Australia’s intelligence chief, Mike Burgess, has warned that Chinese-backed hackers are “scrutinizing” the country’s critical infrastructure and in some cases have gained access.
Burgess, who heads the country’s main intelligence agency, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, said at least two hacker groups backed by China’s government were preparing for sabotage and espionage.
The comments, made during a conference speech in Melbourne on Wednesday, echoed similar comments from the US government, which has warned that ongoing hacking campaigns could pose risks of economic and social disruption.
According to Burgess, a hacker group known as Volt Typhoon is trying to penetrate critical infrastructure networks such as power, water and transportation systems. Burgess warned that successful hacks could affect energy and water supplies and cause widespread outages.
The US has previously said that Chinese hackers have spent years planting malware in critical infrastructure systems that are capable of causing disruptive cyberattacks when activated. US officials have said that Volt Typhoon’s goals are to hinder the US response to an expected future Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
“I don’t think – and I mean all of us – we really appreciate how disruptive, how devastating this could be,” Burgess said, speaking of the threat. He said that once hackers have access, what happens next is “a matter of intent, not ability.”
Burgess also warned that another Chinese-backed hacking group called Salt Typhoon, known for breaking into the networks of phone and internet companies to steal call records and other sensitive data, was also targeting the country’s telecommunications infrastructure.
Salt Typhoon has hacked more than 200 phone and Internet companies, according to the FBI, including AT&T, Verizon and Lumen, along with several other cloud and data center providers. The hacks prompted the FBI to urge Americans to switch to end-to-end encrypted messaging apps to prevent hackers from accessing their calls and text messages.
The Canadian government also confirmed earlier this year that its telecommunications were hacked as part of China-linked attacks.
China has long denied allegations of piracy.
