Australian members of parliament, including government ministers, are wide open to cyberattacks, due to insufficient technology nous among politicians and a lack of firm guidelines about devices and apps, the shadow cybersecurity minister has warned. The criticism came as parliamentary staff scrambled to ward off a suspected hacking attempt at the weekend.

Shadow cybersecurity minister Tim Watts said MPs were regularly using encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram, which have features that would prevent freedom of information (FOI) requests, and many MPs used their own devices, rather than Parliament-issued securely controlled devices.