Chinese hackers have reportedly stolen plans for a new $600m Australian spy headquarters as part of a growing wave of cyber attacks against business and military targets of the US ally. The hackers also stole confidential information from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which houses the overseas spy agency the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, Australia’s ABC Television said late on Monday. The ABC report, which did not name sources, said that Chinese hackers had targeted Australia-based companies more aggressively than previously thought, including steel-manufacturer Bluescope Steel, and military and civilian communications manufacturer Codan. The influential Greens party said on Tuesday that the reported hacking was a “security blunder of epic proportions” and called for an inquiry. “I think there can be a proper investigation, an independent investigation, into this sorry saga of the ASIO building,” Christine Milne, head of the Greens party, said. However, the Australian government has refused to comment directly on the allegations.
Relationship ‘not damaged’: Bob Carr, Australia’s foreign minister, said that the report would not damage the country’s ties with its biggest trade partner China. “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.” The report follows several other hacking attacks on government facilities in the past two years. The attack through the computers of a construction contractor exposed building layouts and the location of communication and computer networks, the ABC said. The ASIO building, being built near the location of Australia’s top-secret Defence Signals Directorate, is supposed to have some of the most sophisticated hacking defences in the country, which is part of a global electronic intelligence gathering network including the US and the UK.