ASIO boss Mike Burgess issues Chinese Hackers warning, says threshold for ‘high impact sabotage’ is ‘now’

Australia’s domestic spy boss has delivered a fresh warning about “Chinese hackers” seeking to gain access to critical infrastructure assets, including telecommunications networks.

In a speech to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) annual forum, ASIO Director General Mike Burgess said the country now faces a threat of “high impact sabotage”.

“I have previously said we’re getting closer to the threshold for high-impact sabotage -well, I regret to inform you – we’re there now,” Mr Burgess told business leaders at the ASIC conference in Melbourne on Wednesday.

“ASIO is aware of one nation state – no prizes for guessing which one – conducting multiple attempts to scan and penetrate critical infrastructure in Australia and other Five Eyes countries, targeting water, transport, telecommunications, and energy networks”.

“Authoritarian regimes are growing more willing to disrupt or destroy critical infrastructure to impede decision-making, damage the economy, undermine war-fighting capability and sow social discord.”

The ASIO boss referenced the activities of two Beijing-controlled hacking units known as Salt Typhoon and Volt Typhoon, which he said were “working for the Chinese government and their military”.

Citing Volt Typhoon’s recent campaign against the US military he said the hackers had compromised American critical infrastructure networks to “pre-position for potential sabotage”.

“The penetrations gave China the ability to turn off telecommunications and other critical infrastructure. And yes, we have seen Chinese hackers probing our critical infrastructure as well.”

“Once access is gained – the network is penetrated – what happens next is a matter of intent not capability. I don’t think we – and I mean all of us – truly appreciate how disruptive, how devastating this could be.”

Mr Burgess also revealed new modelling by the Australian Institute of Criminology and ASIO had estimated cyber-enabled sabotage of critical infrastructure would cost the economy $1.1 billion dollars per incident.

“Great power competition is driving unprecedented levels of espionage. A range of countries – some we consider friendly – have a relentless hunger for strategic advantage and an insatiable appetite for inside information,” Mr Burgess said.

“They are aggressively targeting private-sector projects, negotiations and investments that might give foreign companies a commercial advantage. And, like criminals, they have been aggressively targeting customer data.”