Labor under pressure to confront China over hacking

Tom McIlroy and Nick Bonyhady

Updated Jul 9, 2024 – 4.45pm, first published at 10.16am

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The Albanese government is under pressure to confront Beijing over accusations of cyber espionage, after its main counterintelligence agency for the first time publicly named a hacking group linked to China’s Ministry of State Security for sustained attacks on Australian networks.

On Tuesday, the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) published new advice about the activities of the group dubbed APT40 by Western intelligence agencies. Its operatives act on behalf of Beijing’s main spy agency and secret police.

Tom McIlroy is the Financial Review’s Canberra bureau chief based in the press gallery at Parliament House. He was previously the AFR’s political correspondent.

Nick Bonyhady is a technology writer for the Australian Financial Review, based in Sydney. He is a former technology editor, industrial relations and politics reporter at the Sydney Morning Herald and Age.