign Minister Bob Carr Tuesday insisted ties with China would 
not be hurt by a report that Chinese hackers have stolen top secret 
blueprints to Australia’s new intelligence agency headquarters.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation said the documents taken in the 
cyber hit included cabling layouts for the huge building’s security and 
communications systems, its floor plan, and its server locations.

Carr said the government was “very alive” to the threat of cyber attacks on 
national security, adding that “nothing that is being speculated about 
takes us by surprise”.

But he refused to confirm or deny China was behind the attack.

“I won’t comment on whether the Chinese have done what is being alleged or 
not,” he said.

“I won’t comment on matters of intelligence and security for the obvious 
reason: we don’t want to share with the world and potential aggressors what 
we know about what they might be doing, and how they might be doing it.”

While Australia has a long-standing military alliance with the United 
States, China is its largest trading partner and the two countries have 
been forging closer ties.

Carr said the relationship would not be damaged by the report, which 
follows several other hacking attacks on government facilities in the past 
two years.

“It’s got absolutely no implications for a strategic partnership,” he said. 
“We have enormous areas of cooperation with China.”

The state broadcaster’s investigative Four Corners program said the attack 
on a contractor involved with building the new Canberra headquarters of the 
Australian Security Intelligence Organization was traced to a server in 
China.

It cited security experts as saying the theft exposed the agency to being 
spied on and may be responsible for a cost blowout and delays to the 
opening of the building, which was supposed to be operational last month.

Des Ball, from the Australian National University’s Strategic and Defense 
Studies Center, said the blueprints would show which rooms were likely to 
be used for sensitive conversations, and how to put devices into the walls.

“Once you get those building plans you can start constructing your own 
wiring diagrams, where the linkages are through telephone connections, 
through Wi-Fi connections,” he was quoted as saying.

The report, which did not say when the alleged theft took place, comes amid 
deepening concern about aggressive state-sponsored hacking by China.

In 2011, the computers of Australia’s prime minister, foreign minister and 
defense minister were all suspected of being hacked, with the attacks 
reportedly originating in China.

At the time, Canberra said cyber attacks had become so frequent that 
government and private networks were under “continuous threat”.

Beijing dismissed the allegations as “groundless and made out of ulterior 
purposes”.

Earlier this year, computer networks at the Reserve Bank of Australia were 
hacked, with some said to be infected by Chinese-developed malware 
searching for sensitive information.

This followed Chinese telecoms giant Huawei being barred in 2012 from 
bidding for contracts on Australia’s ambitious A$36 billion broadband 
rollout due to fears of cyber attacks.  © 2013
AFP

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