[LINK] China access to parliament network

[Jan Whitaker]

[this is a fine kettle of fish....any linkers with additional info as 
to how this could have happened?]


Chinese spies could have been inside computer network for up to year: reports

Published: April 28, 2014 - 9:01AM

Chinese spies may have been inside Australian parliamentary computer 
network for up to a year and seen documents and emails that reveal 
the political, professional and social links across the political 
world, according to a report.

The Australian Financial Review 
<http://www.afr.com/p/technology/chinese_spies_may_have_read_all_sBngugTM3JvSXFkcjgo4cN>reports 
that sources with knowlege of the breach, in which Chinese 
intelligence agencies that penetrated Australia's parliamentary 
computer network in 2011, say they agencies obtained remote system 
administrator access, which "effectively gave them control of it".

In March 2011, The Australian newspaper and other media outlets 
reported that China was suspected of accessing, for more than a 
month, the email system used by federal MPs, their advisers, 
electorate staff and parliamentary employees. The perpetrators 
accessed several thousand emails, reports said.

Senior sources said the breach was much more serious. Australian 
intelligence reached the "absolutely clear conclusion" that Chinese 
intelligence was responsible and informed their political masters the 
identities of the intruders.

The intelligence services briefed the parliamentary committee that 
oversees security matters while it was in progress, sources said, and 
the network was shut down several times while analysts from the 
Australian Signals

Directorate patched it. "It was like an open-cut mine," said one 
participant. "They had access to everything."

China got access to all emails, contact databases and other documents 
stored on Parliament's computers.

A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Canberra declined to comment.

Administration of parliament's computer systems is the responsibility 
of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Bronwyn Bishop, and 
president of the Senate John Hogg, whose spokespeople declined to 
comment. The attorney-general at the time, Robert McClelland, and 
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, also declined to comment.

This story was found at: 
http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/chinese-spies-could-have-been-inside-computer-network-for-up-to-year-reports-20140428-zr0kz.html 




Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com

Sooner or later, I hate to break it to you, you're gonna die, so how 
do you fill in the space between here and there? It's yours. Seize your space.
~Margaret Atwood, writer

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